The International Institute for Cooperative Studies is preparing to place Christian university professors in positions to influence the future leadership of a communist country.

Daryl McCarthy, executive director of the organization based in Overland Park, Kansas, has signed a protocol to provide professors for Vietnam National University in Hanoi. The new university, formed through an amalgamation of three universities in the capital city, is considered to be the flagship university of the nation. McCarthy also has completed negotiations with the president of the University of Ho Chi Minh, named for the Communist leader of the former North Vietnam.

McCarthy is actively recruiting professors who specialize in English as a second language, law, and economics. He hopes to have five professors in place by September. Some instructors will take a one-semester sabbatical from current positions, and others view the job as a tentmaking career move lasting several years.

While controversy over the recent establishment of full diplomatic relations with Vietnam continues to be debated in the United States (CT, Aug. 14, 1995, p. 54), the dilemma is not a question of politics for McCarthy. "We must remember that Vietnam is a country, a people, not a war," says McCarthy, who has led IICS since its inception in 1988. "Vietnam is a bruised and bleeding nation, which has been conquered, raided, bombed, and fought over for centuries. As Christ's agents of reconciliation, we are given the opportunity to extend his love to this people."

The significance of the IICS achievement can be seen by looking at mission statistics. There are about 20 Christian missions personnel from other countries in Vietnam, a nation of 75 million.

Bob Seiple, president ...