“...to counter the PRC...”
Yeah... I guess I understand that.
Something about working with communists just bugs the crap out of me. Especially after so many of our people died. And Japan is an ally of ours.. I guess one could make the same comparison with us and Japan, re WWII...
Today the Communists in Vietnam are old farts who are just clinging to power in their dying days, their days are numbered.
There are few actual communists in Viet Nam. It is more like a Mafia government. The Vietnamese look up to America. Viet Nam is getting rich following the American example - at least the example of a generation or two ago. Viet Nam would really like to have American protection against China. Clinton and Bush understood that America needs Viet Nam as a bulwark against China. Viet Nam’s communism, even if sincere, is no more than authoritarianism without the USSR to back it up. The USSR isn’t there anymore. China is and China is Viet Nam’s deadly enemy even as China strives to rise to the level of being America’s deadly enemy.