Posted on 05/31/2017 5:31:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
US President Donald Trump discussed trade with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during a White House visit on Wednesday (May 31) and welcomed the signing of business deals worth billions of dollars and the jobs they would bring.
General Electric Co said it had signed deals with Vietnam worth about US$5.58 billion for power generation, aircraft engines and services, its largest ever single combined sale with the country.
"They just made a very large order in the United States - and we appreciate that - for many billions of dollars, which means jobs for the United States and great, great equipment for Vietnam," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Phuc said on Tuesday he would sign deals for US goods and services worth US$15 billion to US$17 billion during his Washington visit, mainly for high-technology products and for services....
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
We won those.
My son said it was one of the most interesting places in the world.
Not yet quite there yet but for the remnants of communism still smoldering in the North, but I always knew we’d eventually win the Vietnam War.
#MAGA
The reality is we beat Vietnam in military terms. Badly. If not for the leftists here, we'd have closed on the win.
They Vietnamese know it, too.
Frankly, at this point they wish they'd have "lost," but they did not understand their "sponsor" states (esp. China) were just using them.
They want to be the next "Japan" (i.e., the country we literally nuked into submission and then helped rebuild -- and who also has become one of our stoutest allies over there).
Have many friends who have visited Vietnam, and the Vietnamese are very kind to Americans.
For example, had a friend who fought in Vietnam (sadly, he's passed). You know who tortured him? Wasn't the Vietnamese. It was the French (this was before our formal involvement). His former battlefield opponents he met empathized with him.
Had another friend (who has also passed -- sigh) who actually met the Vietnamese person who ran the POW place he was stuck in before escaping. Years later they actually met when my friend visited. They became friends after some tense moments and a lot of apologies (not from my friend).
Related story: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/1110/Why-US-veterans-are-returning-to-Vietnam
But again, fully understand your anger and position. Nothing can compensate for dead and crippled friends. Hence, NOT criticizing you comment. Just offering some other viewpoints.
Last thought: Excusing the forgivable is easy. Excusing the unforgivable is hard. There's a book written about someone who did that. In my world, he goes by the title "My Lord and Savior."
Sorry, not China. Rather the USSR.
I hear you and He is my Saviour as well. If some of those that lost more than I wish to forgive that is for them. I have too many friends who lost too much. Too many stories. A friend who brought home “China White” and a heroin addiction and a year later his wife was dead from an overdose and he had two children...a friend who went over 6’2inches and came home 5’8...too much. If we gave so much, and for what? So we could sell them airplanes 40 years later? I still say they need to be kept at arms l length until those of us who remember are gone. Out of respect for us.
There were a hell of a lot more casualties than are on that wall.
The worst of it is quit expecting more from what we have.
“Viet Nam was striving for partnership with the USA in reining in China”
I had always heard that most of the businesses are owned by ethnic Chinese?
And they do not always get along?
I have read your travelogue several times and enjoy it.
The Vietnamese seemed a warm and friendly people.
(Not so much the NVA)
What about Japan? Or Germany? Feel the same way about them?
We won those. Magnanimous in victory, and all that. The lesson the world needs to learn is we don’t forget and the WORST thing you can do is win when you come up against us.
Maybe it is just where I grew up. Friday night lights and all that. Too many I knew went, too few came back and those that did it would have been more merciful they hadn’t. One kid I remember well, wasn’t the brightest kid but he was OK. He was thrown out of a helicopter as it crashed. He didn’t die, he came home with a fist sized chunk of his skull missing and was the village idiot. They saved his life. They didn’t do him any favors.
We blundered into a war where we had no understanding of the historical context. The Vietnamese had been fighting China since around 1180AD. The French and then the USA were just another invader to them.
It didn’t help that Truman refused to receive Ho Chi Minh but instead broke Roosevelt’s promise and helped the French to reacquire their Colony after WW2. Ho was going to offer Can Ranh Bay to us for a Navy base. Truman blew him off so he went home, took of his suit, put on his sandals and the rest is history. I’m not sure that the French have ever been a pkus for the US since the War of Independence. And they only helped us then because it would hurt the Brits.
I think it’s time to bury the hatchet via-a-vis Vietnam. I lost friends too.
as for Japan, the area of New Mexico I grew up in had a LOT of men in the Philippines that were stuck thee when MacArthur got on the PT boat. Those that survived the 90 mile march AND 4 years in the camps hated Japanese passionately. As a kid I knew men who had permanently black fingernails from the “tender mercies” they received at the hands of the Japanese. I don’t recall anyone suggesting they get over it.
I still say the lesson the world needs to learn is the WORST thing you can do when you go to war against us is win.
Yeah, I know the history, I read Ellsberg’s Papers 40 years ago. I have known all along there would come a day folks would forget, I just didn’t think it would happen while I was still alive. My fault, I guess.
Capitalism finally wins.
My grandfather’s grandfather was permanently disabled from his experience in the Civil War. His cousin, 18 years old, is still at Gettysburg. I wonder what he would think about Black Lives Matter...
Thank God for Death, I guess.
My father was at Saipan, Okinawa and several other battles. He would never buy a Japanese car but he held no hatred for the Japanese people. The Vietnam war is long over. Previous administrations have normalized relations with Vietnam. The country is now very capitalistic. The world turns.
I can’t fully understand your stance because I have not seen what you have seen. But I “get it” to some degree. Therefore on this issue I now defer to your position. May not be much more vocal about it, but when you say, “I still say they need to be kept at arms length ...”, I have your back.
Respect.
So what you’re saying is that we are magnanimous in victory, but sore losers if we don’t win? Hey enemies... the WORST thing you can do is beat us. Yes, thats logical.
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