Posted on 09/09/2023 9:16:09 PM PDT by cba123
Just days ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam for key talks on trade and closer diplomatic relations, the president paid homage to events from an earlier and very different time – when Washington and Hanoi were at war.
At the White House on Tuesday, Biden presented the Medal of Honor, the United States military’s highest award, to 81-year-old Larry Taylor, a retired army captain who had flown a Cobra attack helicopter during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968.
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When Biden lands at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on Sunday, he steps into a very different Vietnam and a phenomenally changed relationship with an old war foe.
Biden is scheduled to meet the most senior leaders of Vietnam’s Communist Party – the political organisation that was once an enemy – and is expected to sign agreements that elevate US relations to the highest level possible with Hanoi.
“This visit is a remarkable step in the strengthening of our diplomatic ties,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said ahead of the visit.
“It reflects the leading role that Vietnam will play in our growing network of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific,” Sullivan said.
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China will be watching Biden’s visit closely, too, assessing whether Vietnam’s cosying of relations with the US weakens Beijing’s influence in Hanoi or alters strategic interests with its southern neighbour.
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If the agreement is signed, Vietnam will be inviting Washington into a club of just four other comprehensive strategic partners: China, India, Russia, and South Korea.
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Hanoi Xoe.
Maybe he’ll find a lovely villa there along with low-cost diaper changes performed by young sniffer-type gals and decide that’s the place for him. He’d certain be amongst “birds of a like feather” there.
Vietnam is the least likely place for that, in all of SE Asia
Well, it’s not like Biden was ever there when there was a war going on. He got five draft deferments then a medical exemption for asthma. This from the guy who claimed to be a college football player.
Can they put him in the same prison cell his buddy McLame was in as a POW?
Five draft deferments so he could plagiarize people in order to graduate.
I have been going back and forth to Việt Nam for 20 years now and will be returning there again next month. I was paying close attention from 86 when I converted to Catholicism and joined a Vietnamese language parish. It is my observation that the only good that came out of the Clinton administration was the extending of the hand of friendship to Việt Nam. Clinton and GBush ll maintained good relations with VN and both leaned consistently on the Vietnamese government to lighten up its control of the economy and the people and rewarded them when they did. The Vietnamese Communists responded slowly but surely and even the old revolutionaries understood that China was much more dangerous to Việt Nam than America ever was or ever would be. In 2003 I found myself discussing politics and relative systems with educated and intelligent Vietnamese, young and old. They were not concerned that their discussions might get them jailed or killed. When the old revolutionaries died off finally before the end of the Bush administration the country took off economically. Steps had been taken to loosen the economy back in the eighties because the rulers were facing tight food on their own tables and the people were emaciated. The bureaucrats took a long time to begin to get with the program and by 2008 I could see the blossoming of small businesses everywhere and the country was taking in a lot of money as the then nr
.2 rice exporter and nr.2 of coffee. Then Mr. Obama became President and as a Democrat he despised Việt Nam because VN was determined to be friends with America and at that point would have accepted a protectorate arrangement. Obama had nothing good to say about VN and encouraged the Chinese to put VN under their thumb. The opening up started closing down again as the Vietnamese government was looking nervously over its shoulder at China. Open conversation stayed within family inside walls. Then came Donald Trump. He was much friendlier to VN and again applied gentle but consistent pressure to open up and VN responded. VN’s new young breed in the Party and the government understood economics and encouraged foreign companies to come aboard and encouraged small businesses. Cars started appearing in people’s yards. Much new construction, commercial and housing was going on all over at least the southern half of the country. People did not bother to register their travels any more and no one cared. The people became mobile and all prospered relatively. Beggars became rare. And then came Biden and the Democrats again who still hate countries that want to be friends with America. It has been downhill since 2020. Emails from my friends are much less likely to commenting on the political scene there or here. I pray for Trump to return as President.
As Communists the Vietnamese government is much more like an enlightened Mafia operation.
Viêt Nam is not the desperate population of the War. Vietnamese seem to be born doing business and they have gone from general extreme poverty to pretty widespread relative prosperity in two decades.
So our boys sacrificed and died for nothing!
I predict that when WW III comes we will be sending American Bays and Girls to fight invading Chinese Troops, side by side with Vietnamese soldiers. But without our carriers or bases close they will be out on a limb and face a Bataan Like fight.
US, Vietnam to elevate ties during Biden visit, with eye on China
AOL / Reute ^ | September 10, 2023 at 3:10 AM | NANDITA BOSE AND FRANCESCO GUARASCIO
Posted on 9/9/2023, 9:19:31 PM by cba123
NEW DELHI/HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden visits Vietnam’s capital city Sunday, where the two countries are expected to declare themselves strategic partners, as the United States seeks to push supply chains from China and both countries to try to counter Beijing’s military and diplomatic influence in Asia.
Biden will arrive at the Presidential Palace Sunday afternoon for a formal welcome from Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful leader, then journey to the Party headquarters where the two will meet and then give public remarks.
The visit comes as trade and investment ties between the two nations are growing and a long-simmering territorial dispute between Vietnam and China heats up in the South China Sea. Vietnam has named four other countries “comprehensive strategic partners,” the designation expected for the U.S.: China, Russia, India and South Korea.
Highlighting Vietnam’s growing importance as a “friendshoring” destination for U.S. technology companies, on Monday, executives from Google, Intel, Amkor, Marvell, GlobalFoundries and Boeing are expected to meet Vietnamese tech executives and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Hanoi.
(Please see link for full story)
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
It’s not just them, but how many deaths may ensue from powers like that becoming ascendant.
Sounds like the same thing they said they were doing in Red China to “counter” the USSR’s power and influence.
I recently purchased a good quality office chair and I was pleased to find that it was made in Vietnam and not China. The instructions for assembly were CLEAR and in proper English with the outcome of assembly was perfect
So good to see Vietnam competing with the PRC on this level.
The problem is that Biden wants to weaponize Vietnam against China. Many in Vietnam see it, meaning both China and US aren’t good for them.
Did Hanoi Jane accompany him?
Biden, the most senior leader of America's Communist Party, is scheduled to meet the most senior leaders of Vietnam's Communist Party.
Fixed it for you.
nbcff.......new best communuist friend forever
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