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 ...
That’s about it.
Communist nations are their favorite.
Can’t believe he hasn’t gone down to Cuba to open the doors
with to them.
Not really. I figured that they helped buy the South Vietnamese people more time. Besides, had the Communists won earlier, things might have been worse.
Then Mr. Obama became President and as a Democrat he despised Việt Nam because VN was determined to be friends with America
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So true. Obama was out to punish any nation that had been friendly with America. It was clearly a principle of his foreign policy but it doesn’t seem to get mentioned a lot. I didn’t realize he was hard on Vietnam but that fits the pattern.
Indeed he never met a communist he didn’t like.
My Dad wanted Vietnam to be a check against China during the Vietnam War.
He opposed the war on those grounds.
Just as at one time China was a check against The Soviet Union.
We were there because we allowed the French to have their colonies. Never should have done that.
The Chinks couldn’t punch their way out of a wet paper bag.
Their military is in worse shape than Russia’s and the corruption makes the Russians look like pikers.
The Chinks couldn’t punch their way out of a wet paper bag.
I hope your right—but they gave us fits in Korea.
Only because MacArthur wasn’t allowed to go after them the way he wanted.
LOL! ‘’No respect I tell ya! My old man didn’t like me. He’d take me hunting and give me a five minute head start!’’
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