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Well, apparently now Vladimir Putin knows what it feels like to get, slapped in the face with a dead fish.

On a more serious note, I am sure that one of the very biggest issues for the Vietnamese is their security and their freedom to trade with whomever it is that they wish to. Putin can never guarantee that against China, nor do I believe that he would have done so even if his country had the ability to pull that off. Frankly, I have doubts about whether we can pull that off, but from the Vietnamese point of view, there is no other alternative other than bending a knee to the Chinese, which they will never do. By throwing in with us, they also become part of the coalition of nations that is attempting to contain China, which includes India, Australia, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. I am sure that that gives them some degree of comfort.

"On a more serious note, I am sure that one of the very biggest issues for the Vietnamese is their security and their freedom to trade with whomever it is that they wish to."

I don't know why the communist nation of Vietnam should have anything to worry about from China. After all, the U.S. was fighting a proxy war with China and Russia in Vietnam, and it was those two nations that helped send our asses packing, and reunited the country.

Việt Nam has been trying to maintain a de facto alliance with the USA since the last of the old revolutionaries died off and the younger men with no real connection to the Ideology took over the direction of the state. It is difficult when a Democrat administration other than Bill Clinton who did one good thing proactively in his administration - the opening to Việt Nam- takes charge.Democrats instinctively despise "third world" countries and people who try to be friends while not bowing to all the Progressive horse hockey of the US and it shows. With Việt Nam the Republican administrations and Clinton constantly applied friendly pressure on the government to relax repression of the people and the government responded. When Democrats rule in Washington the pressure is either nonexistent or in the other direction and the bureaucrats here increase pressure on the people. It would take a huge operation now to bring back the travel controls which almost disappeared with the ubiquity of motorbikes but I can tell when I am here that speech is more and more guarded under Obama-Biden oversight and opens up with a Clinton, a Bush or a Trump. Some in the Biden party understand that in the competition with China we very much need the very large Việt military to keep China at bay. There are no illusions that China could not overrun Việt Nam if it so chooses but the 1979 border incursion showed China that it would be very expensive and even humiliating to try it. Maintaining that military requires a robust and rapidly advancing economy which the country has and Việt Nam needs a Trump win in November to help accelerate it faster.