Posted on 06/18/2005 7:20:58 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A01
HANOI, June 16 -- Once enemies in battle, Vietnam and the United States will cooperate in the exchange of intelligence on terrorism and transnational crime, and Vietnam will send military officers for training in the United States, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said Thursday on the eve of the first U.S. trip by a top Vietnamese Communist leader.
The intelligence and military cooperation agreements will be announced when Khai visits next week, marking the highest-level visit to the United States since the Communists won the war in 1975. He will meet with President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday.
The move to forge solid military ties between Vietnam and the United States shows how far the relationship has advanced in the 10 years since President Bill Clinton established formal diplomatic relations. The trip will be a milestone, analysts said, a signal that a mature relationship based on mutual interests in security and trade is beginning to take shape.
"During the war, Vietnam and the United States were opponents," Khai said during a 75-minute interview at his office in the capital, which is within walking distance of the mausoleum holding the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, the independence leader and North Vietnamese president during the war. "Now that 30 years have elapsed since the end of the war, it is our policy to put aside the past and look to the future and a better relationship between the two countries."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Lately, Chinese government has begun to claim that China is not strong after all. Too late.
I think it was the Vietnamese who drove out the Khmer Rouge.
Why?
Seems somewhat useless, unless we are trying to open up the nam.
Tit for tat - China courts Venezuela, we court Vietnam.
I know, I know, those of us over 40 have a bit of a problem negotiating with the Viets. Guess we'll have to keep the big picture in mind.
I haven't checked in awhile. How close are the ties still between Bejing and Hanoi?
They have some trade agreements, but no military ties, I think. They have territorial dispute over islets in S. China Sea.
Has Vietnam accounted for all of our missing POWs yet?
Not very. Since we cut and ran, abandoning the South to the communists, the Vietnamese deposed the Chicom's proteges, the Khmer Rouge, from Kampuchea (Cambodia) and fought and won a small border war against the ChiComs themselves. They VN and Red China have territorial disputes over that border and over several islands, most notably the Spratly Islands, where there may be oil.
Cam Ranh Bay
No, but the Impeached One and McStain pretty well killed off that issue.
good move.
they'll need those ugly americans when china invades them again.
I doubt China would let that happen without a struggle of some sort.
.
Something Communist Vietnamese did to Non-Communist Vietnamese since the Fall of Saigon 30 years ago, exactly:
Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp
http://Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
.
.
And finally...
on June 20, 2005...
'Smith Convenes Vietnam Human Rights and Religious Freedom Hearing on Eve of Prime Minister's Visit'
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425370/posts
.
Doesn't seem like a rational strategy or a good trade off.
Ven has lots of oil.
What does Vietnam have anyway?
A border and 1,000 years of animosity.
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