Posted on 08/07/2014 9:50:11 PM PDT by wetphoenix
HANOI, Vietnam — Anger over Vietnam's handling of a territorial dispute with China has prompted a group of senior communist party members to call on the government to jettison communism for democracy and "get out of China's orbit."
Sixty-one prominent members of Vietnam's Communist Party, including a former ambassador to Beijing, urged Vietnam's leadership in an open letter to change its political system, "develop a truly democratic, law-abiding state," allow for greater freedom of political speech and "escape" from its reliance on China.
"The Party needs to get rid of Marxism-Leninism and get out of China's orbit," Chu Hao, former vice minister of science and technology and one of the letter's three co-authors, said in a phone interview. "It is very high time for the party to make a thorough transformation.
The July 28 letter adds pressure to the government after China's moving of an oil rig into contested territorial waters set off a wave of Vietnamese nationalism and deadly anti-Chinese riots in May. The dispute has deepened the wedge between the two communist countries at a time when Vietnam's economy has become more dependent on Chinese investment and trade.
Any move away from China could provide an opening for the U.S. to serve as an economic and security hedge against Chinese influence in Vietnam, said Scott Harold, an analyst in Washington with Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. whose doctorate from Columbia University focused on China's foreign policy.
"If Vietnam were to decide the strategic future of Vietnam requires a political opening to the West akin to what Myanmar has passed through in the past three, four years, a genuine opening up -- not full democracy -- if Vietnam were to do something like that, it would be an enormous strategic loss for China," Harold said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
If only Ho hadn’t been a Soviet Comintern agent since the 1920s.
I think you've mixed up Chang Kai-Shek, the Chinese Nationalist who fought the Communists under Mao Tse-Tung in the late 1920s through 1949, with Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh allied his anti-French colonial movement with the Russians (later Chinese) communists against France (1945-1954), and then against South Vietnam and the U.S. from 1954-1975).
Another bungle was the drawing of the border. Actually the division was a blunder in and of it’s self.
Of the 2 million that went south, well over 500,000 of them were actually northerners sent to infiltrate. They later became known as the VC. Of course these same people were also in the new government and in the South Vietnamese Army and highly placed.
Yup, that was before he had to turn to them for aid.
Forget it, you’re rolling.
He came to the US first. Stayed someplace on the East coast.
He admired the US.
But he later turned to Communism because of the idealism that appealed to him. Even so he kept it a secret from the West, still hoping to obtain western aid. Which never happened.
Just like Castro hid his Communist ties until he was firmly entrenched in power.
Yup.....MasterGunner, already apologized twice I think....
I’ll do it a third time and say I had a brain fart.
yeah....never made the comparison but you are correct.
IMO, both India and Vietman are crapping bricks watching a recent Russian-Chinese rapproachment.
Yes, I am concerned about that too.
Mostly due to Obama’s weakness I would say.
It happened once before under Stalin, but it never really blossomed into anything.
Not sure that it is now, but I am watching too..
As was predicted in the great “All the Trouble in the World, P. J. O’Rourke “
We really did win the war and proof shows every year!
:-)
If you live long enough, you find that winning is a relative term and that wars don’t really end. They just take a siesta from time to time..
Since the history of them is written by the winner, we tend to self delude ourselves into thinking the win was permanent.
Did you ever read the book? That was published about 20 years after Vietnam.
No, I pretty much try to avoid it...
Movies, and historical stuff...Even avoiding it, I still see it.lol
I wish the communists running our Democrat party were as smart as the communists running Vietnam’s government.
They can count on ol' Zippy to provide a security hedge against China. Yep. They sure can.
The Chicago Tribune is funny.
During that small war, China lost nearly as many men in two weeks as we did in our involvement.
A Communist nation is a Communist nation because the government is Communist, not the people.
During the reign of the Soviet Union, there were communist countries throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Communist countries in the twentieth century included Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Congo, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ethiopia, Hungary, Mongolia, Mozambique, Poland, Romania, Somalia, South Yemen, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.
Today, there are only five communist governments in the world.
North Korea - 1948
China - 1949
Cuba - 1961
Laos - 1975
Vietnam - 1976
America can point with some pride that the spread of Communism ended with Vietnam.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.