Posted on 08/09/2017 6:46:10 PM PDT by gandalftb
Vietnam has won the promise of a visit from a U.S. aircraft carrier and deeper defense cooperation from the United States..
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich in Washington on Tuesday that a strong defense relationship was based on common interests that included freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
A Vietnam flag flies as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (L) hosts an honor cordon for Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (R) at the Pentagon...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I know Vietnam can be an important ally and trading partner, and a key block on Chinese expansion.
Their harbor at Cam Ranh Bay would be ideal for a port of call and will have, with our help, the deepest dry dock in the world.
Times change. We fought Germany twice in the last century but they’re an important ally now.
How long will that last with their rapefugee invasion and Merkel's bid to resurrect a modern Nazi party? She's already locking people up for anti-muslim language.
More like Stasi but they are like two peas in a rotten pod.
Having had the pleasure of being in country from 66 - 67, my thoughts of Vietnam as an ally is a difficult pill to contemplate swallowing.
This must be how my father-in-law felt about accepting that times had changed, and the Japanese had become good friends and valuable allies.
I’m going to need some time to process this one.
We went to war in 64 in RVN to stop communist expansion into SE Asia. That meant the Chinese as the DRV had more limited goals. Are we returning to VietNam to check Chinese expansion. What did Yogi say, “deja vu all over again.”
Thanks for posting.
s, ping....
We fought the Communists. They learned some lessons from their failed collectivization efforts. Vietnamese, even Communists are nothing if not practical. Collectivization failed and they ditched it. They are still in charge but they are not real Communists any more. They more resemble Mafia in Sicily or 1950s New York City or Havana with an awareness that Viet Nam must become rich and thus capitalist in order to avoid becoming a province of China. You can't do that by toadying to China. They need America and America needs them. Even Clinton understood that. Obama was put off by the Americophilia of Viet Nam and relations retrogressed.
Thanks for your post. Wise words indeed.
It appears the Vietnamese, like the Chinese and Russians, have found Communism is not all it’s cracked up to be.
kind of ironic
they once celebrated their great victory now they come to the US with hand in hand asking for our help
“who runs Barter Town???”
The Vietnamese whipped the Chinese last time they fought in 1979. The Chinese don't have the backing of Jimmy Carter any more.
“As for me, I prefer to sniff French shit for five years than to eat Chinese shit for the rest of my life.” - Ho Chi Minh
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War
Vietnam doesn’t like China and fought a border war with the in 79’.
Once asked by his advisors why he didn’t request help from “our fraternal Chinese allies,” Ho responded, “The last time we asked the Chinese for help, they stayed a thousand years.”
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