US President Donald Trump waves a Vietnamese flag as he is greeted by students during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi in February.
Richard Heydarian, SCMP: How US-Vietnam alliance blossomed as rivalry between China and the West intensified
* The two former arch-enemies have been brought together by a combination of greed and a shared fear of emerging threats in the post-American era, Richard Heydarian writes
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
So goes an ancient Middle Eastern proverb, which has reverberated across millennia with strategic pungency. In many ways, the same logic is driving one of the unlikeliest alliances of the 21st century, namely between the United States and Vietnam.
What has brought these two former arch-enemies together is a combination of greed, in the form of booming bilateral trade, and a shared fear of emerging threats in the post-American era, especially in Asia.
And it’s precisely China where these two impulses have intersected in a singular strategic focus. The upshot is a blossoming silent alliance which has grown in proportion to an intensified strategic rivalry between China and the West.
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WNU Editor: I do not know where this alliance may end up, but for the moment .... “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
1 comment:
WNU, thanks for being honest that you don't know. Well, let me tell you after having lived in Vietnam:
Vietnamese love the US and Europe. Love the freedom, the opportunity.
China? It would be an understatement to say that they despise the Chinese, culturally, politically and historically. They hate what the Chinese did to their waters just 3 years ago, when an iron ore factory the Chinese own fucked up all their fish for a good year or two.
So yeah, it is clear where this partnership will end. The Vietnamese WANT a deal, and badly. Trump knows that. He must know. And the deal will come for sure. Just when and in what form is the question. I would not surprised if the Vietnamese offer major freedom to the US military to build a forward base even, they are extremely welcome. Might take a few more years because of old generational memories, but the younger generation knows the difference between Chinese and US. And they understand why the Vietnam war (or as they call it over there "the American war") happened. The money is in the south (the side which fought with us), the politics is still in the north (Hanoi, but overshadowed by HCMC/former Saigon)..
Vietnam will fight with US for sure. That's the irony. And people don't know. That's why people who comment here and who have never been to SE_Asia overestimate Chinese standing, Chinese chances. They are utterly surrounded. No ports will be made available. All the spying will be heavily tilted for us.
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