Vietnam: Who won the peace?
 

With Vietnam fearful of its huge neighbor and looking increasingly to US, the question is asked - Who won the peace?

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...-us-orbit.html

What is going on now has nothing in particular to do with the outcome of the Vietnam War, that I can see.

IIRC the Chinese Army regularly clashed with the NVA over disputed territory on the border back in the day. Now, the Chinese incursions into South China Sea doesn't sit well with Hanoi, Manila and Tokyo.

I expect the Vietnamese want what everyone else wants, peace and freedom to make their own way in this brave new world without the big Red Machine dictating from Bejing. ;)

It looks like commerce won the "peace". :cool:

This was a big part of the discussions between Obama and Abe yesterday.

'Tis a problem, no doubt. The communist Chinese are in the ascendant and given their recent history in the latter 20th century, it isn't going to be pretty. Maybe that's what the TPP is all about?

Meh, all above my paygrade and I hope I've shuffled off this mortal coil before the shit hits the fan. I'm too damn close to the Naval Weapons Center in Seal Beach.

Yes.

As a matter of fact I think the North Vietamese were more aligned with the USSR than China, a traditional rival going back centuries. I think there was even a short term conflict with China in 1979 that lasted about 5 minutes.

Yes, there was. I think China was going to try to "pull a Tibet" on Vietnam while the latter was distracted in Cambodia.

The Vietnamese at one time long ago were more or less a Chinese colony and the Viet people never forgot. In fact, a goodly proportion of the Vietnamese "boat people" were ethnic Chinese. After the war and the reunification of Vietnam, the Vietnamese government and people gave the Chinese minority a hard time.

Vietnam like many others in the area is seeking the US shield. For Vietnam in particular that is ironic but understandable.

To the extent that the new Vietnam seeks to heavily identify culturally with the US, then one can say that the US has won the peace.

In hindsight the Vietnam war was not necessary; American cultural pull is too strong. :D

No truer words have been said, old friend. What a waste of 58,000 young Americans and countless Vietnamese. :(

And Ho Chi Minh approached the U.S. for assistance first, before it all went south.

We told him to take a hike.

Hindsight is whatever.