The Growing Strategic Alliance Between The United States And Vietnam

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hanoi, Vietnam"] photo credit: ronancrowley[/caption]

The great German statesman Otto Bismarck would have been proud to see that former enemies could become friends and that former friends could become enemies in the world of geopolitics. The Daily Caller.com is reporting on the fact that the United States and Vietnam, our former enemies are now fast becoming friends. This is manifested in the fact that we are currently meeting on one of carriers off the coast of Vietnam; the relationship is even more compelling when both the United States and Vietnam made a deal to share technology and to share nuclear civilian fuel, in addition to telling the Chinese that they should be working with their neighbors to resolve territorial claims concerning the oil rich South China Sea.

Growing tensions in that part of the world, including the recent saber rattling by North Korea, makes it prudent for the United States to show its military reach and strategic interests in that area. Reaching out to Vietnam, putting aside the fact that we fought a war some thirty-five-years ago and lost close to 60,000 Americans lives, underscored how important this fledgling relationship is. It is a page right out of President Nixon’s play book – he, being advised by Henry Kissinger, also aligned the United States with China to place a wedge between China and Russia, both communist behemoths then.

Having one of our war flagships in the Asian theater is also a psychological game employed by the Americans for the Chinese to ponder and choosing the USS George Washington, which has a permanent presence in the Pacific, based in Japan, was the right choice. As one of the world's biggest warships, it is a floating city that can carry air-crafts, sailors, aviators, and munitions. To further toy with the Chinese psyche, the USS George Washington was stationed in shooting distance off the disputed islands.

I have yet to ask Vietnam veterans, like my father, how they feel about this budding relationship with the former enemy – I suppose most of them will see the geo-political prudence, like Bismarck, and the strategic import of such an alliance, given the Chinese growing might. Long time ago, under President Clinton, the late Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, was making overtures to Vietnam, we now see the fruits of his labor and those in the State Department who nurtured and fostered this budding relationship with Vietnam.