Fifty years after the 1968 Tet Offensive, a remarkable event
has taken place. An American aircraft carrier has docked in Vietnam. Even
forty-three years after the fall of the US sponsored regime in Saigon, it seems
strange that the US and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have not only buried
the hatchet but are now allies.
What has changed? As late as the 1990s, Washington and Hanoi
were still less than friendly. Even after the Americans left the South in 1975,
there was a great deal of animosity which was further stoked by the Vietnamese
invasion of Cambodia in 1978. Hanoi had grown weary of the Khmer Rouge and they
nightmare they had unleashed on the region. The regime was toppled and a proxy
for Hanoi was installed in Phnom Penh. Throughout the 1980s the US backed Pol
Pot and the Khmer Rouge, not out of any great love for the Cambodian dictator
but because they wished to generate grief for Hanoi. Plots were hatched in the
United States but they never gained any traction. Vietnam fought a brief war
with China in 1979 as Beijing was angered at the toppling of Pol Pot whom they
had supported. Beijing, a historical enemy to Vietnam was now more or less
aligned with the United States (with some exceptions) and Vietnam was still
allied with Beijing's nemesis the USSR.
But by the 1990s, the end of the Cold War changed things and even
as they forged deep economic ties, the US cast a wary eye on Beijing and sought
to re-constitute the world order. Relations with Hanoi were re-established in 1995
as Vietnam abandoned communism for a form of authoritarian capitalism similar
to what we find in Beijing. The leadership in Hanoi, the political descendants
of Ho Chi Minh allowed their nation to be set up as a cheap labour platform for
Western capitalism.
What then was the war all about? I remember some grumblings
in 1995 when relations were re-established. I was in the Air Force death cult
at the time and there were still Vietnam veterans on active duty. They weren't
overly pleased and for some it was like reopening raw wounds.
In the end the US won over Vietnam through Kentucky Fried
Chicken, finance and the resurgence of historical cycles. The Vietnamese have
turned out to be more gracious than most Americans. Given what Indochina
suffered and continues to deal with I'm surprised they just let the Americans
leave. It was a tremendous victory for them but in some respects I'm surprised
they didn't turn 'terrorist' within the United States and seek revenge on other
fronts. The US behaved terribly in Indochina and during the war the Americans
were perceived as the equivalent of Nazis and with reason. This is also the
fiftieth anniversary of My Lai, but one of many massacres carried out by US and
allied troops.
It was a wicked and unjust war based on decades of lies and
negligent misunderstanding. The American soldiers who fought in it once felt
shame. Today they have been rehabilitated and history has been rewritten. Even
as I write this just earlier today I saw a 'Vietnam Veteran' hat being worn in
a local store. I cringe whenever I see one and am overwhelmed by feelings of
aversion and repugnance. I gaze into the wearer's eyes and wonder what sort of
cold and empty soul inhabits them.
Though Vietnam is difficult to conquer, it is still a small
country living beneath the shadow of a large and dangerous enemy. And today
they have much more to lose. Plugged into the global economy, they are no
longer a nation of impoverished rice farmers ready to take to the tunnels. I
think they would do it again if they had to... but they don't want to.
And so irony of ironies, they are now looking to Washington
as an ally. It's hard to say what sort of thinking is going on in Hanoi but
clearly some of the folks on the street have not thought it through. They
believe a heavy US presence will bring stability to the region and curtail
tension with Beijing. In all reality US provocations will probably do anything
but bring stability. The US is preparing for war.
US Navy ships began to visit Vietnam about ten years ago but
the aircraft carrier marks a significant change. To put it in Star Wars
parlance, this is a Death Star being invited to park off your coast. The crew
compliment and firepower of an aircraft carrier is akin to hosting a massive
forward base. It's just 'visiting' and Vietnam has thus far refused the notion
of foreign troops being stationed on its soil. Will they instead allow regular
or semi-permanent visits by the US Navy? Will they change their mind?
Of course the NPR story echoes the US State
Department/Pentagon narrative. Outlets like NPR are liberal in that they run
plenty of stories about feminists and sodomites but when it comes to the US
Empire and its political and economic basis, they are as nationalist and
Right-wing as almost anybody apart from maybe FOX news. There's been a significant
shift in recent years as outlets like NPR and MSNBC have turned to more
mainstream models of news and have signed on to the Establishment push for war
and American unipolarity.
The US withdrawal from the TPP was a setback to
Hanoi-Washington relations but this visit demonstrates (at least symbolically)
that relations between Vietnam and America are back on track. It's an ongoing
story and one that continues to fascinate.
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