President Joe Biden on Sunday opened a visit to a Vietnam that wants to dramatically ramp up trade with the United States, a sign of how competition with China is reshaping relationships across Asia.
The president has made it a point of pride that Vietnam is elevating the United States to the status of being a comprehensive strategic partner. Other countries that Vietnam has extended this designation to include China and Russia. Giving the U.S. the same status suggests that Vietnam wants to hedge its friendships as U.S. and European companies look for alternatives to Chinese factories.
Biden, who arrived in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon, said last month at a fundraiser in Salt Lake City that Vietnam doesn’t want a defense alliance with the U.S., “but they want relationships because they want China to know that they’re not alone” and can choose its own partners. The president decided to tack a visit to Vietnam on to his trip to India for the Group of 20 summit that wrapped up Sunday.
It’s incredibly disheartening to look back at the relation between the U.S. and Vietnam with the frame starting after the end of WW1. Had Ho Chi Minh been given the time of day it’s easy to wonder what could have been. The Vietnamese simply wished to follow the example that the U.S. had achieved with breaking away from Colonial rule.
Modern day attitudes really go a long way to show the true character of the Vietnamese. You hear of stories of the Christmas Truce, and opposing sides being relatively friendly after a war concludes, but the Vietnam War feels different. Between the racist dehumanization, war crimes and nature of the war putting civilians directly in crosshairs, you wouldn’t be a fool to think that such a conflict would instill a near permanent hatred on both sides. Yet that doesn’t appear to be the case. The overwhelming theme from anecdotes of meetings between former soldiers from both sides is an incredible sense of understanding and shared loss. And the onus of all of this lies chiefly with the Vietnamese. There’s no reason they should forgive or turn the other cheek considering it wasn’t a war they started, but that’s not a distinction that really seems important to them.
A country fiercely determined to defend its independence that has thrown off not one, not two, but three separate wars against such independence with each opponent being unarguably more powerful. I can hear an eagle screaming now.
Besides, this is the same Vietnam who kicked China’s ass in the very same decade that they forced the U.S. out of their country. At this point I wouldn’t bet against the Vietnamese in any conflict if my life depended on it.