Why Washington is Courting Hanoi in Vain
More than half a century ago, at the height of Vietnam war US intelligence agencies were demanded to put an end to the partisan movement supporting the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. This resulted in the so-called Phoenix Program being launched which, according to historians, allowed CIA and a number of military bodies assisting it to locate and murder in cold blood more than 80 thousand people. That may have been the first time when American intelligence agencies were given a free hand in their approach to their work, which resulted in mass-executions and sadistic torture techniques getting rampant. Thus, long before the world learned about the extensive use of torture in the American prison of Abu Ghraib, American intelligence agencies were busy acquiring “peculiar anti-guerrilla skills.” And this “legacy” is hardly forgotten both in the United States, and especially in Vietnam, since the latter lost well over one million people to the unprovoked American aggression.
On January 27, 1973, after four years of negotiations in Paris, a peaceful agreement was finally signed. According to various estimates Washington lost some 58 thousand souls in Vietnam, with 300 thousand more receiving serious injuries. To sign those peace accords, the Pentagon had to recognized the victory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and was forced to leave this country in disgrace, with the White House closing American embassy in Saigon and imposing a trade embargo against the now united Vietnam that remained in place until 1994. For Washington this military conflict had disastrous consequences as it was the first public defeat of the United States on the international stage in history. However, American think tanks are keen to adhere unquestioningly to their favorite mantra that was put forward by Henry Kissinger: ‘America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests’. This notion is illustrated in Washington’s attempts to restore diplomatic relations with Hanoi and make every attempt to befriend its former enemy, by indicating that it has manged to leave its humiliating defeat in the past. However, this behavoir has nothing it common with Washington growing aware of the inhuman slaughter it brought on the heads of Vietnamese people. However, the rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape of today has pitted Vietnam against China as tensions between these two states are flaring up in the South China Sea. In its turn, the United States is getting increasingly frustrated with the fact that Beijing is successfully pushing it out of the region that used to be dominated by the United States Pacific Fleet for decades. Therefore, everything that happens in Southeast Asia these days is being rightfully perceived through the prism of the growing confrontation between the US and China. That is precisely why Washington decided to attempt rapprochement with Vietnam to use this country as a counterweight to Beijing’s interests in the region.
Formally, an official restoration of diplomatic ties between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam occurred in mid-90s. It is noteworthy that John McCain, who fought in Vietnam in 1967-1973, would play an active role in the mending of the broken relations. This means that even those people that advocate wars over anything else, and mind you that McCain was held captive in North Vietnam for a long time after his plane was shot down over Hanoi, are still willing to do what Kissinger told them. However, American efforts didn’t stop there, as Hanoi was visited by Bill Clinton back in 2000, who became the first American president to visit Vietnam since 1969. The example he set was followed by Barack Obama and even Donald Trump.
https://www.journal-neo.org/2018/10/25/why-washington-is-courting-hanoi-in-vain/