15-09-2023, 08:21 PM
The US is again attempting to draw Vietnam into superpower politics. But much of the world is wary of Washington’s game.
Jim Laurie
Published On 14 Sep 2023
14 Sep 2023
President Joe Biden returned here to Washington this week with his administration touting the success of his day-long stopover in Hanoi, Vietnam
......
Biden came away hailing an announcement that the United States had established a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the communist government of Vietnam – which Hanoi already has with China, Russia, India and South Korea.
......
Washington’s approach to Asia remains trapped in time.
The result? It risks repeating past mistakes, with consequences for the US, Vietnam and the world.
Biden was the fourth American President to visit Vietnam since the end of the war nearly 50 years ago.
I accompanied the first. In November 2000, Bill Clinton flew to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to put an official stamp on post-war normalisation.
For 20 years after America’s ignominious withdrawal from war-devastated Vietnam, successive US administrations insisted on punishing the victors with trade sanctions and rejections of normal diplomatic ties.
Clinton’s visit set the stage for 23 years of steadily improving relations.
......
A Republican-led House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) says it is hard at work investigating how the CCP poses an “existential” threat to “fundamental freedoms” in the 21st century.
What is really meant by such alarmist language is that China threatens America’s superpower status, that the world needs one superpower, and that moniker must remain attached to the United States.
......
Employing words like strategic competition, the US has returned to thwarting perceived Communist ambitions as it did so clumsily through war 70 years ago.
Some questions are seldom asked in Washington.
Why should the United States be the sole superpower? Who appointed America the task of thwarting Chinese ambitions. Are those ambitions real? How much of the world wants continued US dominance? Would not more nuanced, multilateralist positions on international issues, and building a multi-polar world order be a greater guarantee of peace and stability?
......
For insight into the American mind of the 21st century, it’s worth recalling a giant of US politics of the previous century, a figure now largely forgotten: Senator J William Fulbright.
......
“Power tends to confuse itself with virtue,” wrote Fulbright. “A great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God’s favour, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations … to remake them, that is, in its own shining image.”
It was an attitude that permeated US actions in Vietnam; an attitude that Americans never unlearned despite repeated failures. The same ‘special responsibility’ came to be exercised again in Iraq in 2003 and throughout the 20 years that ended with another ignominious pullout – from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The problem is that much of the world does not view the US as an unequivocal force for good. And many don’t share its view of China as an existential threat.
......
So again, America is attempting – as it is with other nations – to draw Vietnam into superpower politics.
The good news for Vietnam is that it is strong enough now economically to resist being dragged on to one side or the other. It will maintain its careful balancing act, paying necessary obeisance to the Chinese with whom it must manage its territorial disputes while taking advantage of the benefits of a closer American relationship.
Perhaps what the world needs is multiple “comprehensive strategic partnerships” like Hanoi has with several nations. Or in other words, true multilateralism.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/...s-mistakes
Jim Laurie
Published On 14 Sep 2023
14 Sep 2023
President Joe Biden returned here to Washington this week with his administration touting the success of his day-long stopover in Hanoi, Vietnam
......
Biden came away hailing an announcement that the United States had established a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the communist government of Vietnam – which Hanoi already has with China, Russia, India and South Korea.
......
Washington’s approach to Asia remains trapped in time.
The result? It risks repeating past mistakes, with consequences for the US, Vietnam and the world.
Biden was the fourth American President to visit Vietnam since the end of the war nearly 50 years ago.
I accompanied the first. In November 2000, Bill Clinton flew to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to put an official stamp on post-war normalisation.
For 20 years after America’s ignominious withdrawal from war-devastated Vietnam, successive US administrations insisted on punishing the victors with trade sanctions and rejections of normal diplomatic ties.
Clinton’s visit set the stage for 23 years of steadily improving relations.
......
A Republican-led House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) says it is hard at work investigating how the CCP poses an “existential” threat to “fundamental freedoms” in the 21st century.
What is really meant by such alarmist language is that China threatens America’s superpower status, that the world needs one superpower, and that moniker must remain attached to the United States.
......
Employing words like strategic competition, the US has returned to thwarting perceived Communist ambitions as it did so clumsily through war 70 years ago.
Some questions are seldom asked in Washington.
Why should the United States be the sole superpower? Who appointed America the task of thwarting Chinese ambitions. Are those ambitions real? How much of the world wants continued US dominance? Would not more nuanced, multilateralist positions on international issues, and building a multi-polar world order be a greater guarantee of peace and stability?
......
For insight into the American mind of the 21st century, it’s worth recalling a giant of US politics of the previous century, a figure now largely forgotten: Senator J William Fulbright.
......
“Power tends to confuse itself with virtue,” wrote Fulbright. “A great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God’s favour, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations … to remake them, that is, in its own shining image.”
It was an attitude that permeated US actions in Vietnam; an attitude that Americans never unlearned despite repeated failures. The same ‘special responsibility’ came to be exercised again in Iraq in 2003 and throughout the 20 years that ended with another ignominious pullout – from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The problem is that much of the world does not view the US as an unequivocal force for good. And many don’t share its view of China as an existential threat.
......
So again, America is attempting – as it is with other nations – to draw Vietnam into superpower politics.
The good news for Vietnam is that it is strong enough now economically to resist being dragged on to one side or the other. It will maintain its careful balancing act, paying necessary obeisance to the Chinese with whom it must manage its territorial disputes while taking advantage of the benefits of a closer American relationship.
Perhaps what the world needs is multiple “comprehensive strategic partnerships” like Hanoi has with several nations. Or in other words, true multilateralism.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/...s-mistakes