Americans left Saigon in 1975 with their tails between their legs, as seen in the striking image of the CIA helicopter on the roof of their embassy there.
Almost fifty years later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just inaugurated the construction of a new US embassy in Hanoi at a cost of $1.2 billion, making it one of the most expensive in the world. Diplomatic relations with Vietnam were resumed in 1995.
About 58,000 American troops were killed in Vietnam compared to losses of 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The US military estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese allies died. More than 2 million Vietnamese civilians have been killed in hostilities.
Friends with the enemies of our enemies
Washington and its former enemy court each other. Vietnamese Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Pham Minh Chinh said Hanoi hopes to deepen ties with Washington and “continue to take our bilateral ties to a new level.” The United States is currently transferring Coast Guard vessels to the Vietnamese, in addition to the 24 patrol boats with weapons, equipment and training already made available to Vietnam.
Along with South Korea, Japan, Australia and the Philippines, Vietnam is a key partner in the anti-China alliance the United States is forging in the Asia-Pacific region. Hanoi has territorial and maritime disputes with Beijing.
The current escalation of tensions in the South China Sea is reminiscent of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. Bitterness lingers between Beijing and Hanoi over the bloody conflict that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers had crossed Vietnam’s 600km northern border.
However, China had steadfastly supported Hanoi against the Americans during the Vietnam War. But their relationship soured as Vietnam drew closer to Moscow, then Beijing’s biggest rival. It was the overthrow of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Kampuchea (now Cambodia) by the Vietnamese army in December 1978 that started the fire.
Vietnam, Afghanistan: two senseless wars
The Biden administration is currently facing criticism from congressional Republicans who want to investigate the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan two years ago. The speed with which the Afghan army disintegrated surprised the Americans, who spent over a trillion dollars training and equipping them.
Even if they had time to evacuate some of them, many Afghans who had fought with the United States were abandoned there and suffered the horrific consequences, like the Vietnamese who had fought alongside them.
These two wars, designed to demonstrate US “imperial hegemony” ended in deplorable and humiliating defeats. They were unwinnable, futile and fraught with numerous horrific war crimes against civilians.
