President Trump and the trade team have made specific requests of Vietnam in order to negotiate a trade agreement. Unfortunately, just like Canada, Vietnam’s problem is not an unwillingness to comply, it’s their inability.
CTH was in the manufacturing base of Vietnam in January; their factories are loaded with component parts from China used to produce finished goods sent to the USA (and globally). President Trump is telling Vietnam they need to reduce their reliance on Chinese imported component goods, but China has spent billions in advanced positioning and contracts, influencing Vietnam.
Vietnam is a very poor country, and their population cannot afford to purchase the products they manufacture. They do not have a domestic consumption base. They are reliant on exports to more wealthy nations to keep their manufacturing base afloat. Practically, it is easy to have sympathy for Vietnam due to their economic dependence on both China (for imported raw materials) and the USA (for exported finished goods).
VIETNAM – The US has sent a “long” list of “tough” requests to Vietnam in its tariff negotiations, including demands that could force the country to cut its reliance on Chinese industrial goods imports, two people briefed about the matter told Reuters.
Washington wants Vietnam-based factories to reduce their use of materials and components from China and is asking the country to control more carefully its production and supply chains, one of the people briefed on the talks said, without elaborating on whether quantitative targets were included.
The list is part of an “annex” to a framework text prepared by US negotiators, according to four people familiar with the matter.
One of them, who had direct access to the document, said the list was sent to Hanoi at the end of May after the conclusion of a second round of talks with Washington aimed at avoiding 46% “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from Vietnam.
The sources declined to be named because those discussions were not public.
Reuters reported on Monday that the Trump administration wants countries to provide their best offers on trade negotiations by Wednesday, citing a draft letter to negotiating partners.
It was unclear which countries would receive the letter, but it was directed at those with active negotiations that included meetings and exchanges of documents. Washington has been engaged in such talks with countries including Vietnam, the European Union, Japan and India.
The sources described the US requests to Vietnam as “tough” and “difficult”. It is unclear how Hanoi will respond to Washington’s requests and whether it will send its own proposal by Wednesday.
The US Trade Representative did not respond to a request for comment outside US business hours.
Vietnam’s trade ministry did not reply to a request for comment.
A source briefed on the matter said if US requests to effectively cut Vietnam’s reliance on China were met, they could pose a serious challenge to the Southeast Asian country’s economy. Its sprawling manufacturing industry, which produces consumer goods including Apple devices and Nike shoes, is closely integrated into its much bigger neighbor’s supply chains.
It might also complicate Vietnam’s long-standing policy of maintaining good relations with China, a major foreign investor but also a source of security concerns due to conflicting claims in the South China Sea.
Vietnam has nearly tripled its exports to the United States since the start of the US-China trade war in 2018, when the first Trump administration imposed wide-ranging tariffs on Beijing, pushing some manufacturers to move production south.
But as exports to the US boomed, Vietnam also vastly expanded imports from China, with their inflow almost exactly matching the value and swings of exports to the United States over the years, each totaling around $140 billion in 2024, data from the US and Vietnam show. (read more)
As an outcome of the 2018 tariffs against China, which coincided with a President Trump visit to southeast Asia, multiple companies shifted manufacturing operations from China to Vietnam.
Beijing saw the move and slowly increased their own strategic footprint.
In the subsequent years as COVID-19 took attention from all other matters, and with Trump removed from the equation in 2020, China increased the scale of their investment and the outcomes in 2025 are very visible.
China even built this massive Disney type village in Phu Quõc (it’s nearly empty).
The people who live in Vietnam do not have money; they are a very poor nation. The baseline poverty level in combination with their communist regime politics essentially eliminates their consumer power to purchase western goods and makes trade agreements between the U.S and Vietnam somewhat moot.
However, as a proxy manufacturing nation Vietnam is a valuable resource for China.
Essentially what can be seen in Vietnam is how Beijing spends money there for influence. The U.S footprint is negligible in comparison to the visible influence of China.
Following the 2024 presidential election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago and said if President Trump was to make the Canadian government face reciprocal tariffs, open the USMCA trade agreements to force reciprocity, and/or balance economic relations on non-tariff issues, then Canada would collapse upon itself economically and cease to exist. In essence, in addition to the NATO defense shortfall, Canada cannot survive as a free and independent north American nation, without receiving all the one-way benefits from the U.S. economy.
Representing Canada, Justin Trudeau was not expressing an unwillingness to comply with fairness and reciprocity in trade with the USA, what Trudeau was expressing was an inability to comply. Quite simply, after decades of shifting priorities, Canada no longer has the internal economic capability to comply with a fair-trade agreement (FTA). Trudeau was not lying, and President Trump understood the argument; hence his 51st state remarks. {Go Deep}
Like Canada, Vietnam has the problem of ability to comply with President Trump demands. However, unlike Canada, a wealthy nation who did this entirely to themselves as they chased leftist “green” dreams, Vietnam’s inability is an outcome of the financial windfall that came from President Trump’s first term targeting of China.
A free trade agreement with Vietnam is going to be tricky because Vietnam will need to find an alternate source of component material.
I wouldn’t underestimate the Vietnamese. They did win a war against a superpower once upon a time.
The Commies will stick together.
Not really. They have had several hot, as in shooting border disputes between China and VN, since our war with VN ended.
Chyna does notvplay well with others, and has pissed off every neighbor they have.
Not so fast, Hokkoda. Vietnam also savaged China in a subsequent border conflict. It remains a pretty independent nation. Can’t help thinking we missed an opportunity in the 1940s to sway Ho Chi Minh to capitalism, as that “communist” nation now derives greater benefits from its capitalist ventures, as the article outlines.
They didn’t win, we capitulated. Ho Chi Minh wanted to negotiate a peace with the US. The deep state made sure Kennedy wouldn’t talk to Minh and Johnson the war pig took over and is responsible for the loss of many our brothers in arms to the lie of Viet Nam.
Nixon unleashed the military and bombed the Viet into a “peace” agreement.
Kissinger is facing his Judgement for this, as all the warmongers should.
Perhaps this was a reference to the Vietnamese manhandling the Chinese army?
In 79? Was China a superpower then? But yes, Vietnam acquitted themselves well.
When Vietnam violated the peace deal made after Nixon carpet-bombed them into submission, Congress Refused to give him the money to bomb them back to the peace table.
That’s what sunk the victory and Vietnam.
💯!!!!
And then they entrapped Nixon to get him to resign.
Watergate helped facilitate the sellout once the Democrats took control in ’74.
You mean the DS, “helped” facilitate Watergate to rid themselves of Nixon, right?
Was it Woodward or was it Bernstein who was a cub reporter, just one year out of his service with Naval Intelligence, who landed the story of the decade at one of the biggest newspapers in the world?
Yeah, you’re thinking what I’m thinking. “Luck” my left cheek.
The gall I have in my stomach is for Sens. Church and Fulbright! I worked the intel part and saw a helluva lot of things that should not have happened! The major issue was time! We had to wait for authorization and we were 12 hours different than here. Same issue we see here now, when seconds count, hours can be killers!
The Ho Che Minh Trail was the main supply line for the North! We controlled the part that left Chyna and entered Laos. A section called the PDJ (Plain de Jars) was critical. Five intersections occurred there and we as Americans were helpless waiting on the reply from the Pentagon and Congress to stop the flow of supplies! It was so critical, we pot a traffic light up and it was red for a long long time!
General Võ Nguyên Giáp was ready to surrender to the US when the Leftists in the new Congress capitulated. It’s part of his autobiography, and in his son’s testimony. It is well documented.
They did not defeat us in the Tet Offensive. That was deliberate misreporting by the traitor Walter Cronkite. He later admitted it.
Are the Vietnamese committed? Absolutely! They fought with almost all of our teams in combat and were good soldiers.
I understand. I am talking about the communists and should have specified the Viet Cong. my apologies.
And you’re right, Walter Cronkite and all his friends should have hung for their treasonous acts.
I missed that war by two years, but I served with many where there and have nothing but the utmost respect and love for all of you.
Cronkite. SPIT!!!
From AI:
“Walter Cronkite’s stance on the Vietnam War shifted after his visit to Vietnam in February 1968, following the Tet Offensive. During this visit, Cronkite concluded that the war was “mired in stalemate” and that the United States should consider negotiating with North Vietnam to end the conflict.
Before this visit, Cronkite had generally supported U.S. policies in Vietnam. However, after witnessing the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, he aired a special report on February 27, 1968, where he expressed his personal view that the war was likely unwinnable. This marked a significant departure from his usual role as an impartial anchor and reflected the growing disillusionment among the American public with the war.
Some historians argue that Cronkite’s editorial had a profound impact on public opinion and may have influenced President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to seek re-election. However, other analyses suggest that public opinion had already shifted against the war before Cronkite’s broadcast, and his report merely reflected existing sentiments rather than causing a change.”
In other words: Cronkite was simply finally following, not leading, American public opinion.
All of what you layout is true. However, he reported the the US lost the battle of the Tet Offensive. That is not true as is born out in countless biographies and historical offerings.
Whether he led or followed, the public that is at play there is not the general populace, but the minority who were against the war and protesting. I was of Draft age at the time, and was not against the war. I in fact supported due to what I know know are lies told by the CIA / State Department. I did not turn against the war until near the end when I saw the the micromanagement of the war, the stopping of everything that worked; mining the Haiphong Harbor, bombing Hanoi, and that 58,000 boys died for the politicians in D. C. Then, and only then did I change my opinion, and I was in uniform.
To this day, I support the supposed reason we went in, to assist a government fighting an invasion of Communist North Vietnamese.
In doing research on Vietnam, I discovered that the North and South have never been a cohesive people by ethnicity or rule. The North for almost 1,000 years was a vassal state of China.
Agree, except that Cronkite was definitely leading. North Vietnam was actually conquered by Chinese settlers about 1300 AD; the Hmong, for instance, were the original Chinese (the Mia Yang), displaced long ago by the Han and Mongol peoples. I’m pretty sure the Khmer, Khia, and Montagnards were also displaced from the north.
Prior to 1000 AD, the Mekong was a vast water-irrigation empire, with beans as its main crop. And, of course, let us not forget the Jainist empire that built such extensive megaliths as Angor Wat.
One last bit, when the white Aryans arrived to the Taurim Basin in Western China bringing the wheel, the horse, metal, writing, and cosmology/astronomy and began building their great pyramid complex, the Asians were still a Neolithic people with rude hill-forts of raised earth and flint tools.
How do we know? The mummies are so well preserved by the dry, cold air at Taurim that their features can still be made out; they have thick brunette and blond hair, white skin, and clothes in the European Scythian style. (And their pyramids are still, how does one say, “active”. They channel static electricity buildup from either cumulous clouds or underground fissures, ameliorating both thunderstorms and earthquakes.)
Dagnabit, please forgive my excess and the swerve off-topic.
Bring thou not Marquis and his dread Inquisitors.
Do you begin to understand, now, why some would Replace us with themselves, and claim all that we have wrought? The Longest War is millenia old.
Completely disagree.
Cronkite was secretly President of a Communist organization at the time, he simply didn’t announce it publically until years later. I believe it’s initials were the ISW, International Socialist Workers, but that’s from memory.
Yes they have been…pushed the chicoms, and the French, back over the years . However, those folks are gone. The new generation is not interested in defending the homeland. There are many high end, walled, housing developments in Vietnam. Built by the chicoms for chicoms. Sign on the front gate…..”No Vietnamese permitted”
..
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Yup, the Cong were wiped out at Tet and replaced by NVA (North Vietnamese Army.)
I read an autobiography by a former Viet Cong woman. She said the Cong quickly became hated because they had lied to the people.
(Apparently, another faction called the Viet Minh were the ones who were truly hated and feared by the people because of their brutality and butchery, but we never heard about them.
Also, much of the conflict was a race war between the Viet and the Khia, almost half the country.
The Left couldn’t let onto that while they were trashing and replacing our Constitution with their Civil Rights stealth movement reinstalling class privileges, the same thing Communist-trained Pierre Trudeau did to Canada’s Constitution with his Charter.)
And the trade wars going on now are manufactured by the same ‘deep state’ that Viet Nam, Middle East wars, Balkans, and Ukraine war; they were started for profit. Money manipulation to the same pockets.
US companies went into other countries for cheap labor, no employee benefits, cheap components, no unions, etc to amass bigger profits.
The ‘deep states’ controls profits and people around the world.
You are correct! 🎯 !
Exactly Nixon got them to the peace talks hat in hands.
Nixon brought the B-52 Bomber down from 52,000 Ft. to 26,000 Ft. At 52,000 they were safe from surface to air missiles, but the accuracy was pee poor! That is where a lot of civilian casualties occurred! Once at 26,000 Ft, accuracy improved dramatically, but we started to lose the aircraft! It was a political war through and through!
Nixon won that war by ’73, they agreed to all of our terms: free elections, free press, etc.; since they couldn’t claim the victory, the Democrats immediately set out to betray South Vietnam to the Communists, cutting off their money and arms, and started the witch hunt on a President elected by the largest landslide in our history at that time. Hanoi fell by ’75, and horror followed.
The Johnson/Cheney family-controlled MIC was furious at losing their ATM; the CIA wanted to seize Mao’s million acre opium fields in the Golden Triangle, they had even brought down Suharto in Indonesia to use the Indonesian banks for laundering the opium money. (That was the operation Obama’s mother and grandmother were a part of with Soetero.) The Seven Sisters oil companies also wanted to keep their oil pumping stations throughout the Mekong, which sits atop a vast oil deposit. I suspect there was a reason Obama’s grandmother died with him “at her side” the night before he was announced President.
Agreed.
“Sympathy for Vietnam” simply isn’t in my wheelhouse.
Apahce, some never forget.
Vietnam won the war with the U.S. the same way the new United States won its war with super power Great Britain. They fought to a draw and it became too expensive in both blood and treasure for the super power to continue fighting so far from home until they just decided to leave and capitulate.
Well, somebody had Diem and his brother the police chief assassinated. So, I guess the question is, who did that? Or are you saying that was part of the unnegotiated problem?
Sigh. As a Vietnam vet, I can assure you North Vietnam did not ‘win’ a war against us.
We bailed on the corrupt South Vietnamese regime that we ourselves created in a manner deeply reminiscent of what happened in Ukraine in 2014. The North then overran the south after we left, much as the Taliban overran the puppet regime we put in place in Afghanistan after we left.
The neo-cons and CIA in DC dragged us into Vietnam under false pretenses and then the radical left in the US lost it for us …deliberately.
With the great help of Republicans like Kissinger and Laird f*cking with the military chain of command right down to the company level.
I have zero empathy for the current Vietnamese regime and their inability to comply with Trump’s requirements. They knowingly rolled over for the Chinese in ’18 and benefitted greatly from doing so.
When they change their current political/economic system, then and only then would I support a different US tariff policy.
Right on sir. I was a generation behind you not in the VN war but did fight in the Cold War. Virtually every VN vet I have talked with mirrors what you outlined virtually wor for word.
And thank you for your service.
Bingo….American fighting men don’t lose wars…
Politicians do.
A lot of truth there! We fought that conflict with a hand tied behind our back! Rules of engagement aren’t for the winners! We honored their holidays, but they didn’t honor ours!
Well stated, from first sentence to last.
Salute
Perhaps the component content from chine could be estimated, and the resulting tariff be based on the ratio of chinese content versus Viet content. Basically they need to decide who they want to have as their friends.
I’m not a Vietnam vet but I agree with you, and i think counterintuitively many Vietnamese would agree too. My son is married to a first generation Vietnamese girl whose parents and grandparents grew up in Hanoi. Her family fled after the war and went to Hong Kong. They immigrated the right way and spent 10 years there before they were allowed to come over here. They were communists because they had to be, but in the recent elections they voted for Trump. I would guess that a lot of the Vietnamese diaspora feel the same way.
Thank you for your service Bill!!! Though in uniform at that time, I was one of the fortunate ones who was stateside.
As far as I’m concerned, Robert Strange McNamara is personally responsible for the deaths of 58,000 US soldiers by feckless, and micromanaging that “Conflict”!
Your analysis is 100% correct!
“Practically, it is easy to have sympathy for Vietnam…”
Sorry, memory of my “vacationing” over there in ’66 and ’67 does not include country club dinners, etc. My fellow Baby Boomers who avoided the military went into government, education, peace corp, law, etc. after they left the demonstrations, etc.
Look where they have brought us now! Vietnamese stamps are all over the place on pottery, clothes, etc. Two generations past. Romney has four sons, none in military service…try that for starters. Don’t blame the Chinese workers for doing a great job in producing all manner of goods. We used them right after Nixon opened that door to offset Russia…cheap labor. Meanwhile, look at how those Baby Boomers view our working citizens…like that debt? Bottom line, I don’t care about the Vietnamese nor their economy, nor the obvious game the Chinese are playing.
Out real threat is within my country, the United States!
Nixon didn’t open China to offset Russia.
Kissinger opened China to offset the America worker.
WEF is a suicide pact for the West on behalf of China.
Run by The City.
You have a “thing” for “correcting” others, don’t you?
A “know it all” is so easy to spot; your self-assuredness reeks of a special level of narcissism.
I have a thing for the conversation at CTH the value of expanding our understanding.
Your effort to demonize me is quite telling.
In addition to correcting others, you have a take no sh*t attitude I truly admire.
Aw shucks, I learn from the best.
100% true!!!!
100% Kissinger was an agent of The City from “Go”.
Exactly, that’s why the Kapitalists (the money powers) fund Communist movements and install Communism: they want to keep those resources and that labor cheap.
They create slave plantations and Company stores.
(That’s also why I spell Kapitalist with a K; the crony corporations, NGOs, and hedge funds, legal fictions created by government charter and the tax code, and the banking powers funding political campaigns and legistation, are NOT our granddaddy’s “capitalism” of buyers, sellers, and widgets in inventory.)
p.s.- Kissinger was also the Architect of the W.E.F., he selected and groomed Klaus Schwab as his protege.
Honour and respect for all who fought, who died, or who came home to the disgusting, disgraceful opprobrium heaped upon our treasured troops.
None for the warmongers who counted the lives of those they sent as expendable.
Yeah, I still remember to this day, as a teenager (female) how DISGUSTING our troops returning from Vietnam were treated!
I was at UT Austin during the worst years.
All those peace protests and “get out of ‘Nam”.
Wondering if we’ll see the same when/if we are dragged into Ukraine/Russia.
Bankers love money and control, not people and certainly not the “little people”. No funding? No war.
💯!
JFK was literally assasinated, and Goldwater politically assasinated, because neither would have gone along with the deep State plan forcViet Nam, and LBJ would.
Geopolitically, we need all the friends we can get, and if we can accomplish our goal with cutting off CHYNA without destroying Viet Nams economy, that would be preferable.
I wish no harm on the Vietnamese people, but their government is still officially Communist.
Thank you sir for serving. Your time is appreciated, more than most realize. God bless.
Your premise is flawed. This has nothing to do with fighting.
Vietnam simply cannot afford to comply with the choice between not using Chinese parts/components in their finished products, OR paying a steep cost for continuing to use Chinese materials. They are dirt poor and cannot afford to purchase a thing that they manufacture.
Without the ability to sell to America the population would starve. It’s a reality that President Trump must consider in any bilateral trade deal.
Nope. DJT has to look after America. No letting China shaft us through the back door. If they get hungry enough, maybe the Vietnamese people will act. Perhaps Victoria Nuland could start a color revolution.
The reality must always be considered. I did not say capitulated. But you already knew that.
Poor deflection. D minus
Take all that Chinese crap and burn it up.
You do realize that President Trump talked the ASEAN conference into repositioning manufacturing into Vietnam, correct?
China simply followed.
Will China, and by extension its loyal trading partners, persevere in the Trade War by withholding Rare Earth supply from Western Nations … leading to Sector Shutdowns across the West that undermine the Globalists’ Control?
Could President Trump leverage those Shutdowns by pinning them on Congress to force capitulation of enough Members to legislate expanded Emergency Authority and a restructured Judicial System to fully implement his MAGA Agenda without further obstruction?
Hold on here, Sundance, I think you’re onto something.
You see, Trump is attempting a Reset of the corrupt global financial system, that’s why he’s not paying as much attention to picayune domestic matters like the FBI.
Now, ASEAN announced a 10-nation test run of its alternative trade settlement system, a strong contender to compete with the SWIFT system we cut countries like Russia out of with our sanctions. (We ban them from using SWIFT banking.) There are several Asian seaport countries and several Mideast oil countries in the 10 nation test.
What is at stake here is not just an alternate banking system for trade between countries, but also the sea lanes which Pax Americana rules. All the world depends on those cargo containers.
It sounds like Vietnam is some sort of leverage, in a deal that Trump and China are quietly settling behind the scenes and away from prying eyes. Trump and Xi are no doubt talking privately, because the Chinese delegation to the latest European Union conference just gave Ursula van der Leyen a very, very cold shoulder.
Let Chyna feed them
“Perhaps Victoria Nuland could start a color revolution.”
Why did I just feel a chill go down my spine?
She never ‘retired’, she just moved over to the odious NED, the CIA’s ‘civilian’ arm.
Why, pray tell, are we paying her salary?
Boo hoo!
Without the ability to sell to America the population would starve. It’s a reality that Vietnamese and Chinese communist leadership (and the UN) must consider in any bilateral trade deal.
They never “won” that war.
Our Democrat-controlled Congress simply refused to fund the military once the Tet Offensive showed we were winning – going away (it wasn’t even close). No money meant our military couldn’t fight. A financial capitulation.
It was the Democrat/Deep State-controlled media through the venerable Walter Cronkite who pronounced on live TV we had LOST the war.
To save face, Kissinger was sent to negotiate a “peace” treaty to end the war. Then it was our Democrat media whipping up a frenzy to portray our returning vets as inhuman monsters who terrorized the Vietnam countryside.
Ho Chi Minh knew what had happened. He graciously accepted the gift of a unified Vietnam, and moved on. We got a mass migration of Vietnamese who knew they’d be slaughtered under the new regime.
“NOTHING gets bombed until I say it gets bombed…..’
LBJ
Sure, because LBJ had nothing but coreligionists like Rostow, etc. to rely upon. On the other hand, Trump has Blinken, Pompeo, and Wray holdovers. IDK why a purge hasn’t started.
Well yes, they first ran the French out and the British and then took us on. They did not ‘win’, our side buckled. But we should not have been there to begin with!
They French and English didn’t care to fight like it mattered. Big difference.
Yes, they manhandled the French, but everybody manhandles the French. Not much of a claim.
They also….Manhandled…the chicom invasion a few times as well….
But the French have such nice tree lined roads.
(Heh. People, be nice now! Actually, the French have won most of the battles they’ve fought throughout history. They owned a quarter of America, a third of Africa, and Indochina. And, the Yellow Jackets are the only ones who’ve been taking it to the streets for years now. Not the people’s fault that poofter Macaroni imagines himself as Napoleon.)
No, that superpower (us) handcuffed itself so badly with its idiotic ROE that it shut off any path to military victory. Defeat was inevitable if not preordained. That superpower could have rolled over & through the Vietnamese quite easily had it used its existing military capabilities to their full potential (excluding nuclear). I’m personally glad we didn’t. Red China would not have taken a U.S. victory in North Viet Nam sitting down….
Yet even that doesn’t address the foolish imperialist political decision-making that preceded Lyndon Johnson’s sending military troops there in 1965 to begin with. Of course that greedy imperialism was disguised by the constant reference to “anti-communism efforts” by the deep state DC ideologues who were hungry for another war….. But all that is history.
Vietnam’s only “strength” is Communist China’s threat to get involved with any foreign military offensive against Vietnam. But that’s a serious enough threat to be a deterrent. PDJT smartly uses our economic power as a giant consumer to negotiate.
I agree, particularly your last point. The deep State has largely usurped foreign policy by taking control of how thecU.S. excercises “soft power” thru USAID, thru NGO’s to carry out the nefarious plans of the deep state, CIA warmonger globullust assholes.
PDJT is not just cutting that financual line with USAID, he is rapidly developing an alternate path, THAT HE CONTROLS, for exerting soft power; trade.
He has already stopped several wars with it, simply by threatening the beligerants with no access to our markets, and we may see him use it to bring about regime change (in the EU, and or China) before we are done.
Its a great tool to counter, abd stymie the globullusts, and I see no obvious indicators they have a clue as to what to do about it.
🎯 🎯 👍👍
Yup, he just shut down a potentially nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan by threatening to cut off trade with both of them. They came to their senses right fast.
The US or China?
No, they didn’t.
They won simply because we were artificially constrained and while China supplied them with everything they needed. Meanwhile, back in the USA, communists staged “peace rally” events and campaigns to demoralize the US soldiers.
It’s a mistake we should never make again.
The United States didn’t have the will to win in Vietnam. That’s the only reason we lost.
The Chinese threatened another Korean War, as well.
Put it in perspective! We won every battle in Vietnam, but politically lost the war in D.C. Let Chyna solve the trade issue! The free ride with America is over!!! I spent 18 months in that Hell hole! Lost a few friends too! The Uniparty created the problem!
One Vietnamese girl related her dying father’s last words as she sat sobbing by his bedside.
After all the nightmares their family had endured, there came a time when the Americans let his daughter sleep on burlap sacks in one of their tents. It was the first restful sleep the little thing had had after years of terror; he knew that only the Americans would protect her, that those few nights were the only peace she had known in her short life. To his end, his final memories were of the inexpressible gratitude he felt for the Americans who had kept his precious daughter safe.
Deny it not, soldier; for a time, you held back the darkness. A small thing, surely, as large as the world.
You do not remember her; but she, and thousands just like her, they all remember you.
So, China is using Vietnam for it’s own greed while the Vietnamese people stay poor? There’s an opportunity there if the Vietnamese were to be educated about their abuser.
If they could make them slaves, the would do it.
understandable. i like the people here greater than nam. they will have figure out things on their own.
Weren’t they poor before China set up a manufacturing base there? How did they survive then?
Former head of state security now Chairman.
“Vietnamese leader To Lam’s recent tour of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan was aimed at diversifying Hanoi’s strategic partnerships and securing Moscow’s backing for its military needs and South China Sea claims.”
https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/lams-rise-and-vietnams-move-former-soviet-sphere?ref=top-hero
I have an idea. Why don’t we tariff Vietnam to the point where they cannot sell anything to our country and suggest they sell all that stuff to China. Win/Win for China and Vietnam and we can start learning how not to buy useless crap?
you’re welcome,
p
So it all boils down to what it always was US or China
What is that I buy from Vietnam that I can only buy from Vietnam…..and I need it now?
Nothing
Once Vietnam understands that… the better off they will be in understanding their status.
Same goes for Canada.
They make a lot of clothes.
Any Vietnamese people with money left the country when the USA pulled out of the “never ending war”. They are a very poor nation but that doesn’t mean they aren’t industrious. China has always realized this and they are more than happy to set them up in business so long as they control the the supply of materials and the equipment to build their products. I lived in Orange County when the first immigrants came to Ca. . Garden Grove Ca (Little Vietnam) became the hub of their existence. It still is. Back in the early 80’s we jokingly said “last one to leave Garden Grove, grab the flag” No joke anymore.
I had a job at Coast Catamaran (Hobie Cats) in 1977 and the Vietnamese made sails there. On their lunch breaks they would sew up backpacks using the scrap canvas and sell them to the surfers who worked there. They pooled their income and saved everything except bare necessities. The county animal shelters became a free source of protein. We called them Cormorants (after the bird that the Japanese use to fish). They tie a string noose around the necks of their prized birds so the cormorant can not swallow the fish it caught, until… the boat was filled for the day. After the bird had done its job the owner of the small boat fed the bird its fish. China is owner of the fishing boat The Cormorants do the work, and the USA eats fish for dinner
I really like the Vietnamese who have immigrated here. They are hard working people. They pretty much dominate the nail salon business. They are wonderful kind and loving parents but know how to instill obedience very gently. I have watched this in person in a salon I used to go to…I was very impressed with their “parenting” skills.
They do not strike me as “communists”. They want freedom and love capitalism as we do. I so wish they could have a free country…we attacked them, remember the Domino Theory…same theory about Ukraine…if we let Russia take over Ukraine then they will continue on…foolish and stupid…
They were patriotic and fought for their country…would we do any less?
Interesting how Dems start the wars…
I had contact with a lot of refugees since they settled into the valley back in the 70’s, with many becoming farming customers of my business. Respectful, solid folks in my experience.
On-topic, while China may have their fingers deep into Vietnam, so does corporate America. That would be a worthwhile analysis as well in my opinion.
Here’s an example in critical infrastructure….
https://www.boeing.com/global/boeing-southeast-asia/vietnam#anchor1
I have met quite a few people from Viet Nam. I could not call them friends ( their choice) simply because I’m not Vietnamese. Their family, business and religion are “in house” I am an outsider and they are upfront about it. That said they are very polite, well mannered, hard working and have never cheated me. I can understand their reluctance to trust anyone outside their circle. 20 years of war on their home soil being fought by Big Panda and the USA war machine must have had a big impact on their lives.
I lived in the town in New Mexico for a while that was seventy percent Mexican.
They were very much like the Vietnamese and the way that you describe. They’re food,their religion, the music they listen to,their family made me an outsider. They were very nice to me and generally friendly.But I could never really be friends with any of them.
This is the most accurate comment in this thread
And MANY Vietnamese are good, faithful Catholics, unlike certain American politicans I could name!
Be careful who you hitch your wagon to because the very skinny chickens are coming home to roost.
Maybe they shouldn’t be so influenced by China. Did they learn nothing?
It’s called survival.
Exactly.
We need to carefully examine and keep open mind in which way is “the influencing” happening. (I am sure its not one China->Vietnam way, but also US->Vietnam, and to which side the scale is tipping could end up to be suprising)
Ultimately, when considering trade only, nobody is forced in the US to buy Vietnamese products.
It’s not Vietnamese fault their product end up on a shelf in a US store. (or is it?)
Second point, what message is this sending in tje trade negotation
Something like: “We the USA use tariffs because your country is ripping us off, BUT you can continue to rip the US off as long as in the process you hurt China more. That makes us happ.y”
So really it does not become a trade agreement but an ANTI-TRADE agreement with China.
Bottom line. Americas funny money runs the world, and when we go down, the world will too.
Revelation 18 describes this clearly. That chapter is talking about the USA…
The british pound used to be the reserve currency, and now its not
That transition did not “end the world” and I think it was quite orderly.
We could observe that it did not help much the British empire though (it no longer exists)
Maybe the two facts (reserve currency, empire) are related, maybe not.
The British empire no longer exists but the power that drove their imperialism still exists. It just moved elsewhere and its in the process of moving elsewhere again.
“CTH was in the manufacturing base of Vietnam in January”
As merely an interested observer, or something more? I notice he’s been to more than a few countries on fact-finding missions.
Sir! No Sir!
This feature-length documentary focuses on the efforts by troops in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to oppose the war effort by peaceful demonstration and subversion. It speaks mainly to veterans, but serves as a ready reminder to civilians that soldiers may oppose war as stridently as any civilian, and at greater personal peril.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir!_No_Sir!
In the old days Vietnam manufacturing was always much more expensive than other SE Asian countries. I attributed it to our influence during the War. Much manufacturing went elsewhere. It seems the Chinese bailed them out over the years with higher priced merchandise that could carry the higher manufacturing cost.
Vietnam will have to start at the bottom again with cheaper merchandies and lower wages or they could try and keep up the transshiping. Most likely the transshipping will grow unless the US stops it.
It is not just component supply. That can be gradually augmented or replaced if the companies and their management desire to do so.
The Chinese own the factories, the hotels, the related infrastructure.
The Chinese are the ‘management’ of the economic entities.
The Vietnamese people are locked out, sometimes even physically.
That is an even more difficult problem.
Sounds like a whole lot of “other people’s problems” to me.
When it comes to these countries all I can think of is it sucks to be you, not my problem.
No, perhaps not YOURS, but President Trump has the whole World on his shoulders, and in the battle against China he needs all of the allies he can get, and Vietnam COULD be an ally.
You would be surprised at how American centric the Vietnamese are, especially in the South. I was ther in 2016-17 for three months on and off. Tey love Americans and at that time were trying diligently to get the Chinese off of thir backs. Even offering a massive tax incentive to Western countries buying companies and bringing Western tech and service styles to their country to teach them better practices.
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is a teaming city with more wealth than you can imagine.
The average age is 16 (at that time) and their ability to manufacture is incredible.
The North (Hanoi) is very, very different from the south. Think Boston vis a vis Miami.
A tremencous amount of natural resources (ie coal). But a tremendous amount of graft and grift.
You are correct. The Vietnamese people, at least in the south, hate the Chinese. They are very pro- American.
“A tremendous amount of graft and grift.”
I think that can be accurately said for any/all nations caught in the spiderweb of the international bankers.
If similar quality, I prefer goods assembled in Vietnam from Chinese parts vs Chinese complete. At least Vietnam is pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. We can be creative with Tariffs, estimate that assembly is 25% of the value, parts 75% so set the tarif at 75% what is charged China goods. Same approach works across the categories.
I’m 70, 25 years ago there were no clothes from China, and similar products. It’s been a recent invasion, that needs to be reversed. Can we claw even half of this trade back?
I have found Vietnamese workmanship to be of a much better quality than Chinese At least in terms of clothing.
I don’t think we should trade with any Communist Controlled Country.
I served in the US Air Force in Vietnam throughout 1969. The people of Vietnam are a decent, ambitious people. I hope my students survived the Communist Takeover of their country.
Well, then let’s make Vietnam the 51st state. Canada can be 52.
Many US companies made the conscious decision to outsource manufacturing to Vietnam. Makers of athletic shoes, backpacks, luggage, ready-to-assemble furniture, and many others. Vietnamese manufacturers make some good-quality products, often “designed in America,” but, a lot of money if ultimately flowing back to the Chinese Communist Party.
No sympathy or concessions should be given to ‘nam AT ALL by the USA . Vietnam commies sold what little soul they had to the devil and now it’s time to pay up.
And Viet Nam can kiss our asses.
So then, does this force VN to rely more heavily on Chinese foreign aid?
“Vietnam has nearly tripled its exports to the United States since the start of the US-China trade war in 2018.”
That being the case, and since they are a very poor nation, the elite are the ones getting rich in Vietnam. So let’s get their exports back to one third of what they are now and let those elites suffer. The people who were poor in 2018 are still poor now, so they shouldn’t be affected.
YouTuber Lei’s Real Talk speculates that Xi is on the way out or is no longer in control in China.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIRXrnX2_k7AizFQgsdcqjQ
At lease for textiles, Vietnam could get lots of component material from us.
China just ‘elected’ its communist in SKorea to shore up its grab… Very worrisome.
S.Korea is irreversibly on the path to extinction. If they reverse course socially, they become economically irrelevant. And if they continue the course economically, they become genetically and culturally extinct.
That’s an unfamiliar concept here in the west. We’re ALL mutts with sprawling family trees. But it’s quite different over there.
They have the same problem with WOMEN there. Refusing to be with men, refusing raising families and favoring work and career because “being equal to men” also means “taking on the role of men” for some reason. The destruction of the female role is the destruction of culture and society in the modern world. It factually the eliminations of millions of future children that will never be born.
And no, I’m NOT going to listen to women screaming “you can’t treat us as breeding stock!?!” The word EXTINCTION is a lot heavier than any other moral argument.
I really don’t care about Vietnam. We have nothing in common with them save for a decade of war.
They owe their prosperity to becoming an assembly economy for China, so let them join China.
Trump needs to invite Texas Instruments into the White House for a meeting. The people that invented modern semiconductor manufacturing needs the US to restore them to greatness. We can’t live the way we have for the past few decades. TI is a shell of its former self finding most of its products, once made in the USA all replaced by things made in China or elsewhere across the ocean.
Texas Instruments is STILL a US defense contractor as far as I know. And we absolutely NEED high quality components and chips made here — EXCLUSIVELY here.
It’s a true political blunder constantly made by DC: “we need you to stop doing this, but we can’t offer anything to replace it with. That’s your problem”.