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Obama lifts arms embargo on Vietnam

26 Comments
By FOSTER KLUG

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26 Comments
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Oh the irony.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Obama said the countries still have differences over human rights but noted modest improvements by Vietnam.

And are there any liberals who still think they helped liberate the people of Vietnam? Do they care that the role they played actually helped in oppressing the people? They pay lip service to notions of equality, freedom and democracy, but in truth those concepts only apply to them. Liberals are nothing but platitude-spewing children, pretending to care about the rights and quality of life of others, but in reality they only care about their own interests and the interests of their masters.

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

Smart move I guess. Profitable for US defense companies while helping a regional ally to step up against the Chinese menace. A win-win.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

And are there any liberals who still think they helped liberate the people of Vietnam?

Wait, is that our job? Are we still world police or?

Do they care that the role they played actually helped in oppressing the people?

And the Invasion of Iraq by conservative Republican President Bush certainly helped the people of Iraq.

pretending to care about the rights and quality of life of others, but in reality they only care about their own interests and the interests of their masters.

The same can be said of a good deal of people from either party. Plenty of self-centered people around.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Good move! Vietnam is in the process of rising economically ... and my Vietnamese friends are some of the nicest people around. As I have heard and read elsewhere ... a Japanese friend who does business in Vietnam and that area in particular ... said the Vietnamese love Americans ... and hate Chinese.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@Kabukideath

You've written two crackers today satirizing the way partisan, bubble-dwellers think with their dripping hypocrisy.

They were good but I wouldn't go for a hat-trick.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Reminiscent of his Obama's move. In both cases, the blanket "no" was removed, but further progress has been set on good behavior. Many Vietnamese-Americans in my hometown had hoped for action which would both move the relationship forward and improve human rights. Previously, there was no reason for Vietnam to heed American cajoling as nothing would come of it anyway; now, concrete weapon systems they desperately desire are at stake.

It also checks China. Two birds, one stone. Good move.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Vietnam has been an historic enemy of China going back at least a thousand years. If our post WW-II policies recognized that geopolitical truth instead of supporting the French colonial claim, and then the sophomoric "domino theory," history might have taken a completely different turn. Not only could we have avoided a costly and ill-advised war, but Vietnam might have stepped up earlier as a containment to Chinese expansion into the South China Sea.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Ah yes, the benefit of 20/20 hindsight CrazyJoe. Did you live during that time? Do have any contemporary experience or are you just echoing what you read? You must take a look at the geopolitical landscape post WWII, iron curtain, Korea, etc. into account before you judge. Having said that, I am a Vietnam Combat Veteran. We, too, benefited from 20/20, as did you. But at the time, most of us thought it was right. Kind of hard to lay your life on the the line if you didn't. (For context, I was a helicopter pilot, shot down twice, shot up more times than I can count. I think the renewal of friendship is a great thing. Implacable enemies becoming friends does have a precedent, ne?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Obama is seeking to strike a balance with Vietnam, which he called a vital country in one of the world’s most vital regions

Selling arms to a Communist country to help protect America's interests against China - a Communist country. Is this what passes for sophisticated geostrategic thinking these days. Next thing you know Obama will make an agreement with his Socialist buddies in Vietnam that will guarantee them the right to build a nuclear bomb in ten years.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

But at the time, most of us thought it was right.

I guess there are no accurate stats for that. I remember sitting in a bar in Osaka with a Vietnam vet and another American guy who had run off to Canada at the time. The vet told me that he wasn't brave enough to have done that.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Wulf,

If Obama had found a cure for cancer you'd be whining at the usual rate. Don't forget your hero George W (for whom you voted for twice and would do again today) also visited Vietnam, the closet socialist he must have been.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Thanks for the thumbs-up despite the typo. I'd meant to write this action is similar to Obama's strategy with Iran. Now, the US has a real hand in the game with human rights and political reform in Vietnam - particularly as the latter must compare its behavior to China. I'd say Vietnam is now where South Korea was in 1976 - and will progress more rapidly.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can't wait to hear the Chinese response. Should be good.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Oh the irony.

Heh . . . that's what I was thinking. But at least pat obama on tha' back for that move. Didn't think he had it in him. Yes we'll sell them weapons.

. . . business the american way. Funny (Lmfao) how some of these liberal posters were just slamming Trump's endorsement by the NRA a couple days ago. & now this. This gesture by obama deserves another handful of popcorn.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Wc,

Funny (Lmfao) how some of these liberal posters were just slamming Trump's endorsement by the NRA a couple days ago

Perhaps it was Trump's position(s)(s)(s) on guns people were slamming. It does seem to be the last person he's spoken to which defines policy, after all!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Perhaps it was Trump's position(s)(s)(s) on guns people were slamming.

Whatever. let's be consistent shall we? If you're gona slam guns, then you should be slamming obama's lifting of the weapons embargo. A rifle, a handgun, an AT-4, mortars, heavy machine guns, smart bombs etc. etc.

All meant to kill, period.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I'm guessing most people on both sides support teaming up with Vietnam to help counter China. The left gets their cultural engagement and discussions of the past, and the right gets a new extension of US firepower. There's not much to argue about on this one unless you just want to say something about Obama.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There's not much to argue about on this one unless you just want to say something about Obama.

Yeah there is . . . "hypocrisy" for one. Isn't obama going to Hiroshima soon. Japanese like obama because he has this rainbow-unicorn view of reducing Nuclear Weapons on a global scale. Lmfao, so then he lifts a decades long embargo on the Vietnamese??

if you look-up "hypocrite" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of obama selling arms to vietnam.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Could you run that by me one more time?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Could you run that by me one more time?

Okay, Okay. So he ain't selling nukes. But he's lifted a weapons embargo.That's pretty unprecedented . . . . for a hippy-liberal administration wouldn't you think?

What did obama say about Sandy Hook? -"it makes me angry" . . . then sheds a few tears. Tell me, where will it tickle his legacy when the weapons " to be sold" start exploding and decimating whoever they're aimed at??

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

This from the New York Times, 22 May, 2016:

"He was greeted on the tarmac by a young woman in a long yellow dress who handed him a bouquet of flowers. Several second-tier Vietnamese officials shook the president’s hand before he climbed into his limousine for a quick trip to his hotel after nearly 24 hours of travel."

There were no top level officials to greet Obama when he arrived. They know he is a laughingstock.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

But he's lifted a weapons embargo.That's pretty unprecedented . . . . for a hippy-liberal administration wouldn't you think?

It doesn't really jive with your notion of a hippy liberal administration, does it?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Obama is trying too sell US military equipment to Vietnam. Kind of too late as Vietnam already depend on Japan' s weapon industry just like other SESsian countries such as phollipines.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It doesn't really jive with your notion of a hippy liberal administration, does it?

For all it's inconsistencies, nope it doesn't.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

This from the New York Times, 22 May, 2016:

"He was greeted on the tarmac by a young woman in a long yellow dress who handed him a bouquet of flowers. Several second-tier Vietnamese officials shook the president’s hand before he climbed into his limousine for a quick trip to his hotel after nearly 24 hours of travel."

There were no top level officials to greet Obama when he arrived. They know he is a laughingstock.

(Hint: Read the local news)

From the Vietnam Thanh Nien Newspaper:

http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/us-president-obama-arrives-in-hanoi-to-strengthen-economic-security-ties-62451.html

The US president was greeted by the head of the Presidential Office, Dao Viet Trung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc and US ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, before he left for the JW Marriott Hotel on Do Duc Duc Street in Tu Liem District.

Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang this morning welcomed US President Barack Obama, who is Hanoi for an official visit, at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.

Vietnam cannot afford to treat the US President as a laughingstock because Vietnam needs the US badly.

http://article.wn.com/view/2016/05/23/Vietnam_hopes_its_voice_is_heard_as_Obama_visits/

You don't seem to understand what's happening in Vietnam very well

(Are you American? That's probably why ya guys lost there.)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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