A 3,000 square-meters park is being constructed inside Vietnam’s Military History Museum, commemorating past advisors and volunteer soldiers from Russia, China, Cuba, Laos, and Cambodia. The construction is much larger than I expected, with much symbolic politics involved. @bao_thanhnien reports that the construction is at “the urgent request” of the defense minister. A monument for Russia, but not for the entire USSR. The Russia-Ukraine War has much to do with the sudden, revised re-internationalization of Vietnam’s official war historiography.

Talk of the town in Vietnam: how Xi today was received at the airport by Vietnam’s president (Luong Cuong) and Standing Secretary of the VCP Secretariat & anti-corruption tsar (Tran Cam Tu). No such top-level “airport reception” by Vietnam happened before since 1991. Visit was going to happen regardless of the trade war, but I wonder if this highest-level line of airport reception was decided at the last minute. May signal that Vietnam in the current context refuses to be externally pressured to fundamentally bend its ties away from China.

7 children recently amputated without anesthesia. Doctors confirming that toddlers being actively shot twice on their necks. A 5-year old girl who was targeted and shot 355 times. 173 children slaughtered in one day. No ‘national interest’ will ever dictate my conscience. 1/

https://twitter.com/mperlmuttermd/status/1904647778799649062

Certain post-colonial governments and (especially) many young nationalists today, who in my view should know better, have deeply lost themselves in a ‘national interest-fundamentalism’, void of any moral-historical values at this point since economic reforms were launched. 2/

Fukuyama has penned a new op-ed, “The New American Imperialism” about Trump. It is surreal that the terms imperialism and colonialism have resurfaced, by a major liberal voice. It is personally surreal to me as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. It feels personally surreal that these are all happening on this special year, as I am familiar with the prevalent politics of discourses about the legacies of the Vietnam/American War and contemporary territorial disputes in Asia within Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Many US 🇺🇸 broadcasters have since last year begun to arrive in Vietnam 🇻🇳 in preparation for the 50th anniversary of Vietnam’s reunification & end of the #VietnamWar. Its many key witnesses are however slowly departing, incl. Trần Thị Yến Ngọc (in blue shirt & army outfit).


Trần Thị Yến Ngọc (wartime code name: Thu Ba Điểm) was a veteran of the “Saigon Rangers” (Unit A20-A30), among the most secretive urban warfare guerrilla communist forces in South Vietnam. She passed away shortly after 🎥 with a 🇺🇸 broadcaster for the 50th war anniversary.

Jan-20, 2025 will be looked back as a key date in Vietnamese 🇻🇳 political history. The infamed, ex-PM Nguyen Tan Dung (2006-2016), was awarded Vietnam’s most prestigious medal (Yellow Star). In my view, this marks the formal break from the era & ideology of Nguyen Phu Trong. Dung has made multiple public appearances since his arch political enemy, Trong, passed away in 2024. This award has stirred yet another avalanche of public criticism on 🇻🇳 social media, and for the first time, even the staunchest regime defenders & war veterans are speaking out.

This has been a hotly debated topic in Vietnam in recent days. In a speech on 15/1, Party leader To Lam berated Vietnam’s situation of being largely on the processing-assembly stage after 40 years, and how the FDI sector overwhelmingly dominates its major export industries.

https://twitter.com/haugejostein/status/1880012891694461099

The important speech can be read below. To Lam also admitted that, unlike China, Vietnam’s reform era has seen inadequate openness to diaspora & foreign leaders to foster local science & tech growth and universities, which is frustratingly very true. baochinhphu.vn/phat-bieu-cua-…

Vietnam's new communist party chief, Tô Lâm, today begins his visit to the US, where he'll attend #UNGA79 and visit major US tech & military firms, and universities (@Columbia). 🇺🇸 My impression of his leadership characteristics so far 1/🧵 @Columbia Ever since Tô Lâm unconventionally ascended to become the VCP general secretary on Aug 3-2024, his various public statements & gestures have surprisingly paid heavy attention into invigorating a sense of economic pragmatism in the VCP & state administration and society. 2/

Reading this report from Manila, I won’t forget when the delta variant hit Indonesia, which had been early on from the developing world to order vaccines, all ranging from Sputnik, Sinopharm, Sinovac, to Pfizer. 1/ Yet, at that time as in much of the developing world, Sinovac were the only providers capable of supplying large amounts and well on time. The rest, especially Sputnik and Pfizer, came on small sea drops and far too late (due to overwhelming orders and hoarding elsewhere). 2/

Three major phenomena that make 2024 so far an extraordinarily unprecedented time in Vietnamese politics & society: 1/ (1) Since the 13th VCP Congress in 2021, 6 Politburo members, its highest decision-making body, have been ousted from power, including 2 sitting Presidents; 1 Parliamentary Chairman; >20 VCP Central Commitee members. An extent of elite political crisis unlike anytime since 1935.

https://twitter.com/cnguyenec/status/1783800695927476531

Notwithstanding their own limitations, I keep thinking about Indian FM Jaishankar’s “[is not] transactionally unsentimental” description of India’s approach to Russia. It confirms how the role of affectionate politics is somewhat underestimated in Western calculations. 1/ Affectionate politics comprise both multi-faceted, longstanding exposure to anything USSR/Russia (ranging from culture, friendships, mentorships, studies, to anything political) and individual and collectively-held gratitude for past deeds during one’s own crises. 2/

Hardly anyone denies that Vietnam has undergone profound, almost miraculous, economic uplifting in the last 30-40 years. But increasingly, the social culture among the youth & noveau-rich is getting depressive, with social media full of flaunting and worshipping for wealth. That’s what many have been saying about a cultural & moral degradation being genuinely perceived in the market economy era. Dignity, status, and morality measured by ownership of uber-expensive items, education, experience; competition and flaunting of who owns the most.

Vietnam officially joins the “community for a shared future”, under some carefully crafted terms with respect to the intl’ laws and territorial integrity. This is followed by approx. 36 🇻🇳 🇨🇳 cooperation deals to be signed tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/hungson_dav/status/1734562513449075126

Noteworthy in this announcement is the elevated emphasis on the party-to-party ties and channels for commanding the overall party-state bilateral relations.

#Gabon coup: "So far, eight ex-French colonies in West and Central Africa have fallen to military rulers in just three years, each one coming with a wave of anti-France sentiment blamed on interference from the former colonial power." @CNN
edition.cnn.com/2023/09/01/afr… @CNN Been thinking lately of how the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine has accelerated two parallel universes in terms of 'self-determination': 1) increased vigilance to the threat of revanchist invasions in Asia, and 2) various ex-Western colonies taking the opportunity of Russia's war

I know of this Vietnamese migrant worker overseas, a young mother of one daughter, who came from Vietnam with no formal education beyond completing middle school and is literate in the language of her country of current residence at the very basic level. She pulls out 10 hours and more work almost every day, while also trying to help out with her own daughter's homework (in a foreign language) during breaks from work by watching tutorials on youtube. Especially in mathematics, the mother herself doesn't understand much, and struggles to help out her

Found the 1-hour interviews each with two #Vietnam military generals on the 1st anniversary of #Russia's war on #Ukraine to be overall well-balanced. A large segment of each interview was dedicated to candid reflections on Russia's multifold mistakes. Both view the war as unjust. The interview with Major Gen. Nguyen Hong Quan was conducted by FNBC, a corporate news channel. Quite a respected and highly-sought commentator in the past year for daring to discuss the many pitfalls of this war (triggered a protest from RU embassy too).

With the highest echelons of Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry now punished, public attention only intensified toward the fate of 2-3 deputy prime ministers, including zero-Covid tsar, Vu Duc Dam, and former foreign minister, Pham Binh Minh. baochinhphu.vn/bo-chinh-tri-b… The end of this week might witness the biggest sudden shake-up in government leadership personnel in many years amid an anti-corruption drive and intra-party struggles.

You will be surprised at how little policy makers (otherwise very technocratic, pragmatic and self-critical) at the top in Vietnam nowadays emphasize the role of past wars to excuse for many contemporary economic problems.

https://twitter.com/AlkRomeo/status/1585747652763070465

The current minister of planning and investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, once summoned all senior and junior staff for a 4-hour session on why Vietnam failed to meet its own set target of becoming an industrialized country by 2020 (set in 2006). "Why? Why? Why?" vietnamnet.vn/nhung-tran-tro…

It’s about time that “since 1979” myth ends. The Sino-Vietnamese war lasted for 10 years. Among the highest daily combat losses in the history of Vietnam People’s Army took place in 1984 against China (600 to 1,700 per day in the Battle of Vi Xuyen/Laoshan).

https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1581470517131108352

For the duration of 1979-89, you will have several ‘Sino-Indian War of 1962’ in terms of military and civilian deaths. It’s only as late as 2009 that most of the occupied land territories since 1979-89 were returned to Vietnam.