And with a 1970s military.It seems all Viets think they are either already a brown superpower, or they will be as soon as they annex and imperialize the "sub-Mekong region" (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma). Some of the most extremist irredentists even want to annex Guangdong and Guangxi. Personally, I've never heard of a superpower with less than <2000 USD GDP/capita.
The Vietnam Solution - Robert D. Kaplan - The Atlantic
The Vietnamese leaders of the 1970s, wrote Singapore’s then prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, in his 2000 memoir, were “insufferable,” priding themselves as the “Prussians of Southeast Asia.” But the arrogance, as Vietnamese leaders have told me, didn’t last. Severe food shortages and the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989–91 forced Vietnam to pull its troops out of Cambodia. Vietnam was now utterly friendless, its triumph over the Americans a distant memory. “The feeling of victory in that war was always muted,” a Vietnamese diplomat tells me, “because there was never a peace dividend.”
the arrogance is too much i can't keep the laughter hidden. It describes the delicate situation Vietnam is facing with a behemoth from the North.
The return of so many German speakers to Vietnam has had far-reaching consequences, in that these returnees brought back not only the academic knowledge they had acquired in the GDR, but aspects of German culture in general. Nowhere in Asia is German so widely spoken. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Goethe Institute established a branch in Hanoi in 1997. Even the DAAD has a dedicated website for Vietnamese alumni, entirely in Vietnamese.Just as Prussia has been Europe's most fought-over ground, Vietnam is Asia's. For centuries the Vietnamese battled the Chinese, the French, the Americans, the Khmer, and again the Chinese. In between they battled the Thai, the Burmans, the Lao, the Cham, the montagnards, and each other in regional and dynastic combat.
Regardless, it is better than being called SICK MAN OF ASIA
when did the Chinese awarded title Sick Man of Asia and Paper tiger? I wonder?
You guys have to read the 3 pages analysis (see link i posted) , the Prussians of South East Asia
Not only that, the people constantly brag how Vietnam single-handily defeated the US but want US to come back and help them counterbalance big bad China.
"Another reason Vietnamese harbor relatively few sensitivities about the American War is that they won it."
"“U.S. power is necessary for the security of the world.” Indeed, one after another, students and officials at the Diplomatic Academy use the term balancing power to describe the United States vis-à-vis China. “The Chinese are too strong, too assertive,” one female analyst says. “That is why a Pax Sinica is very threatening to us.”
Thanks for a great article. I will finish reading it and have a good laugh tonight.
If what you said is true, why China & France can be permanent members of UN, but Viet not? Have you Viet been invited to join International 70th anniversary of victory for World War II? If you not, why not think about the reason that you Viet have been invited？
It just doesn't make sense that a sick man is a permanent member of UNSC and the Prussian of SEA is left in the cold.
The European mouth can fire out over 1000 compliments/minute. So compliments from them suffer from "hyperinflation" and are totally worthless. It's funny, because most decolonized people know this. But Viets are also decolonized, yet they still cling onto every word of the White master.
When European colonists traded hectares of Native American land for a few blankets and beads, they probably also told the Natives, "wow, you are such cunning businessmen. You are the Venetians of the New World!"
