Foreign Policy Category Archive

These buttons register your public Agreement, Disagreement, Thanks, LOL, or Troll with the selected comment. They are ONLY available to recent, frequent commenters who have saved their Name+Email using the 'Remember My Information' checkbox, and may also ONLY be used three times during any eight hour period.

Email Comment Ignore Commenter Follow Commenter

Where the Silk Roads Meet the Mighty Mekong

Sleepy, landlocked Laos is undergoing rapid changes as China builds connections to mainland Southeast Asia

Pepe Escobar • April 24, 2019

• 1,300 Words • Leave a Comment

The small wooden boats slowly make their way down the brown waters of the Mekong at sunset. Flowing meditation – just enjoying the silence, watching the river flow. Then, suddenly, in the distance, an apparition – a row of cement Ts. Like a high-tech divinity, the 21st century irrupts across the immemorial Mekong, which in... Read More

Disruptive Uncle Sam, Rising Eurasia and Murky Pittsburgh

Linh Dinh • November 8, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 160 Comments • Reply

All floridly unequivocal praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Universes, and to his faithful Servant and Prophet, Mohammed, and may Israel, that abomination, smudge and curse upon mankind, be neatly erased with no trace left behind, so the rest of us can peacefully go on with our tedious and humbling labor, all while... Read More

Why Can't the World's Best Military Win Its Wars?

Americans Need to Rethink War and Look Honestly at Ourselves and Our Friends

Arnold Isaacs • May 1, 2018

• 3,000 Words • 4 Comments • Reply

"This time, they think they have it right." So declared an Associated Press story reporting an upbeat assessment by this country's top military officer at the end of a five-day visit to Afghanistan earlier this spring. Marine General Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was heading home from the war zone,... Read More

Vietnam: from National Liberation to Trans-Pacific Vassalage 1975-2015

James Petras • October 18, 2015

• 2,300 Words • Leave a Comment

Introduction: In 1975 the people of Vietnam successfully ended one of the longest and bloodiest anti-colonial wars in world-history – defeating the US, the world’s biggest imperial power, after 20 years of struggle. Barely forty years later the Vietnamese regime signed off on the US-Japanese dominated Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPFTA), which essentially converted Vietnam... Read More

Buffaloes and Flies in the South China Sea

Linh Dinh • June 5, 2015

• 3,200 Words • 25 Comments • Reply

Ignorance is renewed with each newborn, and by the time any man figures out anything, he can almost feel the mortician leaning over his stiff face. Though all lessons are embalmed within history, few care to explore that infinite corpse. Lewis Mumford, “So far from being overwhelmed by the accumulations of history, the fact is... Read More

A Quiet Revolution in the South China Sea

Peter Lee • May 31, 2014

• 2,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Is the PRC Ditching the Nine Dash Line? Without any ambiguity, the People’s Republic of China has announced that it considers itself and not the United States the boss in the South China Sea. Its most assertive statement of this principle was to send the HYSY 981 rig, escorted by a flotilla of dozens of... Read More

Baiting Dragons, Bears and Lions

A Dangerous Game for Washington

Philip Giraldi • May 27, 2014

• 1,300 Words • 6 Comments • Reply

In a recent round of finger pointing, the Obama Administration blamed China for being both “dangerous and provocative” in its crisis in relations with Vietnam. The specific incident that led to the rebuke was rioting in Vietnam in response to a Chinese oil drilling rig being placed in disputed waters in the South China Sea.... Read More

South China Sea: How Many Battalions Does the Passive Voice Have?

And...Island Games: Okinotorishima vs. Johnson South Reef

Peter Lee • May 16, 2014

• 2,000 Words • Leave a Comment

My Twitter feed contained the following ringing statement: To paraphrase Napoleon on the Pope, how many battalions does the frickin’ passive voice have? “Must be prevented”. That’s the problem with the pivot. The "pivot to Asia" is an idea. It's not a doctrine, like the Monroe Doctrine, the Truman Doctrine, the Eisenhower Doctrine, or the... Read More

Big Bullies and Local Nationalism in Vietnam and Ukraine

Peter Lee • May 15, 2014

• 1,200 Words • Leave a Comment

First off, Vietnam. There has been some bewilderment expressed as to why Vietnamese--demonstrating against the PRC’s provocative positioning of its HYSY 981 oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone--attacked Taiwanese factories. The answer is depressingly simple. Anti-Chinese prejudice—including prejudice against all Chinese, including Taiwanese Chinese, PRC Chinese, and... Read More

Bell Tolls for the Pivot in the South China Sea

Peter Lee • May 14, 2014

• 4,300 Words • Leave a Comment

In discussing the issue of why the PRC plunked down the drilling rig HYSY981 off the Vietnamese coast, there seems to be a certain amount of cognitive dissonance plaguing the Western commentariat. Apropos l’affaire HYSY 981,The Asia Society hosted a roundtable on its website composed of the luminaries Daniel Kliman, Ely Ratner, Orville Schell, Susan... Read More

China Offers Vietnam the Red Pill or the Blue Pill…Now!

Peter Lee • May 8, 2014

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

My take on the Chinese oil rig HYSY 981 off the Vietnam coast is up at Asia Times Online. Today the PRC government has offered talks with Vietnam on the issue. Talks have always been on the table with Vietnam, since the PRC is determined to discuss its South China Sea issues bilaterally. On the... Read More

China Checks the US Picket Line

Peter Lee • December 24, 2012

• 2,700 Words • Leave a Comment

[The Asia Times Online yearender, which appeared on Dec. 22, 2012. It can be reposted if ATOl is credited and a link provided.] The passing year was the People's Republic of China's (PRC) first opportunity to get up close and personal with the United States' pivot back to Asia, the strategic rebalancing that looks a... Read More

World War III Public Service Announcements

Peter Lee • October 4, 2010

• 1,400 Words • Leave a Comment

A lot of matches are flying around the Chinese tinderbox. Fortunately, most parties involved seem more interested in scoring political points than making a genuine and risky effort to push back China. However, as the example of Sarajevo tells us, sometimes wars happen when nations become prisoners of their own posturing. So it's worthwhile to... Read More

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

Sydney Schanberg • The American Conservative • May 25, 2010

• 8,200 Words • 150 Comments • Reply

Eighteen months ago, TAC publisher Ron Unz discovered an astonishing account of the role the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, had played in suppressing information about what happened to American soldiers missing in action in Vietnam. Below, we present in full Sydney Schanberg’s explosive story.

McNamara: from the Tokyo Firestorm to the World Bank

May He Rest in Darkness

Alexander Cockburn • July 7, 2009

• 2,500 Words • Leave a Comment

Robert McNamara, who died yesterday, July 6, served as Kennedy’s , then as Johnson’s defense secretary. He contributed more than most to the slaughter of 3.4 million Vietnamese (his own estimate). He went on to run the World Bank, where he presided over the impoverishment, eviction from their lands and death of many millions more... Read More

War Is a Very Personal Thing

Philip Giraldi • June 1, 2008

• 300 Words • Leave a Comment

I am participating in a panel discussion on Friday as part of the 40th reunion of my class at the University of Chicago. I will be the token conservative pitted against three "progressives" who participated in the various building occupations, teach-ins, and demonstrations that took place in 1967-8, mostly directed against the war in Vietnam.... Read More

Vietnam, Leninism and Capitalism

Pepe Escobar • August 27, 2003

• 1,900 Words • Leave a Comment

HANOI - The remains of a B-52 shot down by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery lie in the middle of Huu Tiep Lake in northern Hanoi, by the side of a busy back road. For old residents of Ba Dinh district, it's a powerful reminder of what the country fought for: during the American War -... Read More

Why the Lessons of Vietnam Do Matter

Pepe Escobar • August 20, 2003

• 2,200 Words • Leave a Comment

HANOI - Just as it took a few years for the Americans to lose the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese, it took them only a few weeks to lose the hearts and minds of the majority of Iraqis - which ultimately means losing the war, whatever the strategic final result. Topographic denials -... Read More

Vietnam: the Deep End of Doi Moi

Pepe Escobar • August 15, 2003

• 1,700 Words • Leave a Comment

HO CHI MINH CITY - Wheeling and dealing is the name of the game in go-go Saigon. The city of Uncle Ho remains a motorbike hell, although Vietnam may be on its way to becoming a country where the middle class buys cheap sedans to replace them. In the lovely characterization of a communist party... Read More

Vietnam: the Survivor

Pepe Escobar • August 12, 2003

• 1,700 Words • Leave a Comment

HO CHI MINH CITY - A Vietnamese TV crew is shooting a soap opera in a park behind the late 19th-century Notre Dame cathedral. The leading lady, clad in a beautiful crimson ao dai, sobs uncontrollably despite the efforts of her partner, against the background of the city's usual non-stop parade of motorbikes. Nguyen Phuoc... Read More

"Vietnam" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 385 Comments • Reply

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

Sydney Schanberg

• 150 Comments • Reply

America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars

Shouldn't they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?