RT OP ED ON CHINA, VIETNAM, USA RELATIONS, AND MY ADDITIONS

 To the reader, I shall present my criticism of the OpEd from RT below that editorial.  Hugh Murray

18 Aug, 2023 02:04

China risks losing a crucial Asian comrade

If Beijing doesn’t play its cards right, Vietnam may soon turn into a partner of the US, despite bloody war in their recent history

By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong ©  Hoang Thong Nhat / Vietnam News Agency / AFP

In the coming month, US President Joe Biden will visit the Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam. Vietnam, populated by 97 million people, is Asia’s second largest communist state, and its history is marred by a bloody conflict with the US, whereby Washington unleashed untold horrors upon the population in a bid to prop up a puppet state in South Vietnam.

Yet it speaks volumes about the world we live in today that this historical memory has little influence on how the two countries now view each other. Washington sees Hanoi as a critical strategic partner in its vision for the ‘Indo-Pacific’ to contain the rise of China. The US has never been above allying itself with communist states when it suits its agenda, even if it always turns on them in the long run. Be it the USSR, Deng Xiaoping’s China, or Tito’s Yugoslavia, Washington always focuses on the bigger, prevailing perceived threat first.

And now, it’s China’s turn. Despite both being communist countries, and despite the shared revolutionary history of Mao having supported Ho Chi Minh’s quest to reunify the country, Vietnam (as a general rule) does not like China. The reasons are not ideological, but nationalistic and historical. Long ago, northern Vietnam was under the rule of Chinese dynasties, and the Vietnamese interpret their own history as part of a long struggle to stay independent of China, even as the two countries held many close cultural and economic ties.

In that sense, the world hasn’t changed much. Vietnam and China have an extensive economic and trade relationship, but Vietnam’s historical enmity towards the Chinese remains, not least because the two countries have competing and overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Hanoi, of course, names it the East Sea instead. This has led to nationalist unrest against Beijing and extreme sensitivities. Take, for example, the fact that the woke, smash hit ‘Barbie’ was banned in Vietnam just because for several seconds it shows a cartoonish, inaccurate world map which appears to reflect the ‘Nine-dash line’ of China’s claims in the disputed sea. That’s where things are at.

Read more

 Biden claims former US enemy seeks 'partnership'

And who wants to exploit that rift the most? The US, of course. America not only sees Vietnam as a potential military counterweight to China, but also a potential economic partner that can replace Beijing as a manufacturing base. Vietnam, after all, is way behind China on the development ladder and has a burgeoning population of 97 million with a younger and cheaper labor force. This is why the US has gone all out to expand its diplomatic presence in Vietnam, including the construction of a $1 billion new embassy compound. Washington is sure going to great lengths to present itself as a friend to a nation it once despised and bombed into oblivion – and it’s doing so without ever having offered any sort of formal apology in the intervening years.

For the Vietnamese, this is not shameful because, from their point of view, history is on their side. That is, they effectively defeated the US in 1973, despite the great cost, and got the Americans to leave. In their relationship with the US, they may know the true nature of the country they’re dealing with, but see it as the ‘loser’ reconciling with them, and you aren’t going to feel threatened by a country you know you can defeat, are you? Of course, that doesn’t excuse the bombing, but it has allowed Vietnam’s relationship with the US to be politically justified without any lasting resentment. The US is groveling somewhat, they could say.

China has a dilemma on its hands now. Beijing must do all it can to stop Hanoi from getting closer to Washington and aspire to keep the country on a path of non-alignment and good neighborliness. China does not want Vietnam to become a strategic threat. While Vietnam, owing to the historical political correctness, will never become a formal ally of the US, there are fears it could soon upgrade the relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, which would see the two countries share common goals and interests. Biden wants to bring Vietnam into the anti-China coalition and has been ramping up partnerships and alliances against Beijing across the board.

If China is to stop this, the only answer is that Beijing must stop ramping up tensions in the South China Sea and allowing the US-controlled media to spin a narrative against it that legitimizes greater security ties between Vietnam and America. In other words, China has to start treating Vietnam like a comrade and not a subordinate neighbor, which is exactly the way Hanoi interprets their centuries-old relationship history. The battle for hearts and minds in Vietnam is on. China should theoretically have ideological and cultural advantages, as opposed to the country that dropped millions of bombs and Agent Orange on it, but geopolitics is rarely that simple.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

My comment - Yes, there was a Vietnam-American war, costly to Americans in lives and resources; much more costly in lives to the Vietnamese, and the Agent Orange and other chemicals we used had horrible results, even for mothers after the end of the war.  However, after the US left in defeat, Vietnam had a war with China of a border dispute in the north between the 2 nations.  Vietnam was forcesdto cede a small amount of territory to the PR China.  Then the Khmer Rouge, a communist group, came to power in Cambodia.  It was supported by China and indirectly by the US. (This was in the era of Kissinger and his hopes to further split Beijing from Moscow, so the US might well support China in its opposition to Vietnam).  The Khmer Rouge was also murderous on a vast scale, ultimately killing about 25% of its population.  (A film, The Killing Fields) might jog memories of Pol Pot's leadership.)  It was also killing many Vietnamese who lived there, and the Vietnamese Communists intervened, in part to save its compatriots, but finally to overthrow the Khmer Rouge.  In ending the Pol Pot 'experiment,' the Vietnamese did the world a favor.  Now, in the South China Sea (or the East Sea) China is the bully of the area, harassing VN fishing boats, and those of the Philippines, trying to impose its claims for any oil or other valuables that may be found beneath these seas.  And China also harasses US ships and planes.  Whatever claims China might have had to the Seas were lost around 1450 when an Emperor ordered the destruction of the massive Chinese fleet that had brought many animals back from Africa.  The emperor even ordered the destruction of any plans for ocean going vessels.  China seems quite willing to make a vassal state of Vietnam, the Philippines. or any other state that gets in its way.  Vietnam was right to ban Barbie with its Chinese inspired map of the area.  America should ban the film too until it makes a change in the map inside that film.  Now word comes that China is building an airstrip on the most southern of the Paracel Island, Triton.  It is claimed by both China and Vietnam and Taiwan.  The air base will place more pressure on Vietnam to cave into Beijing's demands.  Will Pres. Biden, who has received millions of dollars from Chinese military "businesses" stand up against China?  Has America ever had a President so corrupt to be paid off my our major enemy?------Hugh Murray

RT - ROB KENNEDY JR ON DR. FAUCI, VICTORIA NULAND, BIOLABS IN WUHAN AND UKRAINE

Of course, RT has its prejudices.  But surely in this case, those prejudices allow it to expose important facts that America's major media prefer to hide.  First, it is most likely that the Covid virus that killed so many thousands world wide was developed as part of a gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab funded by America's Dr. Fauci.  We know  less about the dozen or so biolabs in Ukraine sponsored by the US ept. of Defense.  Below, Robert Kennedy Jr on the topic.    Hugh Murray   

15 Aug, 2023 19:35

Kennedy comments on US biolabs in Ukraine

The Pentagon used other countries for bioweapons research, RFK Jr. told Tucker Carlson

Screenshot ©  Twitter / @TuckerCarlson

The US military outsourced some of its biological weapons research to the government installed by the 2014 coup in Kiev, Democrat presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Junior has claimed in an interview.

“We have biolabs in Ukraine because we’re developing bioweapons,” RFK Jr. told independent journalist Tucker Carlson in a lengthy conversation posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening. Though the US signed the ban on bioweapons in the 1970s, he explained, the Patriot Act adopted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 allowed the Pentagon to resume research.

According to Kennedy, the bioweapons program has operated under the guise of “life sciences” research, such as gain-of-function experiments on viruses and other pathogens, ultimately overseen by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 1984 and 2022.

Modern bioweapons are “frightening stuff,” made with genetic engineering tools such as CRISPR, Kennedy said. When some of these “bugs” escaped from laboratories in the US, back in 2014, the Obama administration banned gain-of-function research, Kennedy added, so Fauci outsourced it overseas. 

“A lot of them went to Ukraine,” Kennedy told Carlson, while some of the research was moved to the Wuhan, China laboratory, the suspected origination point for the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the research was funded by the Pentagon, or by USAID, which Kennedy described as “a CIA cutout.”

The US has long dismissed claims about the biological research laboratories in Ukraine as “Russian propaganda,” until senior State Department official Victoria Nuland confirmed their existence at a 2022 Senate hearing. The Pentagon continues to insist the research is neither illegal nor intended for military purposes.

The Russian military has discovered evidence that the US was creating “biological weapons components” at facilities in Ukraine, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov testified to lawmakers in Moscow earlier this year.

Read more

 Kennedy shares opinion on key US mistake with Russia

Kennedy also told Carlson that the American public has been “lied to” about the Ukraine conflict, pointing out Nuland’s role in the 2014 coup in Kiev and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) vision of NATO expansion to argue that war with Moscow has been Washington’s plan all along.

Ukraine “is a proxy in, essentially, a struggle between two superpowers, between Russia and the US,” Kennedy said. He accused the US of sabotaging the March 2022 peace talks by having then-British PM Boris Johnson visit Kiev and tell Vladimir Zelensky’s government the West would not support them. 

As a result, Kennedy said, “350,000 Ukrainian kids are now dead, and 40-50,000 Russians.”

RFK Jr. is the nephew of the 35th president, John F. Kennedy, and the son of Robert Kennedy, JFK’s attorney general who went on to become a senator. Both brothers would end up being assassinated – JFK in 1963, and RFK in 1968 during the presidential primaries. RFK Jr. is challenging fellow Democrat and incumbent president Joe Biden for the party’s presidential nomination. 

RT ARTIC;E ON CHINESE WEAPONS IMPROVEMENT - LASER COOLING

This article comes from RT. 

12 Aug, 2023 21:14

China makes weapons ‘breakthrough’

Beijing’s military scientists have claimed success in enabling high-energy lasers to operate “indefinitely” without overheating

©  National University of Defense Technology

Chinese military scientists have reported a research breakthrough that could make it possible for Beijing to develop high-energy laser weapons that can shoot for as long as their operators desire, without interruption and without any degradation in performance.

Scientists at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, China, published the results of their research earlier this month in Acta Optica Sinica, a peer-reviewed Chinese journal. They claim to have developed a new cooling system that makes it possible to operate high-energy lasers “indefinitely,” without any effects from overheating.

“This is a huge breakthrough in improving the performance of high-energy laser systems,” the team said in its research paper. “High-quality beams can be produced not only in the first second, but also maintained indefinitely.”

Read more

 Germany tests laser weapon

The cooling system controls gas flows to remove heat from inside a laser weapon, preventing vibration and disruptions in performance. It can enable longer operation, increased range and greater firepower, the scientists said. They noted that 60 years on from the invention of the first ruby laser, weapons developers haven’t been able to create “death rays that can instantly kill targets.”

Some of the most high-profile US laser weapons projects have been canceled, despite shooting down targets in testing. “The true reason for the cancellation of these projects was that their destructive power did not meet expectations,” the Chinese scientists said. Longer, continuous operation times are needed to extend the range of laser weapons beyond a few kilometers, they said.

Such weapons generate high-energy beams that heat up the gas in their path as they pass through the air, creating turbulence. This effect can distort the beam, diminishing its accuracy and strength. The heated gases can also contaminate the mirrors in a laser weapon, reducing performance and potentially damaging a system.

The Chinese researchers said they developed a system that blows gas through the weapon to remove waste heat and keep the mirrors clear. Their technology is already being used in a number of laser weapons that the Chinese military has under development.

READ MORE: China accuses US of militarizing space

Beijing reportedly intends to use such weapons against drones, missiles and aircraft. They also could be used to target satellites, disrupting enemy communications, navigation and surveillance capabilities.

MORE ON CAROLYN BRYANT AND EMMETT TILL

 This is just a reflection on the (in)famous incident that occurred so long ago in Money, Mississippi

I grew up in New Orleans in an integrated neighborhood.  I attended Judah P. Benjamin Elementary school just 2 blocks away from my home.  Attending from kindergarten through 8th grade in the 1940s and 50s, of course it was segregated, all white.  Names after the first practicing Jew to be elected to the US Senate - from Louisiana, and long before Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright, Benjamin was the first Jew to be included in an American President's Cabinet as Secretary of State.  That was under Pres. Jefferson Davis, CSA.  The building took up about 1/4 of the block, behind which was some paved area, and most of the other half was grass where we could play.  Also there was a small home where the janitor resided.  Directly across the stree from that home, was a small grocery store, owned by Mr. Johnson.  All the rest of the block around our school were other homes.  I ate lunch at home, and in that hour had lots of time to go to and fro.  We also had a 20 minute recess during the morning, and some of would ruch to Mr. Johnson's store an buy a large dill pickel for a nickle.  He would reach into the big jar with a fork, remove a pickle and surround it with brown paper to hand to the children.  Mr Johnson was black, and some of the signs in the store showed Pet Milk for a baby, and in the ad, the baby was black.  Occasionally, my mom would call that grocery and order some foods.  His daughter, Iantha delivered them.  One afternoon I came home and Iantha was seated beside my mother crying, my mother comforting her.  My entrance ended the conversation, but later my mother told me Mr. Johnson, whose wife had died (Iantha's mom) had left a void, and Mr. Johnson had found a new woman, and something went wrong, and she was scheming to take away his grocery.  Then things changed, and we stopped going at recess because the school siad were were not to leave the school grounds at that time.  Next time I did go, a black woman was seated and running the store.  A few years later, I walked across a big bridge to the Carrollton shopping center: a Walgreens, a bowling alley, an early Maison Blanch satellite store (moving some business from downtown) and a National Food Market chain.  Outside, was Mr. Johnson sweeping the pavement.  Seemed he was now a lowly employee at the chain store.

      Carolyn Bryant ran a small grocery in Mississippi.  She undoubted had both black and white customers.  She probably needed both to stay in business.  She may have been friendlier to white customers overall, but she might have been friendly to some of the blacks too.  She needed both.

     Emmett Till's assault on her was sufficient to totally upset her.  When she told her husband and then his brother, she might have realized there would be repercussions.  She may well have realized that her grocery store might be lost.  But, should she not tell her husband about the incident that so upset her?  Remain silent?  Hope that he does not come in again, or that his friends do not try the same play?  The murder of Till is an outrage, a punishment that does not fit has actions.  But then, the store went out of business.  Good will is required on both sides if a business is to succeed in integrated communities.----HUGH MURRAY