''Vietnam, China lurch towards crisis''

From Asia Times
By Peter Lee

''Dee Woo, a columnist and provocateur from the pro-panda side of the street, contended in a column that war between China and Vietnam was "inevitable" since the PRC would find the temptation to give Vietnam a military comeuppance irresistible, and the United States and the international oil companies would see no alternative to abandoning Hanoi for the sake of joint development of South China Sea oil resources.''

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''Vietnam Ready to Host Russian Maritime Base''

From 'There are no Sunglasses'

''Vietnam will allow Russia to set up a ship maintenance base at its port of Cam Ranh, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang said on Friday.

Sang, speaking to the Voice of Russia radio station ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, stressed that the port would not be a Russian military base. But he also said that Cam Ranh would be used to help develop “military co-operation” between the two former Cold War allies.''

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''Smuggling between China and Vietnam''

From FT Video's ''Trade between the two nations is booming, but so is smuggling. The FT's Ben Bland visits the border town of Mong Cai to see for himself the extent of the illicit trade.''

''Hillary in Hanoi: More Foreign Aid & Trade … and More Lip Service on Human Rights''

From The New American

''According to the spin of some media groups, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent visit to Vietnam was all about pressuring the communist regime on its atrocious human rights violations.

“Clinton raps Vietnam on rights, sees limits to ties,” ran the headline of a July 10 Reuters news story.

“Clinton chides Vietnam on protecting human rights,” was the headline the Associate Press gave to its article that was run in many newspapers and websites worldwide.''

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''Panetta wants more US access to Vietnam harbor''

expanding the empire....one country at a time..............From AP Via Boston.com

''From the flight deck of the USNS Richard E. Byrd, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could look out across Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay towards the South China Sea.

A day after laying out details of the Pentagon's new focus on the Asia-Pacific region, Panetta used a visit to Vietnam to restate the United States' intent to help allies in the region develop and enforce maritime rights in the sea, a waterway largely claimed by China. And he reflected on the significance of the harbor, which represents both a painful past for the American military, and a challenging but hopeful future.''

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Vietnam: ''New Thinking, New Risks, New Opportunities''

"The Vietnam “story” has changed over time. First, it was a war story; then Vietnam became “a country” in the run-up to the normalization of US-Vietnam relations in 1995. Now the country is moving forward with a new narrative, a strategy of active and proactive international integration."


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