Conversations on Vietnam Development
North Korea will pursue “acceleration” of its nuclear and missile programmes including developing a “pre-emptive first-strike capability”, a diplomat from Pyongyang warned on Tuesday. Tiếp tục đọc “North Korea vows to pursue nuclear arms amid US threat”
AFP-JIJI Mar 20, 2017
BEIJING – China on Monday reiterated its firm opposition to U.S. arm sales to Taiwan, amid reports that Donald Trump’s administration is preparing a large shipment of advanced weaponry for the self-ruling island.
“China firmly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, this is consistent and clear-cut,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing. Tiếp tục đọc “China warns U.S. over arms sales to Taiwan”
My Lai Massacre Anniversary
Today, March 16, 2017, is the 49th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, located in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam.
It was Saturday morning, March 16, 1968, when approximately 115 U.S. Army soldiers of the Americal Division’s Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, landed in helicopters just outside the village of My Lai 4. Over the course of the next four hours, these American soldiers, and their Military High Command, who were flying overhead in helicopters observing the massacre, took part in a horror show far beyond the human imagination. They took the term “War Crimes” and added a butcher shop to the equation of morbid extermination. In essence, they became a U.S. version of the final solution. They committed an act of barbarity that would redefine the war in Vietnam. It would take years to decipher what happened that day, as denial is the elixir that protects us from experiencing national shame. It is these two words, ” National Shame,” that continues to hide the truth of what really happened in Southeast Asia. Tiếp tục đọc “My Lai Massacre Anniversary”
Rex Tillerson has arrived in Beijing for his first face-to-face talks with Chinese leaders expected to focus on North Korea’s nuclear programme.
The US secretary of state’s visit on Saturday followed his remarks the previous day in South Korea where he cautioned that pre-emptive military action against North Korea might be necessary.
He said US military action against North Korea is an “option on the table”, and warned the country to end its missile and nuclear programmes.
“The policy of strategic patience has ended,” Tillerson said during his joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, on Friday. Tiếp tục đọc “Rex Tillerson in China to discuss North Korea”
U.S. army soldiers, alongside their Iraqi counterparts, provide security at a marketplace in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib suburb / AP
BY: Follow @Kredo0
September 26, 2016 3:25 pm
An advocacy organization representing scores of Iraqis killed or wounded by U.S. forces has threatened to sue the American government for war crimes, according to a recent announcement that cites a new bill as opening a pathway for citizens to sue foreign governments over terror attacks.
The Iraqi National Project, a group that advocates on the behalf of Iraqi nationals, says that it is laying the groundwork to sue the United States for its war effort in the country. Tiếp tục đọc “Iraqis Threaten to Sue U.S. for War Crimes”
As reported on Saturday, a September 11 widow was the first American to take advantage of the recently passed Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism (JASTA), aka the “Sept.11” bill courtesy of Congress which for the first time in Obama’s tenure overrode his veto, by suing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Stephanie Ross DeSimone alleged the kingdom provided material support to al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden leading to the death of her husband, Navy Commander Patrick Dunn, who was killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2009, when Stephanie was two months pregnant at the time with the couple’s daughter. Her suit is also filed on behalf of the couple’s daughter. She sued for wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Tiếp tục đọc “Iraq Will Use Sept 11 Bill To Sue US Government For 2003 Invasion, Demand Compensation”
DANH ĐỨC 20.05.2012, 17:27
TTCT – Pax Sinica – thái bình dưới trướng Trung Quốc – là một khái niệm từ mấy năm nay được những nhà nghiên cứu về các vấn đề của Đông Á sử dụng để chỉ sự bành trướng của Bắc Kinh hiện nay.
Thực tế đang ngày càng khẳng định những lý giải ấy.
Một ngư dân Philippines ngồi trên chiếc tàu đến từ Masinloc, vùng đất gần nhất cách khu vực bãi cạn Scarborough đang tranh chấp với Trung Quốc 128 hải lý – Ảnh: Reuters
Last week, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, an anonymous U.S. State Department official made the strongest argument to date for Donald Trump to make good on wartime reparations promised to Vietnam by his political idol, Richard Nixon.
During Trump’s skinny days, he flew to Houston to attend a birthday party for a bankrupt Texas governor that was attended by the ex-president. Years later, Nixon wrote Trump a letter, urging him to make a play for the White House — a document Trump cherishes even today.
One wonders what Trump might make of another Nixon correspondence, one he penned at the height of his powers, to Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong promising roughly $4.7 billion in wartime reconstruction aid without political conditions.
Reuters, Mar 13, 2017
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a two-day summit next month at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, U.S. online media outlet Axios reported Monday, citing officials familiar with the plans.
The two-day meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 6-7, the U.S. media outlet reported.
Reuters has not verified the Axios story and does not vouch for its accuracy. Representatives of the White House and for Xi could not be immediately reached for comment.
The planned summit would follow a string of other recent U.S-China meetings and conversations seeking to reaffirm ties following months of strong rhetoric from Trump.
Last month, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi visited Washington to discuss the two countries’ economic ties and security interests. Tiếp tục đọc “Trump plans to host China’s Xi in April at Florida resort: report”
The Wider Image: Learning English in Korea’s Freedom Village
SEOUL: The United States has started to deploy attack drones to South Korea, a U.S. military spokesman said on Monday, days after it began to deploy an advanced anti-missile system to counter “continued provocative actions” by isolated North Korea.
The drones, Gray Eagle Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) coming to South Korea are part of a broader plan to deploy a company of the attack drones with every division in the U.S. Army, the spokesman said. Tiếp tục đọc “US deploys attack drones to South Korea amid tension with North”
State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources.
The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign assistance programs, including the U.N., in next year’s budget. The United States spends about $10 billion a year on the United Nations. Tiếp tục đọc “White House Seeks to Cut Billions in Funding for United Nations”
It is also a reminder of the hard bargain the U.S. insisted upon during negotiations with Viet Nam which led to normalization of diplomatic relations in 1995. The current government of Viet Nam was required to repay an old debt of the Saigon regime which collapsed in 1975, loans which had been provided during the war totaling some $145 million US dollars. The Vietnamese eventually agreed, and repaid the first installments totaling about $15 million before then-Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John McCain intervened (and rightly so, in the opinion of many veterans) with congressional action which converted that debt to an “education” fund to provide study opportunities for Vietnamese students in the U.S. and American students in Viet Nam. That was better than an outright repayment, of course — particularly when U.S. humanitarian assistance at that time was less than $4 million a year, for efforts related to UXO cleanup and disability programs that might bring some relief to families facing the awful consequences of Agent Orange.
Sometimes simple fairness and justice, common decency, and morality must take precedence over the U.S. government’s bookkeeping requirements. (It might occur to some of us that the U.S. Ambassador in Cambodia should be reminded of that.)
CS
MARCH 11 201
Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tonnes of explosives on Cambodia’s countryside Washington wants the country to repay a $US500 million ($662 million) war debt.
The demand has prompted expressions of indignation and outrage from Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
Over 200 nights in 1973 alone, 257,456 tons of explosives fell in secret carpet-bombing sweeps – half as many as were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.
The pilots flew at such great heights they were incapable of discriminating between a Cambodian village and their targets, North Vietnamese supply lines – nicknamed the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.” Tiếp tục đọc “Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts”
SEOUL – As South Korea begins the deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system that it says will allow it to better cope with North Korean threats, the reaction from its belligerent rival is hardly its only concern.
The plan to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, this year has angered not only North Korea, but also China, South Korea’s largest trade partner, which considers the system a security threat.
Residents in a rural South Korean town where THAAD is planned to sit have furiously protested over rumored health hazards they link to the system’s powerful radar, and some of the country’s potential presidential candidates have vowed to walk back on the deal if they win office. Tiếp tục đọc “Seoul finding looming THAAD deployment a hot potato politically, economically”
UNITED NATIONS: The United States on Wednesday (Mar 8) rebuffed China’s appeal for talks with North Korea, saying leader Kim Jong-Un was behaving irrationally and that it was reassessing its approach to dealing with Pyongyang.
China, Pyongyang’s main ally, earlier called on North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for a halt to the annual US-South Korean military drills.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing that the proposal could help bring the United States and North Korea back to negotiations and avert what he termed a “head-on collision”.
After a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korea’s actions called for a different response. Tiếp tục đọc “US rebuffs China over North Korea talks”
China is warning it will take measures against a US missile defence system deployed in South Korea, with the stated objective of countering threats from North Korea.
The equipment needed to set up Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD), a missile defence system, have arrived in South Korea, according to American and South Korean defence forces.
The deployment announcement was made on Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan.
Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in the statement that “continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea”. Tiếp tục đọc “US deploys missile defence system to South Korea”
