Internal document shows Vietnamese military preparing for possible American war

Hanoi: A year after Vietnam elevated its relations with Washington to the highest diplomatic level, an internal document shows its military was taking steps to prepare for a possible American “war of aggression” and considered the United States a “belligerent” power, according to a report released on Tuesday.

More than just exposing Hanoi’s duality in approach toward the US, the document confirms a deep-seated fear of external forces fomenting an uprising against the Communist leadership in a so-called “colour revolution,” like the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines.

Other internal documents that The 88 Project, a human rights organisation focused on human rights abuses in Vietnam, cited in its analysis point to similar concerns over US motives in Vietnam. “There’s a consensus here across the government and across different ministries,” said Ben Swanton, co-director of The 88 Project and the report’s author. “This isn’t just some kind of fringe element or paranoid element within the party or within the government.”

Nguyen Khac Giang, of Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute research centre, said the plans highlighted tensions within Vietnam’s political leadership, where the Communist Party’s conservative, military-aligned faction has long been preoccupied with external threats to the regime. “The military has never been too comfortable moving ahead with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the United States,” Giang said.

Tensions within the government spilt into the public realm in June 2024, when US-linked Fulbright University was accused of fomenting a “colour revolution” by an army TV report. The Foreign Ministry defended the university, which US and Vietnamese officials had highlighted when the two countries upgraded ties. Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, said th

Vietnamese military still has “a very long memory” of the war with the US that ended in 1975.