Tag: viet nam

‘Waiting To Die’: The Dirty Business Of Recycling In Vietnam

Crouched between mountains of discarded plastic, Lanh strips the labels off bottles of Coke, Evian and local Vietnamese tea drinks so they can be melted into tiny pellets for reuse.

More waste arrives daily, piling up like technicolour snowdrifts along the roads and rivers of Xa Cau, one of hundreds of “craft” recycling villages encircling Vietnam’s capital Hanoi where waste is sorted, shredded and melted.

The villages present a paradox: they enable reuse of some of the 1.8 million tonnes of plastic waste Vietnam produces each year, and allow employees to earn much-needed wages.

But recycling is done with few regulations, pollutes the environment and threatens the health of those involved, both workers and experts told AFP.

“This job is extremely dirty. The environmental pollution is really severe,” said Lanh, 64, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of losing her job.

It is a conundrum facing many fast-growing economies, where plastic use and disposal has outpaced the government’s ability to collect, sort and recycle.

Even in wealthy countries, recycling rates are often abysmal because plastic products can be expensive to repurpose and sorting rates are low.

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AGENT ORANGE: The “Safe & Effective” Herbicide That’s Giving Veterans Prostate Cancer, Lymphoma, Diabetes, And Much More

My father is a Vietnam Veteran—a real combat veteran unlike the stolen valor Senator from Connecticut, “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, who lied about his service on multiple occasions.

My father got drafted into the U.S. Army on April 9th, 1966; he didn’t have a choice.

He completed basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia, before getting sent to Vietnam, where he served in the 2nd Armored Division “Hell on Wheels” for a year. After returning stateside to Fort Hood in Texas, he got sent straight to Detroit as part of the Army’s Civil Disturbance Plan known as Operation Garden Plot. There’s no rest for the wicked, as the saying goes.

When my father landed in Vietnam, he was assigned to man the “open burn pits” in which the military burned absolutely everything: old equipment, chemicals, unexploded ordnance, medical waste, human waste soaked in diesel, plastics, rubber, paint, solvents, and massive amounts of Agent Orange–contaminated material.

Nearly all (90 percent) of Veterans on burn pit duty cited concerns about their exposure.

Yet as of May 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has still not specifically researched whether there is any association between Veterans’ health effects and exposure to open-air burning in Vietnam.

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4 creepy ghost stories from the Vietnam War

In Spring 1993, a Vietnamese farmer was on his way to work his rice paddy when he passed his wife and children in the road. The wife sat on a rock and greeted him “scornfully,” as his children cowered behind their mother. The meeting shocked the farmer, as his wife and his three children were killed when their village was attacked in 1968, and his house was burned to the ground.

Ghost stories like these are told across Vietnam, where rural communities attach great significance to spiritual encounters. In this case, the man understood his wife’s grave had been disturbed in the village’s recent developments, and he immediately set out to give them a proper reburial.

But there are many, many more ghost stories throughout the country, some relevant to the American War fought there. Many of those persist to this day.

Saigon’s Haunted Apartments

The building at 727 Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City—once known as Saigon—was a building that housed American service members for much of the Vietnam War. But its construction was plagued by accidents from the get-go, some of which killed the workers building it. Many blamed it on the number of floors the building had, 13, which was considered unlucky.

To assuage their fears and complete the building, the architect decided to call in a shaman to rectify the building’s feng shui-like issues. It’s said the shaman brought the dead bodies of four virgins from the local hospital and buried them at the four corners of the building, which would protect it from evil spirits.

To this day, residents report hearing screams of horror in the middle of the night, the sound of a military parade on the march through the building, and the apparition of a spectral American GI walking, holding hands with his Vietnamese girlfriend.

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Trump Goes SCORCHED EARTH on Richard “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, Demands Investigation Into Lies About His Vietnam War Military Service

President Trump went scorched earth on Democrat Senator Richard “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal and called for him to be investigated for lying about his military service in Vietam.

Stolen Valor Blumenthal, for decades, lied about being a ‘war hero’ in the Vietnam War.

Blumenthal did not serve in Vietnam. In fact, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve and received five draft deferments according to military records.

After Blumenthal was exposed for lying about his Vietnam War service, he came out and absurdly claimed that he had merely “misspoken” and really meant to say that he served “during the Vietnam era.”

It was all a lie, and now President Trump wants Blumenthal investigated for lying about his military service.

“Sanctimonious Richard “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, perhaps the biggest “joke” in the United States Senate, is at it again! “Dick” lied until the midpoint of his political career, convincing everyone, in particular the Fake News Media, that he was a great “War Hero” who lived on the precipice of death in the jungles of Vietnam. He would talk about his life in the military in almost every speech, in particular the death defying dangers he faced in his many years “fight for freedom” while in Vietnam. He stated that “the battles were violent and long, but there was no going back” – And then it happened, Blumenthal was found out to be a FRAUD,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“The soldiers in his so-called “platoon” came forward and said that they had no idea who this guy was. He was revealed, broke down and admitted, tears flowing from his eyes, that he LIED, a Whopper, one that lasted 20 year. This guy shouldn’t even be in the U.S. Senate. It should be investigated, and Justice should be sought. Right now there is a Congressman sitting in prison for lying about his past during a campaign. Well, those lies were nothing compared to those of Richard “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, perhaps the greatest phony in the history of the United States Senate. He should be allowed to speak no longer!” Trump said.

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Digital ID: Vietnam to delete 86 MILLION “unverified” bank accounts

tarting this month, banks all across Vietnam will begin deleting over 86,000,000 bank accounts that have not been “verified” under the countries new digital ID scheme.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) are calling it a “system clean-up measure”.

This “clean up” is part of the government’s “digital transformation” plan, a drive to “modernise” the country’s information infrastructure, and more specifically a drive to promote non-cash payments.

Speaking at a press conference promoting “Cashless Day” earlier this year, Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department at the SBV called it “a data-cleansing revolution”.

Central to this “revolution” is the new “Decree on Regulations for Electronic Identification and Authentication”, passed in July of 2024 and coming in to force July 1st of this year.

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50 Years On: US Elites Learned Nothing From the Vietnam Defeat

April 30, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the final, definitive defeat of the U.S. military crusade in Vietnam.  The images of U.S. helicopters desperately flying American diplomats and Washington’s high-level South Vietnamese collaborators from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon effectively captured not only the chaotic environment, but also the extent of Washington’s overall policy debacle.  The outcome of the war was a humiliating defeat for the United States in every respect.  Vietnam’s reunification under a communist government was now an indisputable reality.  Indeed, the United States finally succumbed to the pressure to establish diplomatic relations with that government in 1995.

Washington’s failed effort over more than two decades to prevent that outcome was extremely expensive financially to the United States, with more than $141 billion expended.  Measured in terms of 2025 dollars, that amount would be approximately $838 billion.  Even worse was the terrible cost in blood.  The war took the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers and caused an estimated 3.8 million casualties, both civilian and military, in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Widespread disillusionment about Washington’s armed crusade in Southeast Asia was evident in the United States, and for a few years, the disastrous experience seemed to inoculate the American public against supporting any similar adventures.  When Ronald Reagan’s administration flirted with providing military backing for corrupt client regimes in Central America, there was noticeable pushback, especially from Democrats in Congress.  “No more Vietnams” became a popular mantra throughout the country.

However, a closer look at public attitudes, especially the views of political elites in both parties, would have suggested that the change in Washington’s overall foreign policy orientation was less substantial than it seemed at first glance. There was little resistance to pro-war adventurism elsewhere in the world, as long as U.S. military personnel were not directly at risk.  For example, Washington’s policy of using Islamist rebels in Afghanistan to harass Soviet occupation forces received extensive bipartisan support.

Even direct U.S. military involvement received little push back, as long as a U.S. victory was quick and decisive.  That point was confirmed when U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983 and promptly ousted a pro-communist regime that had recently seized power.  The Reagan administration’s meddling in Lebanon’s civil war, though, showed that there remained an extensive public and elite aversion to American casualties.  The loss of 241 Marines in the bombing of the U.S. barracks outside Beirut immediately caused the administration to move the remaining troops to ships off shore, and that step was just a prelude to the departure of all U.S. forces from Lebanon.

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Inside the Pentagon’s shameful effort to draft mentally disabled men to fight in Vietnam

In 1967, a young man named Johnny Gupton was drafted into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Gupton didn’t know how to read or write; he didn’t even know what state he was from. He had never heard of Vietnam. When a fellow soldier questioned a noncommissioned officer (NCO) about how someone with such an obvious mental disability could join the Army, the NCO responded, “Ehh, he’s one of McNamara’s Morons.” 

This is what soldiers like Gupton were known as throughout the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War era. In 1967, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara lowered military recruiting standards as part of a program called Project 100,000. Its goal, as the name suggests, was to recruit 100,000 men each year who were otherwise mentally, physically or psychologically underqualified for service. These men all had IQs below 91, and nearly half had IQs below 71. From the Project’s launch in 1966, through its termination in 1971, it allowed 354,000 previously ineligible men into the military. Of these, 5,478 died in combat and 20,270 were wounded. 

These men were aggressively recruited and pushed through training without having met even the bare minimum of standards set for them. They were sent into combat in large numbers and many died. They were promised greater benefits and opportunities as an incentive to join the military, but those who returned alive came home to broken promises and were abandoned by the government. It’s a largely forgotten and shameful chapter in American history. 

Robert McNamara and the Johnson Administration sold Project 100,000 as an expansion of Great Society welfare programs where poor, mentally disabled men could learn important life skills. Labor Secretary Daniel Moynihan said, “Expectations of what can be done in America are receding. Our best hope is to use the Armed Forces as a socializing experience for the poor.”

This is how the idea was sold to the public, but there is a much more obvious reason to aggressively recruit mentally disabled soldiers. As the war raged on, more and more Americans were needed to fight in Vietnam each year. Children of the affluent middle class could avoid the draft by seeking an educational deferment (like Dick Cheney) or by finding a friendly doctor to get a medical deferment (like Donald Trump). McNamara and Johnson were faced with a choice; they could end draft deferments for college students and send children of the affluent to war in a country most Americans could not yet find on a map, or they could start signing up a lot more mentally disabled people. Guess which one they chose?

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HERE WE GO: President Trump Reveals Vietnam Wants to Cut Their Tariffs Down to ZERO

President Trump on Friday revealed that Vietnam is willing to drop their tariffs to zero.

Trump imposed a massive 46% tariff on Vietnam in response to the country’s tariffs on exports to the US.

Chinese companies and retailers have used Vietnam as a shelter to circumvent the US’s trade war with China.

Vietnam can’t handle Trump’s tariffs so they are willing to drop their tariffs down to zero if they are able to make an agreement.

“Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future,” Trump said on Friday.

On Thursday evening, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that every country is already calling the White House in response to his reciprocal tariffs.

On Wednesday President Trump signed an executive order imposing reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries.

Trump announced the implementation of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, effective April 5, 2025.

“For too long, other nations have taken advantage of our open markets while imposing barriers to our products. Those days are over,” the President said.

The White House released a detailed chart showing how badly many countries have been ripping off American workers, charging high tariffs on U.S. goods while benefiting from America’s generosity in return.

Trump told reporters that every country has called the White House in response to his tariffs.

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Following Kuwait, Vietnam to De-Bank People Who Do Not Get Their Biometrics Scanned for Digital ID App

Bank accounts in Vietnam will have their online transactions halted and the transfer and withdraw of cash at ATMs blocked beginning January 1, 2025 if the account holder fails to register their biometrics (fingerprints and facial recognition) under regulations from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Vietnamese law. A similar move in Kuwait will de-bank those who fail to get fingerprinted by the start of the new year as well.

“From January 1, 2025, bank accounts that have not been reconciled or updated with biometrics will have their online transactions stopped. This is the reason why banks are simultaneously implementing programs to encourage customers to update their biometrics,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Updating biometric information and identification documents is now mandatory for customers based on important regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and current laws. According to Decision 2345/QD-NHNN, SBV has required that from July 1, 2024, some types of online transactions of individual customers must be authenticated by biometric identification.”

The smartphone application is being expanded into what is described as a ‘super app’, a one-stop-shop for digital biometric identification, internet ID, medical ID and perhaps, in the future, a social credit score control grid.

“VNeID, short for Vietnam Electronic Identification, integrates various features across multiple sectors and is expected to become a national super application for digital transformation,” Tuoitre News said Saturday.

Importantly and perhaps alarmingly, the app was developed on the foundation of a vaccine passport during the Covid pandemic.

“Developed by the Ministry of Public Security’s National Center for Population Database in September 2019, VNeID, a mobile application, was built to check health and travel declarations amid the COVID-19 outbreaks,” Tuoitre News said Saturday.

There’s a carrot and stick approach to the move as well. While those who do not submit to biometric scans of their fingers and faces will be financially shut down, those who submitted their scans may earn financial rewards and prizes.

“…some banks have ‘rewarded’ customers who successfully update their biometrics. Specifically, MSB gives a 50.000 e-voucher to customers’ accounts after successfully updating from 4/12. This program applies to the list of customers who have not updated their biometrics as of 30/11. In total, there are 10.000 e-vouchers with a total value of up to 500 million VND for customers who do,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Techcombank also applies a program to give 50.000 Techcombank Rewards points to the first 6.000 customers who update their biometrics each week, until the end of December 31, 2024.”

Getting one’s biometrics scanned by certain dates even allows one the possibility of winning an iPhone, a device which, not surprisingly, can run the digital ID app the biometrics are linked to.

“VPBank also launched a gift program for customers who complete the biometric data update before January 23, 2025, with a total gift value of up to nearly 7 billion VND. Accordingly, each customer who successfully authenticates biometric data and updates new identification documents on both the VPBank app or at the VPBank transaction counter will receive a code to participate in the weekly lucky draw, the special gift is an iPhone 1 Promax worth 16 million VND/unit. The bank also gives a cashback e-voucher code worth 35 VND to all customers who successfully update biometrics and identification documents,” Vietnam Law Newspaper said Thursday. “Agribank also implements a similar program when customers collect biometrics on the Agribank app will have the opportunity to receive iPhone 16 and many other gifts. BIDV decided to give away 130.000 VND (including 30.000 VND in transfer money and 100.000 VND in discount vouchers for movie watching, taxi calling, and shopping services on the BIDV app) if customers register and complete authentication. BIDV said that this program will be continuously deployed to December 29, 2024, applicable to the 10.000 customers who install biometrics the earliest each week.”

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Failure of U.S. Leaders Should Precipitate More Efforts at People’s Diplomacy—Like in the Vietnam War Era

On September 19, the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee hosted a webinar focused on the significant impact of women in the Vietnam era anti-war movement.

The first speaker, Vivian Rothstein, who was drawn to anti-war activism after participating in the Mississippi Freedom Summer, spoke about her participation in a conference in 1967 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, with 40 other American peace activists who met with members of the resistance in North and South Vietnam, including Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, a top official with the southern-based National Liberation Front (NLF).

The Bratislava conference was co-organized by Tom Hayden, co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and provided an opportunity for U.S. peace activists to learn directly from Vietnamese about what the U.S. government was doing.

Rothstein said that the Vietnamese women asked to meet separately with the American women who were part of the delegation. They told them about horrific rapes being carried out by U.S. soldiers, bombing of villages, and parachuting of Vietnamese women onto U.S. military bases to serve as sexual playthings for U.S. GIs.

The Vietnamese women hoped that the American women would go back to their communities to tell people what was really going on, with the belief that they would pressure the U.S. government to end the war.

Rothstein said that the Bratislava conference was very meaningful for everyone who participated in it and a good example of people’s diplomacy—citizens getting together, independent of their government, to build ties and work toward peace.

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