Many Americans feel that Donald Trump is betraying the country by destroying cherished American principles, while many American allies likewise feel betrayed by Trump’s abandonment of long-term loyalties. As a refugee from Vietnam, where the United States arguably let down its South Vietnamese allies, I do not think that the fickleness of American loyalty, or the consistency of American inconsistency when it comes to principles, is itself a surprise. What is astonishing for some is that the victims of these breaches of trust now include significant amounts of white people.
I grew up in a community of refugees who fled to the United States after the defeat of South Vietnam, and there was a sense among some that the United States had betrayed us. As a condition of its withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1973, the United States promised to come to the aid of South Vietnam, which had been required to build armed forces modeled on those of the United States and to follow military strategies dictated by American generals. When the final invasion by the northern communists happened in 1975, the United States did not send bombers and did not provide the ammunition and fuel that the South Vietnamese military needed for its American planes, tanks, and weapons. …..more
