Vietnam's Defence Ministry has been quietly preparing for a potential US invasion, according to a classified document leaked by a human rights group on Tuesday.
The internal assessment revealed by Project 88, compiled in 2024, shows that Hanoi's military planners regard the US as a "belligerent" power and have drawn up contingency plans for what they term a second American invasion.
This disclosure comes despite Vietnam having publicly boosted its relationship with the States in recent years.
It exposes a major break between the warmth displayed by Vietnamese officials to their US counterparts and deep-seated suspicions within the country's defence establishment more than five decades after the end of the Vietnam War.
The document bears the title "The Second US Invasion Plan" and was finalised by Vietnam's Ministry of Defence in August 2024.
Its completion came fewer than 12 months after Hanoi and Washington elevated their diplomatic relationship to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", the most advanced tier of cooperation the two nations had ever achieved.
Former President Joe Biden announced this historic upgrade during his visit to the Vietnamese capital in September 2023.
That landmark agreement represented the culmination of nearly 30 years of gradually warming relations, which began when the former adversaries restored diplomatic ties in 1995.
'The 2nd US Invasion Plan' was finalised by Vietnam's ministry of defence in August 2024
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But the leaked files reveal the Vietnamese are wary of potential US efforts to destabilise the country's Communist Party rule.
Planners expressed concern that Washington might sponsor a so-called "colour revolution" like those seen in former Soviet states to topple the regime and promote Western-style democracy.
The document reads: "While there is currently little risk of a war against Vietnam, due to the US's belligerent nature, we need to be vigilant to prevent the US and its allies from 'creating a pretext' to launch a war of aggression against our country.
"The US and its allies could fully exploit the geographic and natural features of Vietnam's vast seas and long coastlines, with the superior strength of its navy, to conduct military operations against our country."
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Former President Joe Biden announced the historic upgrade during his 2023 visit to Vietnam
|GETTY
Project88 said it obtained the document from a reliable source and independently verified its authenticity.
Ben Swanton, co-director of the organisation, said: "There's a consensus here across the Government and across different ministries.
"This isn't just some kind of a fringe element or paranoid element within the party or within the Government."
The US was directly involved in the Vietnam War from March 1965 until the fall of Saigon in April 1973
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Mr Swanton wrote that "Hanoi sees Washington as an existential threat and has no intention of joining its anti-China alliance," arguing this "upends over a decade of US policy" aimed at courting Vietnam whilst overlooking human rights concerns.
Nguyen Khac Giang from Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute noted: "The military has never been too comfortable moving ahead with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the United States."
The US was directly involved in the Vietnam War from March 1965 until the fall of Saigon in April 1973.
The conflict left more than 882,000 Vietnamese people dead, with over 58,000 US military personnel also killed in the fighting.
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