Prejudice and ethnic pride is as strong in East Asia as any place on Earth. However, in your analysis you forgot to mention that while we were bailing out the French (our poor recently 'victimized' WWII friends) we already had, a decade earlier, fought a war in East Asia in Korea in which China did contribute. A war fought to preserve the non-communist Koreans from a red hand of oppression. A war which we were not happy with the outcome.

This was the strongest influence in our policy towards Ho Chi Minh and the communist push in Vietnam. We were fighting Korea all over again and our fearless leaders were more determined than ever to show we could win a war in East Asia. Unfortunately LBJ was a couple dozen IQ points short of being a brilliant strategist and McNamara spent more time on greasing his hair than learning from history.

Nixon's trip to China was the most fundamentally intelligent foreign policy move made in Asia in the last 100 years. His presence played to the oriental code of honor and face. His visit paved the way for the later capitalist reformation and for US companies to do business. His visit not only helped the US, but helped the Chinese even more. Their wealth is owed, in part, to Nixon.

After bailing out on the Vietnamese, we brought enough of them to California and now have a thriving Vietnamese sub-culture in the US. THese same Vietnamese have become wealthy, compared to their Ho Chi Minh city living relatives, and their connections with the old country have also set off market reformation in Vietnam as the commies see what type of wealth and lifestyle they missed out on.

Technology too has saved us lots of trouble in stemming the Red flow. Between 1965-1980 television spread through East Asia. By the late seventies enough TVs were in place to effectively sell the other East Asian nations on the USA. Not as allies, but as competitors. By 1980, the whole world could see how we live on TVs and they hated us for it. At the same time they almost universally realized that capitalism in some form was the ticket to prosperity. So we see a hodge-podge of dictatorships, pseudo democracies and more - all embracing capitalism in some form.

Ayn Rand is the winner. Capitalism and commerce are what keep the peace right now in the world. That is a valuable thing to remember as our nation is sabotaged and the age old false socialist propaganda is presented as salvation to a new generation of peasants and illegal immigrant descendants. Socialist nations are very hostile to one another. Socialism breeds war and capitalism breeds peace.