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Kamala Harris Poses In Front Of Bust Of Vietnam’s Communist Leader

Photo of Carmine Sabia Carmine SabiaAugust 29, 2021
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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.

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Kamala Harris’ trip to the communist nation of Vietnam has been a nightmare for her from day one and it keeps getting worse.

At first, her flight to Vietnam was delayed by several hours because of a “report of a recent possible anomalous health incident.”

But then there was this photo op after she arrived where she posed in front of a bust of the country’s former communist president Ho Chi Min, Fox News reported.

Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP

The timing probably couldn’t be worse for the Biden administration. On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to embark on a trip across the Pacific that will include a stop in Vietnam.

The trip – which will be Harris’ second outside the U.S. since taking office – comes as the current crisis in Afghanistan has drawn many comparisons to the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam in the 1970s.

This week’s scenes of crowds gathering at Kabul’s airport and U.S. military helicopters arriving to pick up passengers at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital revived grim memories of desperate Vietnamese people trying to board U.S. helicopters as they left the embassy in Saigon more than four decades ago.

“The prospect of Harris visiting Vietnam at this particular moment raised the possibility of the worst photo op for an American in that country since Jane Fonda donned a helmet there in 1972,” Fox News said.

And this, stunningly, may not have been the worst photo op of the trip. On the anniversary of the death of late Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, she may have had a worse moment.

Harris visited Vietnam this week and in an apparent faux pas she laid flowers at a site that celebrated the shooting down of pilot, and late Sen. John McCain.

Apparently, Harris mistook the site that celebrated the Vietnamese civilians who captured McCain and handed him over to the communist government as their prisoner, for a memorial to the late senator.

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Why she would believe that a nation that was fighting against the United States would erect a memorial for a man who fought against them is unknown.

“He was an extraordinary American. A hero. I was honored and privileged to serve with him for a short time in the United States Senate. He loved our country. He was so courageous and really lived the life of a hero…always fought for the best of who we are,” Harris said.

Twitter users excoriated Harris for not seeing the blatant signs that this was not a memorial honoring McCain but is a memorial honoring his capture.

“John McCain is the figure pictured there with his hands up. This does not commemorate John McCain it celebrates his capture and the soldiers who captured him lmfaoooo,” one Twitter user said.

“That, uh, isn’t a memorial to HONOR McCain, lmao,” another Twitter user said.

“I guess when you have media control you can just make up what a memorial represents,” another said.

“Oh this gets funnier! @VP @KamalaHarris doesn’t even think about what the statue signifies. It was created 2 honor Vietnamese soldiers that shot McCain’s plane down. The irony! She’s a token in this administration. Another irony #ImpeachBidenHarrisNOW,” another tweet read.

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“Does Harris know this monument honors the people who shot down John McCain’s plane? Vietnamese people view him as a war criminal,” Yawen Xu, a journalist based in Beijing, said.

“It’s a memorial that CELEBRATES shooting down his plane you morons,” Kyle Shideler, the Director/Senior Analyst for Homeland Security & Counterterrorism a the Center For Security Policy, said.

“Like going to Pearl Harbor and laying a wreath for a brave Japanese pilot,” another Twitter user said.

And they are correct. The translation for the monument does not read as a tribute to the late senator.

“On 26 October 1967 near Trúc Bạch Lake in the capital, Hanoi, the citizens and military caught Pilot John Sidney McCain. The US Navy Air Force Aviator was flying aircraft A4, which crashed near Yen Phu power station. This was one of ten aircraft shot down that same day,” it says.

The late Sen. McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, also lashed out at Harris for another reason.

“If you want to honor my dads legacy on this anniversary of his death – you would spend every second making sure every single American and Afghan ally is out of harms way. He was nothing if not someone who understood sacrifice and loyalty to the people he served with,” she said.

 

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Photo of Carmine Sabia Carmine SabiaAugust 29, 2021