Vietnam. No one wants to talk about it, and for good reason. The worst American defeat of the Cold War, besides the Bay of Pigs, was handled here, when the mighty US military-industrial complex was defeated by (for the most part) a partisan force. However, I think that we as a nation learned a lot of lessons from Vietnam. Also, there were lessons to be learned there which we might not have learned as of yet, such as the fact that a guerilla force cannot be fought by a conventional, WW-II style force (darnit, just send in the SAS). However, with these in line, I believe that the new international order would make it best if we became closer (to the point of military basing and alliances) with Vietnam.
Allow me to explain, before I'm swamped by hate mail telling me I'm a Commie and a traitor to the American way. I'm not condoning the Vietnam War protests that people like our honorable president Bubba decided to involve themselves in. But in my opinion, and in that of others (see: "The Coming Conflict with China" by Richard Bernstein and Ross H. Munro) that China is going to be our next great rival, in the tradition of the British in the 19th century and the Germans and Russians in the 20th. Fact: the Chinese and the Vietnamese hate each other, to the point of war. Fact: the Vietnamese have some of the best ports in the world, such as Cam Ranh Bay and Haiphong. Fact: the Vietnamese would be glad to move into closer relations with the US, from a mutual-defense standpoint as well as from an economic one. Fact: the Vietnamese are one of the last lines of defense, in one way of thinking, in containing the Chinese from the South China Sea region (such as the Spratly Islands), an area of vital strategic importance to the US as well as the rest of the West for shipping and the possibility of oil.
I also think that a rapprochment with Vietnam would prove once and for all that the Cold War is over. I mean, we've reopened diplomatic relations, right? So American ships in Cam Ranh Bay would prove to the world that in this new order, that ideology is not the determining factor, like it was in the past. Rather, ideology is sacrificed for simple power. The People's Republic of China, for example, is certainly not Communist by any stretch of the imagination; instead they seem to be more fascist. Although I said that ideology doesn't matter, there does seem to be a trend of highly centralized, state-controlled economies on the side of the Chinese (who are allied with the Islamic Republic of Iran and North Korea, among others). However, what I would do to go against the Chinese bloc is to recruit some of China's ancient (and not so ancient) enemies. The two biggest? India...and Vietnam.
The tactical ramifications of working with the Vietnamese could be major on both the domestic and foreign scenes. On the domestic scene, flak would mainly come from two corners: the Vietnam veteran's lobby, who probably still want Ngo Dinh Diem back in power, and the pro-China lobby, who don't want to "upset" the powers that be in Beijing. The veteran's lobby would probably insist that every single POW and MIA from the Vietnam conflict be accounted for before we make any major forays into Vietnam. However, a point for closer relations is that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the most respected Vietnam veteran in the Senate (who was a POW) has come out in support of Vietnam rapprochment. And frankly, I don't care enough for the pro-Beijing lobby to worry about them. But if some sort of situation develops with the Chinese, I think that the Vietnamese would be excellent, as well as strategically well-placed, allies.