The biggest source of US power is not its military, but it’s money. As long as the dollar remains the cornerstone of international commerce, the US remains the world’s great Caesar, but when the history of the Trump presidency is finally written, it will probably identify the biggest mistake of the Trump Team as encouraging foreigners to forsake the US dollar.
Under the threat of sanctions, tariffs, and bombs, the world is learning to do business without the US dollar. This is so obvious and inevitable that the decline of ‘the West ... the rise of the East’ is almost a cliché now.
To add to the re-alignment of history, a new movie has appeared in which the US is the bad guy. "Mua Do" ("Red Rain") depicts a bloody battle between Communist forces and the American-backed South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. The battle, fought in the country’s central province of Quang Tri, earned the grim nickname "the meat grinder" because of the many people who died there. According to reports in the Vietnamese media, more than 10,000 soldiers were killed on both sides.
The film is a box office blockbuster and has already grossed more than twice Hollywood hits during a period of 'peak patriotism' in Vietnam.
