Big Beautiful Faces
In the New York Times on 9/11/23, there’s a photo of Joe Biden, standing with his head bowed, looking solemn. In the background is a saluting US soldier, dressed in white. The caption, “President Biden at a memorial to John McCain, his former Senate colleague, on Monday in Hanoi, Vietnam.” Why would Vietnam have a memorial to John McCain, you wonder?
It doesn’t. Here’s the exact translation of that plaque, “On October 26th, 1967, at Trúc Bạch Lake, the soldiers and people of our capital Hanoi captured alive the pilot John Sidney McCain, an air force captain in the US Navy, whose A4 plane was shot down over the Yên Phụ Electrical Plant. It was one of ten airplanes shot down that day.”
Through sloppy reporting, a Vietnamese celebration of having shot down a famous American is turned into a tribute. The photo itself is misleading enough, for it shows Biden as very serious or even noble. All posed photos are already manipulative.
Another photo in the same article shows the US delegation meeting Vietnamese officials, so 21 people altogether. Sat at a long table, they’re lorded over by a huge bust of Ho Chi Minh. Image wise, he’s their daddy, if not god. Also manipulative is Vietnam’s practice of forcing every foreign leader, Xi, Putin or Trump, it doesn’t matter, to pose in front of and below a giant Uncle Ho head. That’s just the house rule in Hanoi.
Hanoi having powerful world leaders standing beneath Uncle Ho is meant for Vietnamese. This simple trick reinforces its legitimacy.
Meanwhile in the USA, some forgotten grunt still lying in piss and shit at Walter Reed without his limbs, genitals, family and friends might be asking, “They plucked me from Iowa to fight that Super Commie. Now, they’re all eager to suck his dead dick!” Ignored by everyone, his thoughts don’t matter.
To the unseasoned or ignorant, image is everything. In DC, the US Department of Labor is being defaced by a huge banner of pussified Trump glowering. Looks great on Fox News. Sucking hard, Lori Chavez-Deremer even called it “your big beautiful face” to Trump’s gloating face. She won’t be remembered for anything else.
Before Trump, the US seduced the world with James Dean, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Lady Gaga, Obama and, frankly, just about every sloppily dressed US tourist tossing his cash around. This really worked in the Third World. “Even American bums are so rich!”
Trump’s grotesque media performances, though, will be cited as a turning point in how the USA is perceived. They are isolating America as much as his hostile trade policies. Two months ago, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands appeared to mock Trump’s mouth movements as he was talking. Though she denied doing this, the world had a good laugh, for they believed Trump deserved to be mocked. Last week, South Korean president Lee Jae Myung told Trump at the White House, “I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un, and the construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf at that place.”
Lee also said, “The only person who can make progress is you, Mr. President. If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker.” “The only person” already sounds like mockery, though not to MAGA cultists. What about a Trump Tower and playing golf in North Korea? Is pacemaker a jab at Trump’s heart condition?
Before Trump, no US cabinet member would say “your big beautiful face” to her president, but that’s where we are. Also, his total lack of culture was once associated with the nouveau riche, but Trump was born into wealth. The Donald is indeed special. His very crassness is used to sell Trump to the heartland, itself degraded and infantilized after decades of the most toxic media ever concocted.
Already thinking about manipulative images, I heard with delight Mrs. Seven’s political thoughts this morning. She considered Nguyen Van Thieu, Nguyen Cao Ky and Bill Clinton very handsome, though she couldn’t quite identify the last. As a girl, she saw President Thieu on a horse carriage riding through Vung Tau. He waved in her direction. Struggling to pronounce “Trump,” she said two of her regulars were very excited about his victory.
“Of course we loved the American empire, because life was so good when they were here.” It wasn’t so great just 15 miles away in Long Sơn, or 25 miles away in Đất Đỏ, for those nearby towns were controlled by the Viet Cong. Instead of locals selling chewing gum, cigarettes, beer, marijuana or sex to tall white men with plenty of cash, they were shot at by the same.
That’s how it is, too, in the USA. One’s politics is almost entirely dependent on what town or even street one was born into. Nearly everyone, though, considers himself an “independent thinker.”
When South Vietnam collapsed on 4/30/75, there was widespread panic and terror, with people trampling on each other to board anything that could float out to sea. With the ocean not a mile away, Mrs. Seven’s family stayed put, however, because her dad was “so timid,” she recalled this morning. Even with so many nearby houses and shops abandoned, they didn’t join in the looting frenzy that erupted. Her senile grandma did pick up rifles tossed by fleeing ARVN soldiers.
From 20 years, all Vietnamese suffered terribly. During my first trip back in 1995, I witnessed widespread poverty. At an art opening in Hanoi, I met the de facto American ambassador, I can’t even remember his name, who, so friendly, gave me his card, “Just contact me if you need anything.” Bill Clinton was president. After the US normalized relations with Vietnam, life here improved dramatically, so millions of Vietnamese, not just Mrs. Seven, think Slick Willie is super gorgeous.
As for charming Obama, during a 2016 speech in Hanoi he quoted not just poet Nguyễn Du (1766–1820) and Ho Chi Minh, but general Lý Thường Kiệt (1019–1105) and composer Văn Cao (1923–1995). He also mentioned song writer Trịnh Công Sơn (1939–2001). It was a masterful performance, as enabled by his crack team of speech writers. A Vietnamese newspaper at the time praised Obama for his deep knowledge of Vietnamese culture, plus respect for Vietnam and Vietnamese.
Such seduction is no longer practiced. With Trump, the US is simply snarling fuck you to everybody, since the entire world, according to this self–loving child rapist who’s always right, has been cheating and bullying Uncle Sam for decades! I can only think of one other nation that’s always claiming victimhood as it bombs away.
