Asia Sentinel

Asia Sentinel

Politics

Trump Uses Hegseth to Test Hanoi’s Temperature

Defining 2025 photograph may be taken not in Beijing but in the Oval Office?

Nov 05, 2025
∙ Paid
By: Khanh Vu Duc
To Lam greets Hegseth in Hanoi City. Photo from VNA

On November 2, at the headquarters of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Tô Lâm received U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. The handshake beneath the Party’s red banners, widely circulated on state media, was more than symbolic. It was a test shot, …

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