Thank you for the abundant praise for this article. It is much appreciated, albeit with not a bit of humility. After all, I simply laid together the facts as I saw them.

I generally like Ms. Wildfire's work but I suppose one of the disadvantages of painting with such broad strokes is that it is entirely possible to overlook some important factors and come up with a different conclusion.

Of course, I've had the benefit of living in Southeast Asia for most of my life and pondering these issues as the consequences would be immense in my part of the world - a sentiment I'm sure Alvin shares.

BTW Alvin, some of this analysis was inspired by an interview I saw with your former Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, on how the Chinese would respond to American military presence in Vietnam. :)