Obama’s Trip to Vietnam: the Graphic

With Obama’s arms sales junket to Vietnam and his slippage on human rights overshadowed anyway by his sit-down with celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain, this Instagram shot is the perfect topper. Credit Jim Watson for reducing the trip to this one piece of iconography.

As a throwback to the cold war “domino theory” (never mind America’s long, bloody slog), the bottom line was to bolster that country militarily against the threat from China. But again, why get mired in the details? Simply, he went and he was a star.

(photo: Jim Watson (watson113)/Instagram. caption: US President Barack Obama takes questions at the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative town hall. 10.13 pm 5/24/2016.)