War & Peace Quote by Nong Duc Manh

A small sentence with the posture of a principle, but the instincts of diplomacy. Nong Duc Manh’s line is less a soaring moral appeal than a carefully engineered boundary: it grants the post-9/11 “war against terrorism” enough legitimacy to avoid sounding obstructionist, then immediately fences it in with the language that matters most to smaller states watching great powers act - “independent, sovereign.” That pairing is doing heavy lifting. It’s a reminder that anti-terror rhetoric can become a master key for intervention, regime pressure, and the quiet rewriting of international norms.

The phrase “should not be used” signals suspicion of motive. The subtext isn’t that counterterrorism is wrong; it’s that it’s pliable. In the early 2000s, the U.S.-led security agenda expanded rapidly, and many governments - especially in Asia - were balancing cooperation against the fear that “terrorism” could be invoked to justify military strikes, intelligence intrusion, or political conditionality. Vietnam’s historical memory of foreign intervention sharpens that edge: sovereignty is not an abstract value, it’s a hard-earned defense mechanism.

Then he pivots to “concrete terrorist targets,” a technocratic demand that doubles as a moral test. “Concrete” implies evidence, specificity, restraint - a rebuke to elastic categories like “terror states” or guilt by association. “Do no harm to civilians” borrows the cadence of medical ethics to shame indiscriminate force without naming any actor. It’s classic small-state rhetoric: align with the global mood, then insist on rules that prevent the powerful from turning a campaign into a blank check.