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An Old Rival Is a Dangerous New Player in the South China Sea Energy Crisis

For years, I have worked with the U.S. Department of State, providing advice to developing countries on oil and natural gas issues. Our work together goes back some 46 years.

It began during the Vietnam War, when I was recruited into a division of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), initially involving insertion into the Southeast Asian theater of operations as a field counterintelligence officer.

A great deal of the work I did, and the losses I and others suffered, remain classified to this very day, but suffice it to say that deployment earned me the first of my three Presidential Intelligence Awards – and launched more than two decades of active service in the intelligence community.

However, much of my more recent work has involved matters related to the geopolitics of energy, certainly one of the most complicated and potentially explosive issues our world faces today.

As a result, I have traveled to a number of countries over the years to work with officials on establishing energy policies and practices.

It's one of the reasons I had to return to Vietnam after so much time, to close some of the loops of my past - and to help ensure energy's future swings in America's direction...