Looking from the American angle, John McCain (and Ash Carter) are simply brilliant.
They came over, goad the Viets and Pinoys a bit at no cost but got a lot to gain. The Viets and Pinoys are now very excited.
He now gets to sell expensive American "lethal arms" to the Viets on the condition of no impact to human rights, i.e beginning of color revolution perhaps.
(They would also love to sell "lethal arms" to the Philippines but they have no money.)
In the case of Ukraine, I think the Americans get to move some "lethal arms" there too.
In this world, there are no real friends or allies, only every country looking after its own interests.
Well, the Americans are pretty good at looking after their own interests.
Note in the past few decades every country that the Americans got involved in, turned to sh*t. See Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Libya, etc .....
Sorry to say the options for Vietnam and Philippines are rather limited. So are for the Malaysians, but they seem to be able to make the best out of the situation.