I agree. The publishing tradition is [first name][last name], which should be followed for our convenience sake. But the author can choose whatever first and last name. What really matters is that, in a jungle of citations, the reader seeing the shortened name can pinpoint them specifically. While Eastern cultures may place less emphasis of differentiating using the middle name like Vietnam, the author can use Last-Mid as their Last (consistent with VN's tradition), or Mid-First as their First. Just use it consistently.