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Sailors stand at ease as the U.S. and Vietnamese national flags fly together aboard the Navy frigate USS Gary at the port of Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Tuesday March 29, 2005. The USS Gary is paying a goodwill visit to it's former foe, one month before Vietnam celebrates the 30th anniversary of reunification. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)

Vietnamese police look on as the U.S. Navy frigate USS Gary arrives at Saigon port, Ho Chi Minh City, Tuesday March 29, 2005. The USS Gary is paying a goodwill visit to its former foe, one month before Vietnam celebrates the 30th anniversary of reunification. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)

The USS Gary sails on the Saigon river toward Ho Chi Minh City. A US Navy warship docked at Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City in only the second visit by an American military vessel to the city formerly known as Saigon since the end of the Vietnam War(AFP/Str)

An American sailor looks on as the Navy frigate USS Gary is tied up alongside the port of Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Tuesday March 29, 2005. The USS Gary is paying a goodwill visit to its former foe, one month before Vietnam celebrates the 30th anniversary of re-unification. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)

Vietnamese tows a food cart sitting backwards on a motorcycle through the busy evening traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Monday March 28, 2005. Vietnam's second city pays host to a visit from the United States Navy ship USS Gary tomorrow. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)

U.S. Navy Ship Makes Port Call in Former Saigon Just Before 30th Anniversary of Vietnam War's End:

By Margie Mason Associated Press Writer

Published: Mar 29, 2005:

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) - An American warship made a rare visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, a sign the two countries are looking to improve military ties 30 years after the Vietnam War.
Sailors dressed in white lined the decks of the USS Gary as the frigate docked in Saigon Port, where it is to remain for five days. The warship was just the third Navy vessel to make a port call in the communist country since the war ended on April 30, 1975.

The Stars and Stripes flew alongside the Vietnamese flag as the ship eased up the muddy Saigon River. Many of the more than 200 sailors aboard snapped pictures or videotaped its arrival.

Most were too young to remember when Ho Chi Minh City was called Saigon, but U.S. Lt. Cmdr. Quoc Bao Tran remembers fleeing the country by boat when he was 7, just before South Vietnam fell to the communist North. This was his first trip back.

"I'm overwhelmed, overjoyed and of course excited," he said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the place where I was born."

The visit marked the 10th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations. More importantly, it signaled a warmup in military relations between the former foes, officials in both countries said.

The two sides signed a landmark bilateral trade agreement in 2001, and business has exploded in recent years. But work in the sensitive area of military cooperation has only just begun.

As the United States and Vietnam find common ground on issues of counterterrorism and regional stability, future military ties will likely include more ship visits and high-level exchanges such as Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra's historic trip to Washington in 2003.

"The most important thing for both of our nations and peoples to do is to continue to look forward, not backward," U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine said.

Some in Vietnam believe the U.S. military may be looking to their country as a future strategic area to establish a base to counter growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia. But Marine said that was not the case.

A Vietnamese military official said the visit showed how far the two countries have come in the past 30 years. Col. Bui Van Nga, the highest-ranking Vietnamese navy officer to greet the ship, said he remembers when the two countries were enemies. "Now we must put aside the past, and I think we should look forward to the future."

The USS Gary is attached to the Seventh Fleet based in Japan. Two other ships in the fleet, the USS Vandegrift and USS Curtis Wilbur, made port calls to Ho Chi Minh City and Danang in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

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