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Pentagon seeks return to long-abandoned military port in Vietnam
Loas Angeles Times ^ | June 3, 2012 | David S. Cloud

Posted on 06/04/2012 9:15:58 AM PDT by JerseyanExile

Forty-five years ago, American cargo ships filled this vast harbor, unloading supplies day after day for U.S. troops fighting the Viet Cong.

Today, the bay’s azure waters are largely empty, except for local fishing boats. The once-bustling U.S. airbase here, formerly home to fighter squadrons and a combat hospital, is abandoned, a reminder of the U.S. military’s exit from most of Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War.

But the Pentagon is plotting a return.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta flew in to Cam Ranh Bay, the first Pentagon chief to come to this deep-water port 200 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City since the war. He recalled “the great deal of blood that was spilled in this war on all sides — by Americans and by Vietnamese.”

He also made clear that the U.S. is hoping that hard history will not stand in the way of a U.S. return to the sheltered anchorage off the strategically-important South China Sea.

“Access for United States naval ships into this facility is a key component” of the U.S. relationship with Vietnam, “and we see the tremendous potential here,” Panetta told reporters, standing on the stern of a gray-hulled U.S. Navy supply ship anchored near the bay entrance, undergoing maintenance.

U.S. warships have called regularly at other Vietnamese ports since the guided missile frigate Vandergrift made a port call in Hanoi in November 2003.

“It will be particularly important to use harbors like this as we move out ships from our ports on the West Coast toward our stations here in the Pacific,” Panetta said.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: camranhbay; detente; nationaldefense; vietnam
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I have to admit, I've found this detente with Vietnam that has been growing over the past decade to be fascinating. I guess that it does make sense when you think about it - Vietnam fought the US for 8 years, but they've been trying to stay independent of China for more than 2000 years, and the US is the natural counterbalance .
1 posted on 06/04/2012 9:16:09 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
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To: JerseyanExile

Odd indeed.

Never would have had to leave but for lying traitors like Walter Kronkite.


2 posted on 06/04/2012 9:19:26 AM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (I will never vote for Romney. Ever.)
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To: JerseyanExile
but they've been trying to stay independent of China for more than 2000 years, and the US is the natural counterbalance .

Except for when Viet Nam needs men and arms from China when they are killing American soldiers?

3 posted on 06/04/2012 9:19:38 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Obama versus Romney? Cyanide versus arsenic.)
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To: JerseyanExile

The enemy of my enemy is my friend...........


4 posted on 06/04/2012 9:20:32 AM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: TheThirdRuffian

...and Jane Fonda


5 posted on 06/04/2012 9:21:54 AM PDT by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost
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To: Red Badger
On another post, it was said that Cam Ranh was designed and built by American engineering companies.
6 posted on 06/04/2012 9:22:55 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Graybeard58

Vietnamese Negotiator to Panetta: Okay, we got deal on Cam Ranh Bay. BUT WE WILL NOT TAKE JOHN MCCAIN BACK!..........


7 posted on 06/04/2012 9:23:14 AM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: JerseyanExile

45 years! Wow,it seems just like yesterday when I watched the mobs try to push their way into the American embassy in Saigon, the brave Marines who maintained order, the chaos on the roof of the embassy, and the Navy pushing the helicopters off of ship decks to make room for more people.

And the litter of rifles along Highway 1 as the South Vietnam discarded the weapons we Americans paid for.

And now, we’re in Afganstain. Corrupt leaders, populace unwilling to fight for their own freedom, inability to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

I don’t want to waste anymore American blood to fight for freedom for those who refuse to fight for their own freedom.

Our military is the best in the world. God Bless each and everyone of them.


8 posted on 06/04/2012 9:24:14 AM PDT by jayrunner
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Was it for the French?.........


9 posted on 06/04/2012 9:25:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: JerseyanExile

More than just a military port! India, Burma, Thailand, cambidia and SE Asia are trying to agree on the construction/reconstruction of the Trans S. Asia Highway, India to VietNam!


10 posted on 06/04/2012 9:27:19 AM PDT by WellyP (REAL)
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To: JerseyanExile

I spit on all this.


11 posted on 06/04/2012 9:31:07 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: WellyP

http://www.mithisarunachal.com/2011/06/mithi-bats-for-trans-asian-highway.html


12 posted on 06/04/2012 9:31:18 AM PDT by WellyP (REAL)
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To: JerseyanExile
A huge port capable of handling a lot of ships and in 45 years all Vietnam can do with it is use it for local fishing vessels.

That is communistic progress for you.

13 posted on 06/04/2012 9:42:23 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: jayrunner

Litter of rifles for which there was no ammunition or vehicles for which there were no spare parts because the Democrat controlled congress terminated the sending of supplies of ammunition and replacement parts to the South Vietnamese government and military as President Nixon had promised would continue. Thus the formal full-scale invasion of the south by the North Vietnamese Regular Army was able to overrun the ARVN as it ran out of the means to fight.


14 posted on 06/04/2012 9:43:05 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: Red Badger

LOL!


15 posted on 06/04/2012 9:44:08 AM PDT by rightly_dividing (Tagline lost 06/4/12, please return if found.)
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To: riverrunner

I thought the Russians were using it.


16 posted on 06/04/2012 9:46:11 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

They were until the Soviet(Russian) “economy” cratered in the 1990s and 2000s, they pulled out and came home.


17 posted on 06/04/2012 9:50:15 AM PDT by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: US Navy Vet

I remember a news story on the Russians in Viet Nam. They were called “Americans without money.”


18 posted on 06/04/2012 9:55:05 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: GreyFriar
What you said.

Why would the ARVN fight knowing defeat was inevitable?

The North tried the same attack in 1973-- with US air support & advisors, the ARVN defeated the invasion. Giap told the Central Committee at that time that North Vietnam would never win as long as the US supported the South. He was relieved of command.

The North only won because the communist traitors in the Democratic Party and media bamboozled the US public into cutting off aid.

One of the consequences of the fall of South Vietnam was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: so we are still feeling the consequences of the treason of the Democrats almost 40 years afterwards.

19 posted on 06/04/2012 9:55:32 AM PDT by pierrem15 (Claudius: "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.")
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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