I was in Manila at that time. We wanted some concessions with the closure of Clarke and repairs at Cubi and Subic. PI pols thought they had us over a barrel but Cheney was not budging. The corrupt anti USA pols saw money to be made with the largest dry docks in Asia. They did not realized the docks were not permanent structures. I heard they did not find out until the first dry dock arrived in Guam. Truth is outside of Olongapo there was no special relationship, unless you equate the love of dollars to loving Americans. My wife is a very well educated Filipina from Manila and she is familiar with the negotiations. She felt the rich politicians did not care about the jobs provided by the base for the poor. Trends against prostitution were already beginning and had the bases remained anti-sex trafficking laws would have made most bars off limits years ago.
It was portrayed by the Philipino politicians as kicking us out for political gain most Americans aware of the details understood it was more about money and Cheney and Bush refusing to be held over a barrel. I say we build a new era of special relationship with Vietnam.
I say we build a new era of special relationship with Vietnam. Uh, no. They held back 700, 800 of our guys in 1973, who apparently gradually died off in prison camps over the next 15-20 years. Bo Gritz and William Shatner and a few people tried to do something about it, and our own people stepped on them like a bug. We'll never live that down, but the Viets? Never owned up, never said squat.
Go on recovering remains, all very polite, but that's it. We aren't friends until their people get rid of the cadres.
Like General Patton, nobody likes a loser, and we shouldn't act like losers by palling around with these little hardguy bastards after we threw a war to them, courtesy of our dog-eating liberal Democrat friends.
American liberals whine about "torture", but they're just playing Communist moral-equivalency games, when their little Red playmates in Hanoi did the real thing to our guys, and even sent out for professional help -- "Fidel" the Cuban, for instance. I saw Hanoi Hilton and I'll be really disappointed to hear that that s.o.b. died at home with his shoes off.