Vietnam wins U.S. defense pledges

Reuters ^ | AUGUST 8, 2017 | Eric Beech and My Pham

[gandalftb]

Vietnam has won the promise of a visit from a U.S. aircraft carrier and deeper defense cooperation from the United States..

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich in Washington on Tuesday that a strong defense relationship was based on common interests that included freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

A Vietnam flag flies as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (L) hosts an honor cordon for Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (R) at the Pentagon...

[the_individual2014]

Did Ho Chi Ming say that I rather smell French chit for 5 years than smell Chinese chit for 1000?

[the_individual2014]

Damn you had beat to the punch already.

[Radix]

Wasn't half that country our allies back in those days?

Those half assed lame brained Democrats made a win there impossible. Them and the Walter Cronkites of the world.

I wasn't there, I don't know what you know.

Thank You for your service.

[bgill]

It is an excuse to get us closer to Kim.

[wastoute]

And yet Adolph Hitler is synonymous with evil incarnate...

[easternsky]

Amen

[cba123]

I agree.

I am American, but in have lived in Ho Chi Minh City for the last year.

Vietnam is a very interesting place. It is not like Thailand or Cambodia. Not like either one. At all.

It is communist, like China is. And they are definitely NOT pro China. Unlike every other country around here.

I did not originally intend to stay as long as I have. It is a very interesting place.

Think about visiting again. I am not saying you personally, but those reading.

This is not the country we were fighting in 50 years ago. That was two entire generations ago.

It is growing, and Americans seem to be rather highly regarded here.

Again it is not Thailand or Cambodia, but it is Vietnam.

[gaijin]

Playing in Vietnam while I ALONE am trying to bring back American manufacturing..?????

Why doesn’t ANYONE share my concern...??

[tumblindice]

“Mattis told his counterpart”
My Dad had a counterpart too. The commies sent him to e ‘re-education camp’.
Try to help Vietnam, get kicked in the teeth.

[mrsmith]

And a deal like this means BIG defense purchases. Always.

[Psalm 144]

So we are acquiring another weak, liability, grifter military client.

[crabpott]

Hey, time passes, things change.
I did two tours. Rather them as allies than enemies at this point.
Ill never forgot the expression on my dad’s face when I told him I was going to work for an international Japanese corporation in 1975. 30 years after end of WWII.
I just put together a dinning room table for my mom with made in Vietnam stamped on the bottom.
47 years later. I think I had a similar expression to my dad’s. Just saying.

[gaijin]

JK, btw...

;)

[EarlyBird]

Great story, and well told!

[EarlyBird]

Trump is playing the Vietnam card!

[Cen-Tejas]

.........I was stationed in Japan from August 69 to June 71 or just 24 years after Japan surrendered

Each day I was stationed there I worked along side, joked around with, wrestled with at times and just generally became great friends with two Japanese men. Approximately 25 years before they were both on Okinawa doing their best to kill Americans.

So, your right, times do change, and its some 43 years after hostilities ceased with Vietnam.

That said, some of my Vietnam buddies will never support this.

[2ndDivisionVet]

My father was in the Battle for Okinawa.

[Spktyr]

They also had a really good example early on after the war of how when taken to its natural extremes communism is quite lethal to its citizens - remember that the Vietnamese were the ones that had to stop the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to put an end to the Cambodian Genocide. They got a really good look at what can happen and decided they had a couple million reasons that they didn’t want to go down that path.

[Uncle Sam 911]

NEVER!!

[Spktyr]

It's also worth noting that the reason we got into the mess in Vietnam in the first place was because of Democrats and the French. Ho Chi Minh didn't go to the Communists first - he had fought on the Allied side in WW2. The historical record shows that he actually approached the United States and asked us to keep the French from reclaiming his country after fleeing the place in WW2. We basically told him to go screw himself because the Truman Administration wanted to make the French happy. As noted by Wikipedia: "In April 1945, Ho met with the OSS agent Archimedes Patti and offered to provide intelligence to the allies provided that he could have "a line of communication with the allies." The OSS agreed to this and later sent a military team of OSS members to train Ho's men and Ho himself was treated for malaria and dysentery by an OSS doctor. "Following the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Viet Minh, Ho became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Although he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded." The whole mess could have been avoided and Vietnam could have been a staunch ally in the area - if only the Democrats hadn't screwed up and been doing their usual fanboi worship of everything French.