Vietnam Gets Boost from Western Allies in its Defense against China

https://www.voanews.com ^ | October 31, 2020 | By Ralph Jennings

[RomanSoldier19]

Vietnam’s leadership this year of a Southeast Asian negotiating bloc has opened a door to bolster its defense against longtime rival China through stronger relations with the West, experts say.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, a U.S.-led grouping that also includes Australia, India and Japan, invited Vietnam to join talks on COVID-19 and economic impacts in March, and its members have conferred with Vietnamese officials regularly since then.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo finished his five-nation Asia visit with a stop in Vietnam Friday. He praised the host country’s “sovereignty” when he met Friday with Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi and said he looked forward to further improvement in relations.

[Chainmail]

"The problem was that while the majority of Vietnam was Buddhist, the South Vietnamese government was Catholic. Hard to win hearts and minds in that situation."

Not sure how that affected us - it probably did exacerbate the internal tensions - but both Catholics, Buddhists, Cao Dai and whatever hated and feared the communists.

found myself in the middle of a large Buddhist demonstration in Hue City in early '66 - but no hostility to us Americans as we took our convoy carefully through them to get to the river.

Never asked who was who when we were on patrol. Just shot anyone pointing a rifle at us.

[Chainmail]

1. Nobody refers to the “brass” anymore - that term went out at the end of WWII. Maybe somebody uses that term in the comic books you’re reading.

2. You still have very odd grammar and spelling - usually some foreign actor trying to pretend to be American. “Loosing”?, really? Most of learned how to spell “losing” in grade school.

3. I don’t believe you were in the navy. A basic sailor is a great deal more literate than you are.

So much for your phony Gulf of Tonkin “Knowledge”.

[redcatcherb412]

In Vietnam, the average time for a Marine to be wounded or killed was a month and a half.

Probably a pretty close average for Army also. I was in country 7 months and joined a line unit just over 3 months in. Got my WIA just a little over 3 months Feb to May 68 chasing Tet remnants around the country. But averages can be skewed at times, had a new Platoon Sgt. join mid April and he was KIA first week of May so he lasted all of about 3 weeks. I know the Marine field retention average during Tet was horrible, but look at the meatgrinder they ended up getting fed to and the lengthy battles involved.
Down South, after the first 4-5 days of Feb 68 Tet we pretty well ended up in continuous air mobile insertions to interdict the enemy units trying to withdraw back over to Cambodia and not in a protracted urban fight like Marines at Hue.

[Chainmail]

I was there earlier and was sent out with a rifle company in December ‘66 and I was hit in May ‘67 - so we lasted a similar period of time. I missed Tet but remember all the casualties arriving at Camp Pendleton Naval hospital when Tet hit.

It was a meat grinder - it’s hard to imagine how it could have anything else. The damn enemy was really good at mines and booby traps, ambushes, night attacks and using mortars.

Proud of us, though - we did what we did for our country and we’ll always have that.

Welcome home.

[Degaston]

The VN people, including the Hanoi government leaders, view the USA as their most important ally in the world today. I wo. They think back on the War with America as ancient history. Their real worry is China. Is it any surprise that the supermajority of Vietnamese Americans support Trump?

Btw I spent most of 2019 in Vietnam. I was living in Hanoi for over 10 months.