Posted on 09/19/2021 12:10:32 PM PDT by george76
The United States would achieve three objectives by purchasing a number of Shortfin Barracuda submarines from France and then giving them to Vietnam.
First, the Biden administration would repair relations with America's oldest ally. Second, it would supply a rising security partner with newly potent means of challenging China's imperialism. Third, it would test President Emmanuel Macron's commitment to international security in the South China Sea.
This option bears note as France rages over Australia's cancellation of a submarine contract worth tens of billions of dollars. France is mixing justifiable anger (it has lost a lucrative contract worth thousands of jobs) with a healthy degree of hypocrisy (France's government-owned Naval Group was playing games with its timetable, cost estimates, and production/sourcing commitments).
Still, these submarines would provide outsize value to the U.S. and broader international security interests were they built for Vietnam. The Shortfin Barracudas would be very quiet and a major threat to the People's Liberation Army Navy.
Vietnam remains in the control of a communist authoritarian government. That said, its people enjoy a degree of freedom and a heavily capitalist-influenced economy. In 2021, Vietnam is defined by a strong export market and a young, internationally connected population. This population is also hostile toward China — angered by Beijing's arrogant claim that the South China Sea is its own private swimming pool and angered more by Beijing's not-so-veiled expectation that Vietnam exists as its feudal state.
Recognizing China's challenge, the U.S. and Vietnam are moving closer together. Though her trip was overshadowed by the chaos in Afghanistan, Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited Hanoi. Top line: the U.S. knows that Vietnamese sentiments, Vietnam's proximity to China, and its possession of a deepwater port at Da Nang (capable of forward basing for the U.S. Navy) make the former enemy an ideal security partner for the future.
China's threat is growing : The U.S. needs partners.
China says that the South China Sea and all its fishing and resource deposits belong to Beijing. These waters see at least $3.5 trillion in annual trade flows. By militarizing control over the South China Sea, China can extort political fealty from regional states and, gradually, international powers relying on the waters for trade. This is a profound threat to the post-World War II U.S. international order. China cannot be allowed to succeed.
So even as the U.S. rightly consolidates Australia with the new AUKUS security agreement , so too should Washington pursue strong relations with France. While France's pursuit of economic ties with China has undermined Macron's credibility as a leader for democratic values, he has shown sub-surface support for upholding the South China Sea's international status. From a U.S. perspective, Macron is certainly preferable to the isolationist-minded and pro-China Marine Le Pen, who seems set to be the president's major challenger in next year's elections.
Absent U.S. efforts to consolidate Macron, he risks being caught between an ever-present well of domestic anti-American populism (now being fueled by his foreign minister) and Chinese investment offers. Xi Jinping is no idiot. He will sense that now is the time to offer Macron vast new investments in return for his rejection of U.S. overtures targeting China. At the same time, Beijing is holding firm on its threats to Australia . China's message to U.S. allies: Choose between its easy economic boosts and its uncomfortable coercive pressure.
Biden should use the two leaders' upcoming phone call to offer to buy some of Naval Group's Shortfin Barracudas — but only on the condition that most of the submarines are transferred to Vietnam (others can be used for U.S. Navy training and special operations purposes).
China would be enraged by such a deal, seeing it as a means of dramatically strengthening Vietnam's Navy and thus the strategic depth of the PLA's South Sea Fleet . Macron would face a choice: accept an economic boon and support the international values he so eloquently salutes, or show that his rhetoric is paper-thin.
Either way, Biden should make the offer, then let us know what Macron decides. The stakes in the South China Sea demand it .
Let VietNam buy their own darned subs.
Even Ho Chi Minh said, “I’d rather smell French s___ than Chinese s___!”
Stupid article. How many subs? Just to push buttons.
All except that you can’t snap your fingers and create a competent submarine force just by handing a country with zero naval tradition 3 or 4 subs. It takes constant training even if you have that. Same goes for naval aviation.
Sure,give them subs and they can give us Cam Ranh Bay and maybe we can get Subic Bay back in the Philippines since war in the Pacific is inevitible
Interesting article.
>>The Shortfin Barracudas would be very quiet and a major threat to the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Are these pure diesel-electric or is there an AIP component? I believe it was a Swedish AIP/DE that was used in war games vs. US nuclear-powered attack submarines, and it acquitted itself very well.
China would scream bloody murder if this were to happen.
To Hell with that idea.
From a U.S. perspective, Macron is certainly preferable to the isolationist-minded and pro-China Marine Le Pen...
She's can't be both isolationist-minded and pro-China, so that's rubbish. She's not a pro-EU stooge like Macron and Sarkozy before him. Also, she's probably going to be kept out of office by the usual runoff skullduggery that's built right into the French system of rigged elections.
Why not give them to the Taliban?
France should just give the subs to the VC as reparations for colonialism or some such.
Give them to the Republic of China.
We need Việt Nam to take on some of the defense of the Eastern Sea. they are our allies there. That has faded a tad with the Democrats in power here as Democrat administrations despise any third world or in this case emerging-from-3rd-world country that craves to be friends with America.
As near as I can tell, Diesel Electric with lead-acid batteries. So basically World War II technology.
Nope.
Lost too many buds to Charlie.
Not with my money....
Soviets Vulnerable in Cam Ranh Bay, Australian Says
CANBERRA, Australia — The Soviet base at Cam Ranh Bay in southern Vietnam would not last more than a day if war broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union, Australian Defense Minister Kim Beazley said Friday.
Beazley made the statement in Parliament after several opposition and government members expressed concern over the growing Soviet presence in the Pacific and in the bay.
“The Soviet Union does not deploy front-line craft in Cam Ranh Bay. The true significance of the Soviet Union’s position there lies in the political influence that it gives it,” he said.
It's always easy to spend other people's money.
Especially if it's the deep pocket, USA citizen
taxpayer's money.
Screw that.
I think we’re already propping up enough countries
Just slip it into that three trillion package deal.(/S)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.