Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/30/2026 1:47:58 AM PDT by chajin
The U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington arrived in Vietnam on Thursday, marking the beginning of its first goodwill visit to the central coastal city of Da Nang.
The carrier, named in honor of the first president of the United States, entered Vietnamese territorial waters in the morning after a nearly-two-month deployment from its homeport of Yokosuka, Japan.
It had sailed through several areas of the western Pacific before reaching Vietnam.
The visit marks the first time USS George Washington has docked at a Vietnamese port.
In 2010, it became the first U.S. aircraft carrier since the normalization of bilateral relations in 1995 to host a delegation of Vietnamese officials while operating in international waters.
Additional Vietnamese delegations visited the carrier during its passages off Vietnam's coast in 2011 and 2012.
USS George Washington is one of the U.S. Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
It is currently the Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, based in Yokosuka.
During its stay in Da Nang, the ship's commanding officers and crew are expected to participate in a series of goodwill activities with local authorities and residents.
The carrier will also welcome multiple groups of visitors on board.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.tuoitre.vn ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Tell that shit to the boys, whose names are on the wall. Excuse me I gotta go spit.
I think the purpose of the visit is to make China think twice about attacking Taiwan...which would include a sneak attack on the US. This reaffirms that China is surrounded by countries that don’t like China. I’ll bet this made Xi smoking mad.
During that time, we fought with ferocity to protect the South Vietnamese and they knew it. All of the refugees came to us, not the enemy.
The fact that our government was focused on everything but us (Space Race, Civil Rights, the Middle East, the Cold War, Inflation, etc,) and did nothing to explain why were risking our young lives to the people while the communist Left pushed pro-enemy propaganda (as a "Peace Movement") was an atrocity.
I went back to Vietnam to visit in 2000 and the people of the South hadn't changed and some still remembered me and the guys who served with me and we were welcomed back.
I'm happy that at least we had our effect, killed/thinned out the hard-core communists and the Vietnamese themselves have not been changed.
I agree with your sentiment, fully. Those that died in the Vietnam and Sandbox Wars were a waste of good people.
Vietnam was certainly the enemy of the era, but the real enemy was the democrat party and our very own communists. The Paris Peace Accords were a very one sided agreement and the democrats halted major funding of the South so they literally ran out of bullets and gasoline and had to surrender. And the democrats are the ones that made the Sandbox Wars a waste.
Today’s greatest enemy (besides the DSA and islam) is the CCP. China and Vietnam are enemies. As the saying goes, our enemy’s enemy is our friend. The mere thoughts of Vietnam being our friend makes me want to vomit, but we do need allies to fight China.
Viet Nam had to offer the invite. Last we hears the Chicoms improve the roads on their border-the better to attack. They lost big-time in ‘79.
F*&*ing sick
When the old revolutionaries, Giáp finally, died off the younger generation found itself in a position of starving with the rest of the population because of the enmity of China. They understood that the system was NOT working and they changed it. Việt Nam is still a nation politically organized as "communist," but it is more an enlightened despotism. The clan based population cannot handle an actual Republic such as we have because such would divide the nation into clan based power centers. Citizens would vote for candidates based on family ties, not abilities or goals.
The country is modernizing rapidly and the bosses have explicitly taken the Singapore model. Visit there and you will see cities that look like European big cities with taller skyscrapers, all built by market capitalism. The people love Americans. They remember such things as when troops walking through, a town a couple of them would break ranks to help say, an old man trying to move something too heavy for him. Since during they war they know that an American man who falls for a Vietnamese woman who already has a child or two desires the whole package. Men of no other nationality will deign to raise another man's child.
Big cities are big cities everywhere with crime and prostitution, but everywhere else it is fto walk at night. American women can and do travel alone most anywhere they want to go.
In 2000 when the country was very poor, everyone wanted to go to America where money grows on trees. In 2011 everyone wanted to go to America where they can work hard and send their children to University. In 2019 everyone wanted to visit America and then return to Việt Nam because "the future is HERE."
I heard good things about Vietnam from Australians who lived there.
I seriously doubt that it "docked". Not many ports in the world can meet the shore-power requirements of a Nimitz class carrier. I should know I served on three of them.
You look at the ring of US-friendly nations surrounding Red China's access to the Pacific:
Japan - South Korea - Taiwan - Philippines - Viet Nam - Singapore. Makes a pretty solid wall.
Vietnam is one of the few countries that could go to war with China and hold its own. The US needs to contain an aggressive China. Hopefully that aggression will go away once Xi dies or is ousted. But maybe it won’t. So the US needs to engage in some cold Realpolitik and bring Vietnam - a traditional, historic enemy of China - into the coalition. A China that has successfully invaded Taiwan all the sudden becomes a much, much bigger threat to every other country in the region. The idea that Xi would simply become passive at that point is a fantasy and they all know it.
Excellent post, FRiend...excellent post.
The way our forces were allowed to fight may have been seriously flawed in many respects neither impacts the men who fought it nor the stand we took in attempting to hold the line, both of which I see as examples of what is great about our country, and it was suited to that time in history.
I agree with posters that the Left was our major enemy back then, both here and abroad, but we didn’t realize the full perfidy of the Left until many years later.
Now we know it, all of us, all too well. Those of us who open our eyes, that is.
I am gratified to see that the Philippines has been backing to our side again, and have heard rumors that we will be using Subic Bay again in some manner for our warships even it it isn’t a full-fledged naval base.
The eyes of many Filipinos have been opened to the danger of a Communist China, who opened their eyes with their unbridled aggression in the waters around the Philippines.
I have always liked Filipinos (I lived over there for several years as a military dependent) and it saddened me to see the estrangement of our two countries.
I did the Old Soldier trip in 2003 and have been going back as often as I can ever since. The country is rapidly becoming Disneyland and the tourists of the world have responded immensely.
I went to Cà Mau on my only tour in 2014. I went as part of a Vietnamese tour group and got to see and do a lot more than the foreigner groups because we were up and going at 0430 while the foreigners couldn't get out of bed before 0830 or so. Mostly I divide my time between Cam Lâm and Đồng Nai where two protégés of mine live with their families.
Friendly yes, but if China attacks Taiwan, how many would fight to help repel them? I'd guess only Taiwan itself and South Korea. Maybe Japan.
Except: Việt Nam did not engage with its regular army but with the local area militias. The cost to China was very heavy in lost tanks, planes and men. They also lost many more men than anticipated especially in major ambushes. The invasion was so expensive to China that China will not likely try something like that again.
Viet Nam had been fighting for 20+ years. The chicoms were green. We were dumb enough to not know they hated each other. Mighta been the deep state interests that got us in there.
By 1986, Vietnam realized that Communism doesn’t work.
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.