TwoSevensClash
18th August 2010, 06:48
HANOI, Vietnam — An American warship docked Tuesday in central Vietnam as the former foes planned to conduct naval training in a sign of growing military ties amid new warnings from China for the U.S. to stay out of its backyard.
The USS John S. McCain's port call comes as the U.S. and Vietnam celebrate 15 years of normalized diplomatic relations following a bloody war that remains an open wound for many veterans. The two governments, while ideologically different, have embraced on a number of issues, including a recent stance against China's territorial claims over the South China Sea.
The guided-missile destroyer docked Tuesday in central Danang, once the site of a bustling U.S. military base during the Vietnam War, which ended April 30, 1975, when northern communist forces seized control of the U.S.-backed capital of South Vietnam.
Some 58,000 Americans and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese were killed during the war.
Relations have thrived since the former foes shook hands in 1995. The U.S. is Vietnam's top export market and Americans were the country's No. 1 foreign investor last year. Two-way trade reached $15.4 billion in 2009.
The U.S. has ratcheted up its military presence in the region in recent weeks, conducting large-scale joint military exercises with ally South Korea last month as a show of solidarity following the sinking of a South Korean navy warship in March that killed 46 sailors. North Korea was blamed for torpedoing the Cheonan, but it has denied any involvement and has repeatedly threatened war if punished.
China on Tuesday told the U.S. and South Korean navies to keep out of the Yellow Sea, where it claims exclusivity.
On Sunday, the Navy hosted a delegation of Vietnamese military and government officials on the USS George Washington, a hulking nuclear-powered aircraft supercarrier cruising in waters off Vietnam's central coast. Chinese military ships were seen shadowing the carrier in the distance.
"These waters belong to nobody, yet belong to everybody," Capt. David Lausman, commanding officer of the George Washington, said Sunday aboard the mammoth carrier that can carry up to 70 aircraft, more than 5,000 sailors and aviators and about 4 million pounds of bombs. "China has a right to operate here, as do we and as do every other country of the world."
China criticized the U.S.-South Korean drills and later held its own exercises in the South China Sea, which it claims entirely along with the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands over which it exercises complete sovereignty.
The weeklong visit will involve search and rescue trainings.
I guess the Vietnamese are trying to piss China off over the Spartly islands dispute. It would be horrible to see Vietnam become under US influence again.
The USS John S. McCain's port call comes as the U.S. and Vietnam celebrate 15 years of normalized diplomatic relations following a bloody war that remains an open wound for many veterans. The two governments, while ideologically different, have embraced on a number of issues, including a recent stance against China's territorial claims over the South China Sea.
The guided-missile destroyer docked Tuesday in central Danang, once the site of a bustling U.S. military base during the Vietnam War, which ended April 30, 1975, when northern communist forces seized control of the U.S.-backed capital of South Vietnam.
Some 58,000 Americans and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese were killed during the war.
Relations have thrived since the former foes shook hands in 1995. The U.S. is Vietnam's top export market and Americans were the country's No. 1 foreign investor last year. Two-way trade reached $15.4 billion in 2009.
The U.S. has ratcheted up its military presence in the region in recent weeks, conducting large-scale joint military exercises with ally South Korea last month as a show of solidarity following the sinking of a South Korean navy warship in March that killed 46 sailors. North Korea was blamed for torpedoing the Cheonan, but it has denied any involvement and has repeatedly threatened war if punished.
China on Tuesday told the U.S. and South Korean navies to keep out of the Yellow Sea, where it claims exclusivity.
On Sunday, the Navy hosted a delegation of Vietnamese military and government officials on the USS George Washington, a hulking nuclear-powered aircraft supercarrier cruising in waters off Vietnam's central coast. Chinese military ships were seen shadowing the carrier in the distance.
"These waters belong to nobody, yet belong to everybody," Capt. David Lausman, commanding officer of the George Washington, said Sunday aboard the mammoth carrier that can carry up to 70 aircraft, more than 5,000 sailors and aviators and about 4 million pounds of bombs. "China has a right to operate here, as do we and as do every other country of the world."
China criticized the U.S.-South Korean drills and later held its own exercises in the South China Sea, which it claims entirely along with the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands over which it exercises complete sovereignty.
The weeklong visit will involve search and rescue trainings.
I guess the Vietnamese are trying to piss China off over the Spartly islands dispute. It would be horrible to see Vietnam become under US influence again.