U.S. starts courting Vietnam

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, courted Vietnam over the past several days.

He was the first chairman in more than 40 years to visit the old enemy of Washington, now envisioned as a new partner that will acquire American weapons and help offset the power of China.

Dempsey, who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy as the Vietnam War was winding down, never served here, but his visit capped a vibrant effort by the United States and Vietnam to reconnect.

A longstanding embargo on lethal weapons sales by the United States is likely to be eased, he said, and Washington would then begin discussions on what equipment Vietnam would buy, most likely in the field of maritime surveillance.

Vietnam has suddenly become more important to Washington as the United States and China are increasingly at loggerheads over the South China Sea, one of the world’s most vital trading routes. Vietnam is crucial because of its strategic position bordering China, its large population of nearly 100 million and its long coastline on that sea.

“We do think we should have a steady improvement in our relationship with the Vietnamese military,” Dempsey told a group of reporters here Saturday. “I would suggest as goes Vietnam in managing its maritime resources and territorial disputes, so goes the South China Sea.”

During his three-day visit, Dempsey met in Hanoi with Vietnam’s most senior officer, Gen. Do Ba Ty, who last year traveled to Washington, where he was entertained at the chairman’s home. Dempsey visited Vietnamese vessels and met with their crew in Da Nang, once the site of a major U.S. base. He also inspected a U.S. thermal treatment plant in Da Nang designed to clean up a deadly ingredient in Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed by the U.S. military over South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, visited Hanoi this month and said the time had come to modify the arms embargo so the United States could help Vietnam with defense abilities.

In May, China deployed a sophisticated deep-sea oil rig to disputed waters off the Vietnam coast, a move that resulted in anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam and two months of skirmishes at sea between well-equipped Chinese coast guard boats and more rudimentary Vietnamese vessels. While moving closer to Washington, Vietnam, which is ruled by a Communist Party that still values its fraternal relations with Beijing and is locked into economic dependence on China, has indicated it is not about to ditch its powerful northern neighbor.

-ews-journal.com