US troops to train Vietnamese military

[lenidog]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US military experts will return to Vietnam to train its soldiers, under an agreement struck during Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's landmark visit to Washington, the Washington Times reported.

Khai is the most senior Vietnamese official to visit the United States since the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago, which left 58,000 US troops and at least three million Vietnamese civilians and soldiers dead.

"We have agreed that Vietnam will take part in the IMET military training program," Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, who is accompanying Khai on his week long trip, told the Times, referring to an International Military Education and Training (IMET) accord signed by Hanoi and the Pentagon this week.

American military specialists will provide medical, technical and language support to Vietnam under the program, aimed at promoting military-to-military relations between the United States and foreign countries.

"At the initial stage, we will receive support in training our military in terms of English, and some of the medical staff and technical staff," Khoan said.

"Both sides see this as another step in the development of normal bilateral military relations," he said, adding that the agreement "will open the door to more exchanges and opportunities of mutual value."

Defense spokesman Greg Hicks said that details of the IMET working-level proposal still had to be worked out.

"It could include a more robust military-to-military relationship," he said. He declined to give further details.

But Khoan said there was no desire to talk about establishing US bases in Vietnam.

US President George W. Bush welcomed Khai to the White House and thanked him for his government's cooperation on locating and repatriating the remains of US military personnel killed during the Vietnam war.

"It's very comforting to many families here in America to understand that the government is providing information to help close a sad chapter in their lives," said the president.

[RetroLounge]

1. Will we call them Advisors?

Deja Vu all over again...

RL

[Renew Deal]

2. Lead by John Kerry, John McCain

Those two vile traders :rofl: have always supported the VC.

[catnhatnh]

6. Sorry-I gotta call bullshit...

...what McCain's become is indeed sorry but to denigrate his service in Vietnam IS "failure to support the troops"....

[Renew Deal]

7. It was a joke.

Maybe I should have added this: :sarcasm: BTW, you curiously excluded Kerry.

[catnhatnh]

9. You're right....

...and my bad...

[bluestateguy]

3. Paying attention Freeper lurkers?

Your president, not Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, but your president, will be using US troops, with US tax dollars to train Communist Vietnamese soldiers.

My God, I can only imagine the blood curdling shrieks of outrage from the PNAC-right and the hate radio circuit if Bill Clinton ever proposed such a move.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. Watch them support Bush's decision

Heh heh. They'll say he's honoring a promise no other president has honored or something like that.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. This is a surefire way for the Vietnamese to go down to defeat in any

future conflicts. What the VietCong achieved in their pajamas and bicycles, they will now need Yves St.Laurent designed camouflage jackets and Humvees.They will wind up needing a McDonald's on their way to the battlefield.That, as they say, is how the world turns.Chalk one more victory up for the American Way.

On Edit: And how could I forget that the New Vietnamese Army will need Beyonce and Lindsay to come and entertain them.

[lenidog]

12. I wonder how the found of the Vietnamese army views this?

Giap is still alive an well as far as I know. He probably laughing his ass off at the irony of it all.

[KlatooBNikto]

14. Yes indeed.General Giap is alive and well. The man some compare

to the greatest military geniuses the world has known, is probably rolling on the floor laughing his ass off.

[onager]

17. Speaking of irony and Gen. Giap...

I always thought it was ironic that Giap and Westmoreland were both basically fired over the Tet Offensive. And for exactly opposite reasons.

Giap achieved a great political victory. Since Westy had just been announcing "light at the end of the tunnel" a couple of months before, the Tet Offensive came as a huge shock to most of the U.S. media and self-proclaimed experts. There was the seizure of all the provincial capitals, near-capture of the US Embassy in Saigon, the Stalingrad-type street fighting in Hue City, the famous picture of Gen. Loan assassinating a VC suspect, etc.

But Giap's bosses wanted a huge military victory, which he couldn't possibly win. They kicked him upstairs to a staff job in Hanoi.

Westmoreland did win a great military victory. US forces broke the back of the Viet Cong in the South, at least temporarily, and kept the NVA from taking main targets like the Khe Sanh base and Hue City. (Though they literally had to destroy Hue in order to save it...)

But politically, Tet was a disaster for Westmoreland. His cheery estimates finally caught up to him; by the time of Tet, I think Westmoreland's famous Body Counts totalled about twice the number of VC who actually lived in South Vietnam.

The Pentagon brought him back to the US and made him Army Chief of Staff.

Gen. Giap's books on the Vietnam War are very interesting reading, except when he wanders off into stiff, unnatural Marxist rhetoric. Maybe that was his ghost-writer...;)

[Squatch]

5. MAC-V part deux

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. As good as our military is doing, it should be the other way around.

As I recall, they kicked our asses. As are the Iraqis and Afghans using much the same tactics as the VC did.

The irony is overwhelming, though the "training" listed doesn't involve combat training. Wonder why? It would be like Muhammed Ali asking Floyd Patterson for boxing lessons.

[lenidog]

11. From the sounds of the article this is like prepatory training

they are going to get them up to speed with our tecnhology, terms, etc. Then later probably dive into combat or weapons training.

[marbuc]

10. Why aren't these people working overtime to train Iraqi troops?

Call me crazy, but I think we need to expend every resource on this mission so our soldiers can start coming home.

[catmandu57]

13. Wait a minute didn't we do this already?

and didn't they kick our ass?

[Another Bill C.]

15. Do you have a link?

I tried searching but I can't locate the article.

[Moderator]

18. lenidog

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source
and post a link to the
source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator