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Maybe not stubborn, but pride. The desire to be independent is very strong. I think that is good in the long run but must be able to compromise whenever necessary. I think it is right to kick out the French. If the US didn't interfere, wonder what would have been the result.
(finally no more the New Recruit label)
Ok pride may be a better term. I think, too seeking a peaceful solution is better than leading a nation thru a valley of blood and tears. But sometimes there is no way out. To understand Vietnam you should understand their way of thinking. Here a video cut from a popular theatre piece, depicting the first Vietnamese rebellion led by the Trung sisters against the Han Chinese rule in the years 38-43.

Why the rebellion?

Vietnam back in the days was a province of Chinese empire, ruled by a central authority in China and local lords in Vietnam. All starts when the husband of Trung's elder sister was executed by the Han Chinese. The Chinese accused Trung's elder husband of committing treason. The Trung sisters vowed to revenge, utilizing the wide spred Vietnamese public anger against the Chinese rule. The ultimate goal: ending the Chinese rule and leading Vietnam out of slavery.

The Trung's were of noble families. They learned martial arts since childhood.

 
Ok pride may be a better term. I think, too seeking a peaceful solution is better than leading a nation thru a valley of blood and tears. But sometimes there is no way out. To understand Vietnam you should understand their way of thinking. Here a video cut from a popular theatre piece, depicting the first Vietnamese rebellion led by the Trung sisters against the Han Chinese rule in the years 38-43.

Why the rebellion?

Vietnam back in the days was a province of Chinese empire, ruled by a central authority in China and local lords in Vietnam. All starts when the husband of Trung's elder sister was executed by the Han Chinese. The Chinese accused Trung's elder husband of committing treason. The Trung sisters vowed to revenge, utilizing the wide spred Vietnamese public anger against the Chinese rule. The ultimate goal: ending the Chinese rule and leading Vietnam out of slavery.

The Trung's were of noble families. They learned martial arts since childhood.


The West have a lot of wars. Despite WW1, they reconciled and cooperated to subjugate the rest of the world. Asians must put their differences aside and focus on progress. It's not wise to get involved in India's geopolitics. See what they do in Sri Lanka, Nepal. Even Bangladesh whom they help liberate don't buy arms from India. I am surprised you are not aware of Vietnam's industrial progress. Welcome to the Asian Tigers Club. There will be a time for Made in Vietnam destroyer.
Sacrifice for the greater good is necessary. Sun Yat Sen chose mandarin to be the national language of China even though he is a Cantonese.
 
The West have a lot of wars. Despite WW1, they reconciled and cooperated to subjugate the rest of the world. Asians must put their differences aside and focus on progress. It's not wise to get involved in India's geopolitics. See what they do in Sri Lanka, Nepal. Even Bangladesh whom they help liberate don't buy arms from India. I am surprised you are not aware of Vietnam's industrial progress. Welcome to the Asian Tigers Club. There will be a time for Made in Vietnam destroyer.
Sacrifice for the greater good is necessary. Sun Yat Sen chose mandarin to be the national language of China even though he is a Cantonese.
we are always for cooperation with the Chinese. it is not that we seek confrontation. but cooperation should base on mutual respect and equality. however that is something China will never agree. or hardly agree. do you remember of what I told you recently about Chinese refugees that are now settled overall in SE Asia? we gave them shelter because we are convinced we do the right thing, and although we knew would have to bear the brunt of Chinese aggression.

Asia united is a long way to go. actually the Chinese have in their hands to make that happens. they have the people and the means. it is up to the Chinese if they want it or not. Vietnam will not stand in their way.

true I was a bit surprised of Vietnam's industrial progress. it is a good thing at first sign, but when I look closer to it, it is not as bright as it may seem. we still have a long way to go. India can help Vietnam to ease the Chinese military pressure on the eastern and northern flank. it is not wise to comment on India internal and external politics. not only it is out of scope.
 
Well, look like our Naval Police can use another ship or two so we will take it :) The configuration of Hamilton class is ill-suit for direct warfare but more than enough for peace time patrolling. Another operator of this class of ship in the region is the Philippine but in that case they are belong to the Navy.

US Coast Guard decommissions fourth Hamilton-class cutter

US Coast Guard file photo of USCGC Morgenthau

The U.S. Coast Guard is set to decommission its eighth high endurance cutter USCGC Morngethau during a ceremony at Base Honolulu, on Tuesday.

The Hamilton-class cutter is being retired after nearly 50 years of service as part of the Coast Guard’s recapitalization efforts.

USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC 722), a 378-foot high endurance cutter, saw action in the Vietnam War, numerous major drug interdictions and law enforcement cases, and a variety of noteworthy rescues.

Commissioned March 10, 1969, Morgenthau was the eighth of 12 cutters in the class built by Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans.

The first three decommissioned Hamilton-class cutters were transferred to the Philippine Navy which commissioned the vessels as Gredorio Del Pilar frigates. USCGC Morgenthau is being transferred to Vietnam under the Foreign Assistance Act which allows the transfer of excess defense articles as a grant to friendly, foreign governments.

High endurance cutters are the largest cutters, aside from the three major icebreakers and national security cutters, ever built for the Coast Guard.

In 1977, Morgenthau became the first cutter to have women permanently assigned, which paved the way for numerous women to serve aboard Coast Guard cutters nationwide.

In the fall of 1996, Morgenthau was the first U.S. Coast Guard cutter to deploy to the Arabian Gulf. Participating in Operation Vigilant Sentinel, Morgenthau enforced Iraq’s compliance with United Nations sanctions.

Correction: This article initially stated that there was a possibility for the USCGC Morgenthau to be transferred to the Philippine Navy. Morgenthau is being transferred to Vietnam.
 
From Vietnam defense television: domestic companies acquire the technology and successfully produce 9M311 computer that controls Sosna-R ship based anti-aircraft gun/missile system. The fire control computer 9M311 usually costs $100,000 if purchased, designed to guide 8 anti aircraft missiles and a dual rapid firing gun AO-18KD system. The dual guns can spit 10,000 bullets a minute.

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Top Vietnamese diplomat in US to gauge new Trump administration

By Dien Luong
April 20, 2017 | 12:00 am GMT+7

VietnamSouthChinaSeAaUSChina11-7359-5489-1492611813_m_660x0.jpg

The USS John S. McCain at Tien Sa Port in Da Nang, visiting as part of the seventh annual Naval Engagement Activity between the US Navy and the Vietnam People's Navy in October 2016. Photo by AFP/U.S. Embassy in Hanoi


Vnexpress

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh begins his two-day visit to the U.S. on Thursday at a time when Hanoi is trying to deepen ties with Washington in the face of a tempestuous Trump presidency.

Minh, an American-trained seasoned diplomat, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the U.S. is “one of Vietnam's most important partners”. Minh will meet with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson during the visit.

Minh’s trip is set to pave the way for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to make his first visit to Washington since taking office last year. Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh is also planning to visit for security talks with U.S. defense officials in the next couple of months, according to Murray Hiebert, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Last December, President Trump spoke to Prime Minister Phuc by phone and expressed a desire to strengthen the warming ties between the two countries. In late February, Trump sent a letter to President Tran Dai Quang suggesting he was interested in promoting bilateral cooperation.

Vietnam is Southeast Asia’s biggest exporter to the U.S., and Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a mammoth U.S.-led trade deal whose 12 members make up nearly 40 percent of global GDP, was viewed as a major setback for Vietnam's economy.

By immediately pulling the plug on the TPP after taking office, Trump has undone the signature policy of his predecessor Barack Obama, who received a boisterous rock-star welcome during his three-day visit to Vietnam last May.

However, "Vietnamese officials have wasted little time trying to connect with the new U.S. president and pitching Vietnam’s role as one of the United States’ most reliable partners in Southeast Asia, and in dealing with disputes in the South China Sea," Hiebert said.

Tensions over the flashpoint South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, have pitted Beijing against its smaller neighbors in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.

Minh’s visit to Washington comes on the heels of his trip to China, which wrapped up on Tuesday. During the visit, Beijing and Hanoi pledged to strengthen bilateral relations through pragmatic cooperation.

The timing of these visits is in line with Vietnam’s long-standing strategy to stabilize ties with Beijing whenever possible, analysts say.

“It is a long-standing tradition that senior Vietnamese officials travel to Beijing before coming to the U.S. Vietnam wants to assure China that it’s not abandoning its deep ties with Beijing,” Hiebert told VnExpress International.

“The same thing happened just before Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong visited Washington in 2015,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has continued to host high-level meetings with counterparts from Japan, India and the U.S.

“It is clearly sending a message that Hanoi is preparing for a return of tensions with China even as it seeks to improve relations during the current period of relative stability,” Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said

More quietly, two weeks ago, Vietnamese ambassador to the U.S. Pham Quang Vinh made a historic trip to the West Point, becoming Vietnam's first-ever diplomat to call on America’s premier military academy.

To many analysts, that visit was largely symbolic. But in diplomacy, that matters.

"It demonstrates that Vietnam is continuing to explore deepening ties with the U.S., even under the new administration, at all levels of society,” Hiebert said.

“Yes, it shows that Vietnam wants to continue military ties with the U.S. in the face of China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.”
 
In the series of Vietnamese in exile

South Africa

South Africa's Honorary Consul Đỗ Thị Kim Liên (left) donates on behalf of Vietnamese friendship club 5 houses worth $15,418 to social welfare beneficiaries of Navy personnel. Liên says South Africa has high demand for Vietnamese goods and is rich of natural resources, which can be exported in large amounts fueling Vietnam economic growth. She expects bilateral trades will double this year.

Great :tup:

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US Approves Transfer of Hamilton Class Large Patrol Ship to Vietnam

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US Coast Guard ship USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC 722) has withdrawn from service and will be transferred to Vietnam.

The information was published by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) in its April 13, 2017 report, posted on its official website.

Specifically, the USCGC Morgenthau Coast Guard (WHEC 722) has just been withdrawn from the US Coast Guard, which will be transferred to Vietnam under the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program.

Vietnam has proposed to buy three US patrol boats, however the figure passed is only one, which was approved on October 3, 2016.

The Hamilton-based USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC 722) patrol boat was built at the Avondale Plant, which was officially established on March 10, 1969, and has just retired on April 18,

The ship has a full load stretch of 3,250 tons; Length 115 m; Width 13 m; Draft of 4.6 m; 160 crew members (20 officers, 140 crew members); USCGC Morgenthau's home port in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The WHEC 722 is equipped with a combination of two diesel engines and two gas turbine engines for a top speed of 29 knots (53.7 km / h), a range of 14,000 nautical miles (22,531 Km), 45 days continuous seeding time.

Weapon equipment of the WHEC 722 includes the AN / SPS-40 airborne surveillance radar, the 76.2 mm Oto Breda main gun, the 20 mm Phalanx CIWS close-in defense system, the 25 mm Bushmaster M242 automatic gun and 12.7 mm M2 Browning heavy machine gun and a 7.62 mm M240 light hun.

Based on the precedents of the Hamilton ships shipped to the US Navy by the United States, the equipment may be removed prior to transfer.

However, if everything goes well, USCGC Morgenthau will still be very useful to Vietnam as it is a large vessel with wide range of activities and long seas, This is important for our ability to enforce maritime law.

http://defense-studies.blogspot.co.id/2017/04/us-approves-transfer-of-hamilton-class.html

http://soha.vn/dsca-my-chap-thuan-c...p-hamilton-cho-viet-nam-20170419095424478.htm
 
I wonder if Vietnam will try and fit its home produced weaponry (such as missiles and CIWS) on to the new Hamilton cutter it's receiving.
 
US Vice President Mike Pence told reporters in Jakarta, his boss Donald Trump will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam scheduled in November this year.

http://thehill.com/policy/international/asia-pacific/329658-pence-trump-to-visit-philippines-Vietnam


Viet oi, would you be interested in posting the text of this article? It looks interesting, but I'm traveling in China and the site is blocked: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...-uses-old-naval-base-make-new-friends?ref=yfp
 
Vietnam uses an old naval base to make new friends
Cam Ranh Bay is welcoming American warships again

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Print edition | Asia
Apr 20th 2017| CAM RANH BAY


NEAR the point where Vietnam bulges deepest into the South China Sea lies Cam Ranh Bay, perhaps the finest natural deepwater harbour in South-East Asia. France based a fleet there in colonial times. Russian ships made use of it in the Russo-Japanese war, Japanese ones during the second world war and American ones during the Vietnam war.

After the American withdrawal and communist triumph, the government of the newly reunited Vietnam leased the naval base to the Soviet Union. Russia gave up the facility in 2002. Today it is Russian tourists who flock to Cam Ranh International Airport, with its American-built airstrip, on their way to the beaches of nearby Nha Trang.

These days Vietnam ostensibly follows a policy of “Three Nos”: no military alliances, no foreign bases and no joining with another country to fight a third. Nonetheless, adjacent to the Vietnamese naval base at Cam Ranh is a facility that receives foreign military vessels. In theory it is a purely commercial venture, open to the ships of any country willing to pay for the maintenance and refuelling it provides. But it also serves a strategic purpose: sending a defiant message to a resurgent and expansionist China by allowing Vietnam to strengthen military ties with an increasingly diverse group of countries.

Anti-Chinese sentiment runs deep among ordinary Vietnamese. Vietnam fought wars against both America and China in the 1970s. But these days Americans, by and large, are received with affection, whereas many Vietnamese remain convinced that China still has territorial designs on their country.

In 2014 China sent an oil rig to a disputed part of the South China Sea, sparking anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam. Since then both sides have been careful not to stoke tensions. China has called off the drilling; Vietnam has made mollifying noises about solving disputes bilaterally, as China prefers. But for Vietnam, the underlying problem is unchanged: how does a small, poor country defend itself against a bigger, richer one?

The Philippines, under Rodrigo Duterte, has pioneered one approach: apparent capitulation. In exchange for massive investment in infrastructure, Mr Duterte has decided not to press China over their territorial dispute. Vietnam, using Cam Ranh Bay, is trying something else: diversification. Since the foreign-vessel facility opened a year ago, it has received 19 ships from 10 countries. China and America tie for the most visits, at three each. But every other visit save one has come from countries that have shown some form of opposition to China’s expansive maritime claims, including France and Japan. Vietnam appears to be reminding China of just how many friends and suitors it has—and just how well it can look after their warships.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Dock and cover"
 
I wonder if Vietnam will try and fit its home produced weaponry (such as missiles and CIWS) on to the new Hamilton cutter it's receiving.
since the confrontation with the Chinese at sea (oil rig crisis) all Vietnam patrol vessels are armed by light and heavy rapid fire machine guns. so I expect the new US made ship will be no exception. all are no warships, so no missiles no CIWS. interesting: the US Hamilton-class will be the largest vessel for the Coast Guard.

800px-Vietnam_Marine_Police_vessel_main_patrol_type.jpg


more interesting is if we can copy the ship design, improve with stealth, speed and survivability and convert it to a frigate or destroyer. once done, we can install missiles, CIWS and other lethal means, including Vietnam made weapons. I think 2 squadrons frigate/destroyer a 6 pieces each would be suffient for our needs to confront our biggest threat at sea right now: the Chinese surface fleets.

 

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