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Posts Tagged Vietnam
China and Philippines Dispute In South China Sea Heats Up
From Al Jazeera:
Chinese vessels have challenged a Philippine military plane on patrol over disputed waters in the South China Sea, according to the Philippine military.
The Islander aircraft was flying over Subi Reef on April 19 when a Chinese vessel radioed a warning, Brigadier-General Joselito Kakilala, a Philippine military spokesperson, said on Sunday.
From Fox News:
The Philippines on Sunday urged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take immediate steps to halt land reclamation by China in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, warning that failure to do so will see Beijing take “de facto control” of the area.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that if China’s construction of artificial islands on reefs claimed by other countries is allowed to be completed, then Beijing will impose its claim over more than 85 percent of the sea.
Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam
“Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam is republished with permission of Stratfor.”
Summary
Editor’s Note:Â This is the first of a three-part series about Russia’s intensifying focus on East Asia. Part 1 examines Russia’s traditional interests in the region and its closer relationship with Vietnam.
Recent challenges in exporting energy to Europe have made an orientation toward Asia more desirable for Moscow. Russia’s economy depends on hydrocarbon exports, and while Western Europe is attempting to become less dependent on Russia by seeking new energy sources, Asian markets have large and indiscriminate appetites for energy.
Although Russia’s focus in Asia traditionally has been on China, Japan and South Korea, it also has ties to Southeast Asia, which remains a strategically significant — though not absolutely essential — area for Moscow’s efforts to extend its influence and energy exports eastward. Notably, Moscow recently struck a spate of energy and defense deals with Hanoi in an effort to strengthen their relationship, open up new markets for Russian energy and balance against China’s moves in Central Asia. Moscow’s moves into Asia through Vietnam are proceeding piecemeal, paralleling Russian moves elsewhere in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez
Medal of Honor citation
BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
Rank and organization: Master Sergeant. Organization: Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam
Place and date: West of Loc Ninh on May 2, 1968
Entered service at: Houston, Texas June 1955
Born: August 5, 1935, DeWitt County, Cuero, Texas.
Citation:Â Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. Benavidez United States Army, who distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam. On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters in a dense jungle area west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about confirmed large-scale enemy activity. This area was controlled and routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance, and requested emergency extraction. Three helicopters attempted extraction, but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and anti-aircraft fire. Read the rest of this entry »
Never Fight a Land War in Asia
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 1/Mar/2011 15:23
Never Fight a Land War in Asia is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By George Friedman
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking at West Point, said last week that “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.†In saying this, Gates was repeating a dictum laid down by Douglas MacArthur after the Korean War, who urged the United States to avoid land wars in Asia. Given that the United States has fought four major land wars in Asia since World War II — Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq — none of which had ideal outcomes, it is useful to ask three questions: First, why is fighting a land war in Asia a bad idea? Second, why does the United States seem compelled to fight these wars? And third, what is the alternative that protects U.S. interests in Asia without large-scale military land wars?
The Hindrances of Overseas Wars
Let’s begin with the first question, the answer to which is rooted in demographics and space. The population of Iraq is currently about 32 million. Afghanistan has a population of less than 30 million. The U.S. military, all told, consists of about 1.5 million active-duty personnel (plus 980,000 in the reserves), of whom more than 550,000 belong to the Army and about 200,000 are part of the Marine Corps. Given this, it is important to note that the United States strains to deploy about 200,000 troops at any one time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that many of these troops are in support rather than combat roles. The same was true in Vietnam, where the United States was challenged to field a maximum of about 550,000 troops (in a country much more populous than Iraq or Afghanistan) despite conscription and a larger standing army. Indeed, the same problem existed in World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
The Longest War?
Many media outlets have recently started calling the war in Afghanistan the “longest war in United States history”. That statement is factually incorrect and they don’t care because it just makes things simpler by calling it the longest war. There are other wars which have gone on longer but have not had the continuous conflict of the Afghan war, which is actually what the media is referring to. The Korean War was never officially ended. An armistice was signed but there has been no official document which would end the state of war that existed between the United States and North Korea.
Oliver North has a few other examples in an article he wrote:
The U.S. Army’s campaigns against Geronimo, Cochise and other Apache leaders in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas went on continuously for nearly 40 years. Though Afghanistan has surpassed Vietnam in duration, it isn’t even our longest foreign military engagement. That distinction belongs to U.S. military operations during the Philippine Insurrection — which began concurrently with the end of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, and lasted until 1913. Notably, the number of U.S. casualties suffered in the Philippines — more than 7,100 — is approximately the same as the number of U.S. casualties to date in Afghanistan.
Sniper: Inside The Crosshairs
Last night The History Channel aired one of the finer programs that I have seen on that channel. The program was two hours of real world stories of snipers from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. The program showed some of the longest shots in sniper warfare and discussed the force multiplier effect of a sniper on the battlefield. I highly recommend this show for anyone slightly interested in the subject.