Vietnam shopping for US military equipment

The US fought a war in Vietnam to prevent a Domino effect of countries in the Pacific Rim falling to Communism. When the US left Vietnam in 1975, the new communist Vietnamese government did their best to make the Domino Theory a reality. They invaded Cambodia, but they were stopped cold by the Chinese which lost about 70,000 military casualties in their efforts, first in direct heavy combat and then in a two decade-long low intensity conflict which ended in 1990 with both sides declaring victory. Now, the Vietnamese are worried about the Chinese again as they make motions to control the South China Seas and the land it touches. So the Vietnamese are turning to the US to modernize their armies;

Squeezed by slower U.S. military spending, defense firms are looking to Southeast Asian nations for new markets, capitalizing on their concerns about China’s outlays on long-range planes, ships and submarines. The April roadshow, organized by the U.S. embassy, follows Washington’s easing of curbs on sales of nonlethal defense systems to Vietnam last October.

“In the coming months there will be more conversations, meetings and trips back-and-forth between American companies and their potential Vietnamese clients,” said Vu Tu Thanh, chief Vietnam representative of the U.S.-Asean Business Council, who attended the day-long symposium. “There is a surge of interest among American defense contractors.”

[…]

Vietnam’s military spending has risen 128 percent since 2005, reflecting its territorial tensions with China, according to an April report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Its defense budget jumped 9.6 percent in 2014 to $4.3 billion, it said.

The U.S. is providing Vietnam with six patrol boats, part of an $18 million military aid package.

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Nixon opened China to end the war in Vietnam and now we’ll “lose China” by arming Vietnam. Sounds like a job for John Kerry.

Category: Foreign Policy