Marines back in Vietnam

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 12

Marines back in Vietnam

From “The Economist,” London

Almost exactly 19 years after the first American Marines landed at Da Nang, 1000 Soviet marines' waded ashore in Vietnam last month in that country’s first-ever joint military exercises with the Soviet Union.

The landings took place 160 kilometres south of the port of Haiphong on the Gulf of Tonkin. Eight Soviet warships were involved, including the aircraft carrier Kiev and the assault ship Ivan Rogov. The Vietnamese ships in the exercise are believed to have included small missile attack boats and frigates provided by the Russians five years ago. Vietnam’s Foreign Minister explained the exercise as normal among allies. But although Vietnam and the Soviet Union have had a defence pact since 1978, it

has taken six years for them to hold joint exercises. The Vietnamese have held back partly out of nationalist pride, partly so as not to put more strain on their already touchy relations with their non-communist neighbours. Soviet reconnaissance aircraft have been operating out of Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay airfields since 1979, and Soviet warships visit Cam Ranh Bay regularly. The lavish American-built facilities at Cam Ranh have provided the Russians with a useful base for their naval operations in the South China sea. A pier and underground shelters for nuclear submarines were completed in 1980, and a submarine tender is permanently based there. If the Russians were to persuade Vietnam not only to play war games but also to grant them a

full-scale base, they could further extend the reach and staying power of the Soviet Pacific fleet. The Vietnamese have at least two possible reasons for giving in on joint exercises now. First, they want new Soviet weapons, including some kinds that have been supplied to India but denied to them — Mig-23 fighters, new attack helicopters, T--72 tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

Second, Vietnam may have been unnerved by China’s mini-invasion earlier this month, the first since the border war of 1979. Since 1979 China has responded to Vietnamese offensives in Kampuchea mainly with artillery fire. This time Vietnam may have been caught off guard by the attack. The exercises which took place eight days later could have been meant as a message to China.

Copyright — The Economist.