US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson makes historic stop in Vietnam.

USS Carl Vinson near Da Nang. BBC/Reuters. 

The US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is making a historic stop in Vietnam. BBC. The carrier has anchored at Da Nang, which is historically significant since that is where combat troops first deployed during the Vietnam War. The visit is the first time a US aircraft carrier has been to Vietnam since the war and signals closer ties between the United States and Vietnam. The move is seen as a message to China who is in a dispute with Vietnam and other neighbors over various islands in the South China Sea. The Carl Vinson has been conducting freedom of navigation patrols in the region. 

My Comment:

A fairly bittersweet moment for America. One the one hand it's a sad reminder of our failure in the Vietnam War. We lost that war and because we did so Vietnam is now entirely communist. Though they are not quite as bad as other communists regimes have been, like North Korea, it is still sad that the people of Vietnam have to suffer under communism. 

On the other hand it is good that we finally seem to have moved on from the 60's and 70's. Though our conflict with Vietnam was brutal we are starting to turn an old enemy into a friend. Our relations have greatly improved. We have had several presidents visit the country and we have decent relations with them. 

This visit seems like a huge message to China as well. Obviously any deployment of an aircraft carrier is a political move. But this one is especially important. The most obvious message is that our relationship with Vietnam is a far cry from the violence we had in the 60's and 70's. Now we are friends and potential allies. 

We also may be attempting to make sure that war doesn't break out over the various islands in the South China Sea. Those islands are claimed by pretty much everyone in the region and the situation could spiral out of control into an incident where people die. A war is even possible if things go really bad. Sending an aircraft carrier raises the stakes quite a bit and will make everyone think twice about starting something stupid.