In new role, Kerry back in Vietnam's Mekong Delta

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Chron

CA MAU, Vietnam (AP) — John Kerry returned Sunday to the winding waterways of Vietnam's Mekong Delta region where he once patrolled on a naval gunboat in the search for communist insurgents.

But nearly 50 years later, Kerry was promoting sustainable aquaculture and trade in a rapidly expanding economy rather than hunting Viet Cong guerrillas at the height of the Vietnam War. This was Kerry's first visit back to the Delta since the war.

On this tour, the secretary of state was clad in long, drab olive cargo pants, a blue-and-white plaid long-sleeved shirt and sunglasses instead of the uniform he wore as a Navy officer in 1968 and 1969. In a new role, Kerry was revisiting the Delta's rivers that made a vivid impression on him as a young lieutenant.

"''I can still close my eyes and I can remember the country that I saw then during the war: the site of water buffalos, incredible narrow rivers, the mangrove, the fishermen and their wooden boats," Kerry said in a video posted to the website of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi promoting his first trip to Vietnam as America's top diplomat.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/In-new-role-Kerry-back-in-Vietnam-s-Mekong-Delta-5064058.php

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Photo By Brian Snyder/AP
(1 of 8)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and his friend and fellow Vietnam War veteran Tommy Vallely, right, walk along a street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnaqm to attend a service at the Notre Dame Cathedral, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013. Forty-four years after first setting foot in the country as a young naval officer, Kerry returned once more to Vietnam on Saturday, this time as America’s top diplomat offering security assurances and seeking to promote democratic and economic reform.

[jberryhill]

1. Can we get them to take John McCain back?

[1000words]

2. Perhaps he can find his integrity there

[Mass]

3. I was not aware he had lost it.

[MBS]

11. + 1000 n/t

[karynnj]

13. + 1000

[Drunken Irishman]

4. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

[1000words]

5. It is my opinion that at some point, Kerry became part of the problem

Perhaps it is the 1%er lifestyle or a lifetime in the D.C. bubble, but the man is a shadow of himself since his last "tour" of the Mekong Delta.

[politichew]

6. Kerry has plenty of integrity.

It's his critics that are full of faux integrity, basing their entire worldview on simplistic bumper sticker slogans that need to find something they've lost.

Hint: Rhymes with garbles.

[MBS]

12. Exactly. n/t.

[karynnj]

14. You said it

[NBachers]

7. Hey, I can't let that statement pass without strongly disagreeing with you.

Perhaps you'd like to share more than seven of those 1000 words making a case to support your dickish statement.

[freshwest]

8. Getting a bad feeling about this...

[Botany]

9. You know nothing of the man and what he has done.

You might want to talk to the man under his command that
he pulled from the river in Vietnam, under fire, as he was
bleeding from a wound in his shoulder from shrapnel.

In 2004 I worked with people from his staff and I met some
of the people who served with him on the swift boat in Vietnam
and lack of integrity is not a problem for Sec. Kerry.

[MBS]

10. + 1000 !

by the way, there will be a story about this trip on ABC This Week, TODAY.

[karynnj]

15. I heard a few of them speak - either in 2004 on TV or in 2010 when most of them surprised him

at a Boston celebration of his 25 years in the Senate and 45 years of service to the country. Even years later the intensity of their respect, love and commitment to their long ago skipper was incredibly apparent from their comments.

[freshwest]

21. + 1000

[strikeforce]

16. 1000 words

perhaps may be lookin for some help here.

i don't think it is integrity to at first say we should punish assad decisively for the gas attack against his people (400 kids gassed to death in their sleep), and then when the wind shifts to say we will do "pinprick" missile attacks that will be a few missiles launched at that.

that is politician kind of talk not integrity kind of talk. standing your ground is integrity.

[Omaha Steve]

17. Perhaps it was his boss's decision???

Anybody?

[karynnj]

19. The point was Never to "punish" but to "deter" Assad from using chemical weapons

If you actually listened to him - he NEVER spoke of punishment and specifically said the target was to stop the use of chemical weapons. As you put "pinpprick" in quotes - it was McCain who used that word. Kerry spoke of a LIMITED Targeted strike that would directly make it harder for them to use chemical weapons. I watched the hearing and all of his speeches - there was NEVER a call by either Obama or Kerry to "punish Assad decisively" - which it sounds like you interpreted as something like smoke and awe.

Interestingly, One recent long background article mentioned that Kerry first brought up trying to remove the chemical weapons to Lavrov when they were speaking of the Geneva 2 peace conference. At that point, the Russians had no interest in pressuring Assad.

If you look at what he really wanted to accomplish - getting all the chemical weapons out is the more effective sure way to do what he stated must be done.

[Kingofalldems]

18. He has now been there twice as many times as the neocon chicken hawk crowd.

[karynnj]

20. More than that - he was there at least 12 times in the 1990s

[davidpdx]

22. A good article

Those who voted against Kerry in 2004 should be ashamed of themselves. He is a statesman and a leader.

[karynnj]

23. Agree, but the article makes one really big error - saying this is the first time Kerry was back

since 1969.

This is a big error as it completely misses a huge Kerry effort - and accomplishment. Kerry led the POW/MIA effort. This is an effort that Kerry took on against the advise of his entire staff. It was considered no win and they understood how emotionally hard it would be for Kerry. He accepted it because he thought it was the right thing to do to honor those who fought. The best description I read in 2004 was actually from a book McCain wrote on his Senate years.

McCain spoke of three difficult things that Kerry did that made the effort which all CW thought doomed from the beginning a success. McCain described how Kerry used his history to push Vietnam to agreeing to let them them go anywhere unannounced. He also managed a group of Senators, including Smith (NH), McCain and Kerrey - all known potential loose cannons - and led them through a process designed to look at everything, allow no leaks and result in a unanimous conclusion. The third thing - that might have been the hardest - is that he kept McCain from exploding several times. (The latter was important not just for McCain, but for any reconciliation effort in Congress where "getting" McCain was important.) Had this failed, there would have been no reconciliation in 1996. As it was, Clinton, needed Kerry and McCain and many other Congressional veterans to narrowly get approval.

This omission is more significant, given that the response from certain foreign policy pundits to Kerry's successes in at least getting diplomatic talks in Israel and Iran and being instrumental in getting Syria to give up chemical weapons, is that he has neglected the "pivot to Asia". (Here's an example - http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/did-obama-forget-about-asia-101139.html ) The basis of this seems to really be a stupid need of some pundits to consider praise for Kerry or Clinton as a zero sum game. I NEVER saw this with Albright and Christopher or Powell and Rice. It has no basis in logic.

Not to mention, these pundits have faulted Kerry for going to Europe first - while Hillary went to Asia first. They ignore that Kerry actually handled a difficult NK flare up very deftly working with China AND that Hillary's initial Asia trip was inconsequential and somewhat awkward. It ignores that Kerry chaired the SFRC committee for Asia early in his Senate career and he was chair of the entire committee for 4 years. In those years, he actually developed relationships most of those countries - including China. He also had been the only Congressional representative at the Bali environmental conference in 2007. Surprisingly, the Bush administration delegation thanked him at a SFRC hearing for the work that he did there and ahead of time that was helpful to them.

In fact, though long before the "pivot", Kerry's work on Vietnam and his work in the Philippines for democratic reform and free elections - that helped them oust Marcos (who the Reagan administration and earlier administrations supported.) - may have given any "pivot" a more solid foundation. (Senator Lugar's book described the work of the committee, but here is part of a 2004 WP summary - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13930-2004Jul25_3.html )

In fact, I personally don't think the US has the choice to choose where its foreign policy should focus. Ignoring that the pivot to Asia seems to have been mostly focused on TPP, which itself is controversial, we can't ignore the inflamed Middle East where instability, often rooted in our past actions and those of the colonial powers before that, threatens the world. If Obama manages to cool even some of those wars, he leaves his successor a more peaceful world.