Vietnam Defence Forum

[Carlosa]

Happy New Year to all !!!!!

 

[TenLua]

As i have already said the existence of this low quality thread is for viet members to hide in here n troll other nations with impunity.

You're one terrible shill. They pay you for this shit? LMAO

 

[Viet]

Crown Princess Masako, Crown Prince Naruhito, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko wave to well-wishers during the New Year's celebrations at the Imperial Palace on Monday. | KYODO

NATIONAL
Emperor and Empress to make goodwill visit to Vietnam in early March
KYODO


Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are planning to make their first visit to Vietnam in early March, according to a source close to the Imperial Household Agency.

The Imperial Couple have received many invitations from Vietnamese leaders when they have visited Japan, the source said.

It would be their first overseas trip since last January, when they traveled to the Philippines as part of their effort to commemorate the people killed during World War II. They paid respects to all of the fallen, including Filipinos, as part of their mission to promote international friendship.

It would also be their first travel outside the country since the Emperor said last August that he is concerned his advanced age could one day prevent him from fulfilling his public duties. His unprecedented video message prompted the government to establish an advisory panel to study the feasibility of abdication.

The 83-year-old Emperor and the 82-year-old Empress are expected to attend public events in Hanoi. The trip could last five days as they will also travel to the central Vietnam city of Hue, the source said.

Shortly after the Vietnam trip, the Emperor and Empress may attend a memorial ceremony March 11 marking the sixth anniversary of the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

 

[Viet]

Industry
South Korea and Vietnam looking at co-operation
Jon Grevatt, Bangkok - IHS Jane's Defence Industry
27 December 2016

South Korea and Vietnam are looking to expand defence links including potential trade, according to official statements.

In Hanoi on 26 December, the two countries held their fifth annual bilateral defence and strategic dialogue, which was attended by Vietnam's deputy defence minister Nguyen Chi Vinh and his visiting counterpart Minister Hwang In-moo.

The South Korean Ministry of National Defence (MND) said the talks are focused on several areas of co-operation including defence equipment and related support as well as finalising an agreement under which South Korea is expected to provide Vietnam with military aid.

The two countries will also expand links in military training and peacekeeping operations, said the MND.

 

[Viet]

The 6th Kilo attack submarine is about to enter the Indian Ocean, expectedly arrives Singapore in middle January before heading to final destination the Camranh Bay.

Newly Vietnam made mobile long range acquisition radar RV-02, based on Belarus Vostok-e radar system. Range 360km.

One of coastal artillery systems to target enemy ships once being acquired by military radar: 4K51.

 

[Viet]

Vietnam is one step closer to producing armored troop transporters. Assembly lines are set up in a factory in Danang city.

 

[Carlosa]

Vietnam in good stead regionally and internationally: Carl Thayer - News VietNamNet
Emeritus Professor Carl Thayer from the Australian Defence Force Academy spoke with VET about Vietnam's foreign relations in 2016 and the outlook for 2017.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/go...ionally-and-internationally--carl-thayer.html

■ Looking back on 2016, what were the major changes in Vietnam’s political and diplomatic affairs?

The most positive domestic development for Vietnam in 2016 was the smooth leadership transition in the Party and the State ushered in by National Party Congress XII in January. Vietnam was politically stable during 2016. Secondly, its economy continued to grow at over 6 per cent and the country maintained macro-economic stability.

Vietnam’s diversification and multilateralization of external relations was conducted with great success, especially with major powers and neighbors. Vietnam’s new State President Tran Dai Quang made trips to Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, and Italy. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, meanwhile, visited China and Russia. Vietnam also received visits by the Presidents of the US, Laos, the Philippines, France and Myanmar, and the Prime Ministers of India and Cambodia.

The most successful foreign policy development was the elevation of India-Vietnam ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership during the official visit to Vietnam by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September.

In 2016 Vietnam reverted to a collective leadership with a stronger role for the Party Secretary General. Vietnam’s handling of the mass fish deaths in the central and north-central regions, caused by pollution from a steel mill belonging to Formosa Plastics, could have been quicker and more decisive. It appeared that the new leadership had some difficulties coordinating among five or more ministries.

The Ministry of National Defense acted proactively in advancing international defense cooperation. The Minister of Defense exchanged visits with Russia, China and India and received the French Defense Minister. Vietnam advanced defense relations with the UK at a time when both sides felt the strategic partnership had not reached its potential. Vietnam hosted eleven defense delegations from the major powers: one from India, two from Japan, and four each from China and the US. France and Vietnam also held their first strategic Defense Policy Dialogue.

Both President Quang and Prime Minister Phuc made get-to-know-you visits after taking office. President Quang floated the idea of changing ASEAN’s consensus decision-making process while visiting Singapore. This idea has some backers in Singapore and Malaysia. I think all of Vietnam’s top leaders were viewed as competent.

■ What challenges may Vietnam face in 2017?

Vietnam faces three major internal challenges: accelerating the equitization of State-owned enterprises to address the debt issue, maintaining momentum in the anti-corruption campaign, and further promoting grassroots democracy by universalizing the direct election of people’s committees at the local level, including the provincial level.

■ How do you view Vietnam’s foreign relations with major powers in 2017?

The major foreign policy issue facing Vietnam in 2017 will be managing its relations between China and the US and managing its relations with the US under a Trump Administration. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should coordinate with relevant ministries to prepare a background brief for US Congress and Cabinet members on the TPP, to show that Vietnam will not be taking jobs away from Americans. At the same time, Vietnam has enlisted Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore to join it in lobbying for a revised TPP among the new elite in Washington. Japan and Australia are likely to support this initiative.

Vietnam-US relations held center stage at the time of President Obama’s visit last May. Since then, Secretary of State John Kerry has given more attention to the Middle East, although he did invite Mr. Dinh The Huynh, Politburo Member and Standing Member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee’s Secretariat, to visit Washington.

In 2017, Vietnam will find it hard to be heard because it is not on Donald Trump’s list of priorities, except for withdrawing from the TPP. Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh should build personal relations with the new Secretary of State after he is confirmed. In addition to lobbying for a revised TPP, Vietnam should discuss with the Trump Administration what steps it must take to be declared a market economy. Vietnam should canvas the idea of inviting President Trump to make an official visit to Vietnam at the time of the APEC Summit. Failing that, Vietnam should try to arrange sideline meetings with President Trump at the ASEAN leaders’ summit.

With China, Vietnam should continue to use existing mechanisms to ensure that high-level visits by government and Party leaders continues. The Friendly Border Exchanges should expand in scope with more practical activities. When Vietnam makes it commitment of a Level-2 field hospital to UN peacekeeping it should work closely with China, if practical. Vietnam should continue to press China for market access for Vietnamese goods and investment.

China has promised to work with ASEAN on a framework for the Code of Conduct (CoC) by the middle of 2017. China will continue to practice “smile diplomacy” in advance of the 25th commemorative summit of China-ASEAN relations. Vietnam has long been discussing the East Sea issue with China through expert level working groups and has always made it clear that it will not discuss the issue when third parties are involved.

Regionally, Vietnam should continue to develop good bilateral relations with all members of ASEAN. And it should be proactive on the policy front, with ideas and initiatives designed to strengthen the ASEAN Community and its three pillars: political security, economic and socio-cultural.

With Russia, defense cooperation between Vietnam and Russia will continue. Vietnam has the advantage of knowing Russia well and can continue to act as a bridge between Moscow and ASEAN capitals. Vietnam should be alert to any improvement in Russia-US. relations under President Trump, focused on Syria.

In 2014, Vietnam and Japan raised their relations to an Extensive Strategic Partnership in a document running to 69 paragraphs. Later, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made a pathbreaking visit to Tokyo and issued a 31-point Joint Vision statement. The only way to strengthen this already solid bilateral relationship is to press for practical results. In 2017 there will be further opportunities for the coast guards of the two countries to conduct exercises at sea and for Vietnam to take delivery of new Japanese patrol boats. There is further scope for cooperation in UN peacekeeping and for Japanese investment in a software park in south-central Khanh Hoa province.

■ What will be the major points of Vietnam’s foreign relations in the years ahead?

Looking ahead, Vietnam should be very proactive in Washington in order to gain access to the Trump Administration and seek reassurances about the future direction of bilateral relations. When the new US Congress takes its seat, Vietnam should get to know the chairmen and staff on all relevant committees that touch on relations with Vietnam. Vietnam will have to get to know the new US Ambassador to Vietnam that President Trump will appoint.

Vietnam should use its chairmanship of APEC to make contact with all relevant countries during the year to identify their interests and concerns. The failure of APEC to advance the Doha round of trade liberalization measures led to the TPP and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) initiatives. Vietnam might be able to steer the direction of trade reform in this new situation.

VN Economic Times

 

[MacanJawa]

Vietnam is one step closer to producing armored troop transporters. Assembly lines are set up in a factory in Danang city.

nice a local BTR

 

[Carlosa]

Vietnam is one step closer to producing armored troop transporters. Assembly lines are set up in a factory in Danang city.

The assembly line in Danang that the original article refers to is for ARMORED TIRES, not armored vehicles.

 

[Viet]

The assembly line in Danang that the original article refers to is for ARMORED TIRES, not armored vehicles.

I just re-read the article. you are right

the protective tires are similar of Russian made NU402 class, they can withstand a close explosion of a 400g TNT or machine gun bullets or mortar fragments. fighting vehicles can leave the dangerous area at a speed of 50 kmh.

new in service: unmanned underwater vehicle UUV Pluto Plus. on-board battery keeps Pluto Plus to work up to 6 hours at a speed of up to 6 knots. Task: minesweeping. Nobody should have idea to blockade Vietnam from the sea side by laying mines. specs: digital camera, three sonars, can identify and detect objects below of 300 meters. an upgraded variant called Pluto Pluto Plus can dive to a depth to 600 meters.

 

[Viet]

nice a local BTR

Too early. Maybe in a few years.

 

[Viet]

Su-30 flight simulator

Uran-e antiship missile

On exercise

Training

 

[Viet]

New evidence indicates Nixon himself tried to sabotage Vietnam War peace talks
January 03, 2017 · 5:00 PM EST
By Christopher Woolf

A corpsman treats a wounded Marine in the city of Hue, Vietnam, in June 1968.
Credit: Department of Defense

On Nov. 2, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson made a private phone call to a friend of Richard Milhous Nixon, and bluntly accused the Republican presidential candidate of treason.

Treason

There was no doubt, said Johnson, that Nixon’s campaign team was trying to scupper peace talks aimed at ending the Vietnam War. They were afraid that peace in Vietnam would help Nixon’s Democratic rival, Hubert Humphrey, to clinch the election.

Johnson threatened to go public with his information. The election was just days away.

But Johnson never did go public. He received an emphatic denial from Nixon in person the next day. And perhaps more importantly, Johnson never had the definitive evidence he needed tying Nixon himself to the efforts being made by his campaign team.

A new discovery by historian John Farrell might well be the smoking gun that Johnson needed. It's published in The New York Times.

The peace process in 1968 was real. The Soviet Union had persuaded North Vietnam to come to the table, the US just needed to deliver South Vietnam. At the beginning of November, both sides made goodwill gestures to prepare for the talks. The Communists stopped shelling cities and halted attacks across the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam. Johnson ordered a halt to the massive US aerial bombing campaign. “We’ve had 24 hours of relative peace,” he said in that Nov. 2 call to Nixon’s friend, Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.). “If Nixon keeps the South Vietnamese away from the conference, well, that’s going to be his responsibility. Up to this point, that’s why they’re not there.”

Farrell has found notes kept by close Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman. Haldeman later became Nixon’s chief of staff and was one of those later found guilty in the Watergate conspiracy trial.

On Oct. 22, 1968, Haldeman made notes of a phone conversation with Nixon. Several of these appear to show Nixon himself talking about ways to scupper the peace process. He even asks, “Any other way to monkey wrench it?” and, “Anything RN can do?”

One instruction that Haldeman noted from his boss: “Keep Anna Chennault working on SVN” — South Vietnam.

That’s a reference to Republican doyenne Anna Chennault, the widow of a World War II hero who’d fought in East Asia. She had very close ties to the government of South Vietnam, and was identified by US intelligence as one of the principal people trying to persuade the South Vietnamese to delay or boycott the peace talks in Paris.

One intercepted message from her to the South Vietnamese embassy was said to be from “her boss,” and it read, “Hold on, we are gonna win.”

To his dying day, Nixon insisted he had nothing to do with efforts to sabotage the 1968 peace talks. “My god,” he told Johnson on Nov. 3, 1968, “I would never do anything to encourage [South Vietnam] not to come to the table.” Farrell argues that that too was a lie, writing in the Times that "given the human lives at stake and the decade of carnage that followed in Southeast Asia, [his efforts to hurt the peace talks] may be more reprehensible than anything Nixon did in Watergate."

Historians surveyed by the Times show a range of responses to Farrell’s revelation. Some have reservations, but most agree with author Ken Hughes that Farrell has found the long-sought “smoking gun.” Historians acknowledge that Johnson was himself using the peace talks as a tool to help Democratic candidate Humphrey. That’s distasteful, but not illegal for the executive office.

Picture (National Archives/Getty Images) President Richard Nixon wanted to continue to support South Vietnam's war efforts. However, with anti-war sentiments growing in the United States and sustained casualties in Vietnam, Nixon felt pressure to bring an end to the war and started to plan an exit with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and Maj. Gen. Alexander Haig.


But as a private citizen, candidate Nixon would have been in violation of federal law if proven to have taken steps to “defeat the measures of the United States.” Both men were willing to use issues of war and peace as a mere political football.

Of course, it’s not clear that the talks in Paris could have led to peace or even a temporary cessation of hostilities. Many historians say it’s implausible. Tragically, the world never got a chance to find out. The South Vietnamese did boycott the talks, which collapsed. The war went on.

More than 21,200 Americans died in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia after the collapse of the Paris peace talks, along with hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.

 

[Viet]

Swearing they'd never go back, many veterans now call Vietnam's Vung Tau home
After serving in the war, most Australian veterans swore they’d never go back to Vietnam. But scores have since moved permanently to the southern port city of Vung Tau.

December 10 2016 Lindsay Murdoch

Raymond Low says he saw the first body fall from a grey helicopter that swooped low over Vung Tau beach, where his RAAF squadron mates were drinking beer and barbecuing Australian steaks under an awning.

Low was bobbing up and down on a surfboard in the choppy waters that humid day at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, and thought at first he was seeing a US Navy commando undergoing free-fall training. However, as a US Navy patrol boat circled nearby, no one surfaced where the body splashed into the water.

50 - 60 Vietnam veterans now call Vietnam home. Living on old battlegrounds the move has laid their ghosts to rest.

Low says he doesn't know whether it was an American or South Vietnamese helicopter, but minutes later it returned, swooping over the beach at a height of about 400 feet. "I saw a second body fall," he recalls. "This time I noticed there were no flailing arms or anything like that. The man's hands were tied behind his back."

Then a leading aircraftman in his early 20s who'd grown up in the inner suburbs of Sydney, Low recalls sitting on the surfboard thinking, "What kind of a war am I in?" Low says he learnt later that suspected Viet Cong infiltrators were sometimes taken on deadly helicopter rides for interrogation. The practice was to push one of the suspects out of the door, screaming to his death, as a way of convincing others to talk.

Vung tao




He spent only nine days in Vietnam during the war, working on Caribou aircraft at the airstrip at Vung Tau, a city in southern Vietnam wedged between two mountains on a strip of land jutting into the South China Sea. Back then, Vung Tau had an airstrip, logistics base and about 100 seedy beachfront bars that had sprung up to cater for US and Australian forces on rest-and-recreation leave during the war. Almost half a century later, sipping a beer in the Australian-run Tommy's, a bar and restaurant near the same waterfront, Low says that when he flew out of Vietnam that year, he never thought he'd return. "I was profoundly affected by what I saw. I couldn't talk about it for years."

Now 71, Low is one of about 50 Australian veterans of the war who have returned to the country of their former enemy and settled in Vung Tau, a prosperous regional city of more than 470,000 people situated some 30 kilometres from Nui Dat, the wartime base for Australian forces. Scores of other Australian retirees, most of them divorced from Australian women, have followed the veterans, with high-rise apartment buildings and luxury hotels catering for a booming tourist industry and workers on oil rigs off the coast. Its beaches are packed at weekends with residents from crowded Ho Chi Minh City, two hours' drive away.


But Vung Tau also has a seedy underbelly and is a single man's paradise for many of the Australians frequenting bars with names like Sweethearts, Red Parrot, Hot Lips and Bearded Clam, where young, scantily clad Vietnamese prostitutes vie for their attention. Some spend their days drinking $1 beers, complaining about how bad things are in Australia, in sometimes sexist and racist rants. "I can't even call a waitress 'love' without offence being taken over there," says one veteran.

Glenn Nolan, 58, a war historian and former soldier who served in 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) after the Vietnam War, says some Australians who arrive in Vung Tau after going through a bad divorce at home fall in love with the first girl they meet in a bar.

1966: a helicopter lands at Nui Dat, Australia's wartime base, some 30 kilometres inland from Vung Tau. Photo: Graeme Cuscak


"He sees love, she sees ATM. I've seen houses gone and fortunes lost. If they take their time, they can meet some very nice Vietnamese ladies outside the bars who are absolutely beautiful. But for others, it's Groundhog Day. They go to bars at 10am for a few beers, go home for a nap at 1pm and are back drinking at 4pm until stumps, seven days a week. It's pretty sad to see some of them."

The veterans here have an unwritten code of conduct. Anyone disrespecting Vietnamese women is bluntly told to behave or leave town. Some with drinking problems who lose control are escorted to the airport and put on a plane back to Australia. One Australian who spread a sexually transmitted disease among prostitutes was ordered out of town.

Ho Chi Hoang Kim, 29, a waitress at the popular Belly's Watering Hole, often sings Úc-dai-loi, Cheap Charlie, a song made famous during the war years about stingy Australian soldiers from the country of "big rats" (there is no word in Vietnamese for kangaroo). "Sure, some of the Aussies are Cheap Charlies but they are good men," she says. "You see them help poor people on the streets all the time."

Some Australians living in Vung Tau have happy long-term partnerships with local women. Dozens work in charities, helping impoverished local families, and in an orphanage where children have deformities believed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant sprayed by the US military during the war to eliminate forest coverage for North Vietnamese troops.


Some, like Nolan, conduct tours of the former battlefields for Australian tourists, including Long Tan, 40 kilometres north-east of Vung Tau. It was here, on August 18, 1966, that 105 Australians and three New Zealanders fought off wave after wave of Viet Cong fighters in a battle that came to symbolise Australia's 10-year involvement in the Vietnam War.

Raymond Low, who spent 22 years working on aircraft in the RAAF in Australia and overseas before leaving the service in 1995, says it was only in 2002 that television programs rekindled his interest in Vietnam. He says he then began making frequent trips there, booking into a cheap hotel in Vung Tau for weeks at a time.

Rod Harlor, 68, mortar platoon, 9th Battalion, RAR, 1969. Photo: Kate Geraghty

"Every trip was better than the previous one," he says, adding that he now lives in Vung Tau for months at a time, but travels back to Australia for business and to deal with health problems, including a lung condition. (Medical treatment in Australia is free for veterans receiving TPI – Totally and Permanently Incapacitated – pensions.) "The people are generally friendly, although in any developing country you find people who will scam you if they can. I've made good friends here. The cost of living is low. And I feel totally relaxed … this is where my heart is now."

Some of the stories Vietnam veterans tell about the war are recycled, embellished; old Asia hands are sceptical, for instance, about Low's account of bodies being thrown from a helicopter, especially over an area where troops went for R&R. But Low insists the story is true and he has a US magazine article with a photo of a suspected North Vietnamese infiltrator falling from a helicopter.

Russell Hutchison, 67, RAN, 1965 and 1967. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Peter Taylor, a machine-gunner with 5th Battalion RAR, left Vietnam in March 1970 on the light-aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney, marking the end of his 11-month tour of duty at Australia's Nui Dat base. "I remember sitting on the back of the boat watching [Vietnam] disappear and saying to myself, 'I will never return, never ever,' " he says. "That lasted 35 years."

Taylor, 68, doesn't want to talk about the war, how he was wounded or how some mates never came home. "It takes a lot to get rid of some of the terrible things you did and saw," he says. He's sitting with his partner of two years, Chau, 34, at a table in a corner of Belly's, which serves lamb shanks and is an unofficial clubhouse for many of the veterans.

Raymond Low, 71, aircraftsman, 35 Squadron, RAAF, 1968. Photo: Kate Geraghty

For decades after the war, living in Canberra, Taylor hated the Vietnamese. "We'd been told all the propaganda … that they were bad buggers and we should kill them. That they eat babies and sell their sisters, all that stuff. But it was wrong. They're a beautiful race of people and they need our help."

Taylor, who has three adult sons from two marriages in Australia, returned to Vietnam in 2005 with a couple of mates to attend a ceremony at Long Tan. He wanted to leave after two days. "The smell was still here; everything like that," he says. But he stayed for several weeks and, after repeated trips, now calls Vung Tau home.

Peter Taylor, 68, machine-gunner, 5th Battalion, RAR, 1969-70. Photo: Kate Geraghty

"There is no pressure here as long as you keep your nose clean and don't get into any trouble with the police, or anything like that. If you want a taxi, you just walk out and get one – unlike in Australia, where you have to wait an hour. And I don't like the way Australia is changing. I just don't agree with the people they are bringing to Australia these days. They are not workers – not like the Vietnamese when they came to Australia on boats [after the Vietnam War]."

Taylor is a key figure in the Vung Tau Veterans & Friends Children's Fund, a charity run by Australians that repairs houses for poor local families, among other things. "If street kids need an operation or something like that, we can hold a fund-raiser and get the money at the drop of a hat," he says. "The boys will all chip in."

Glenn Nolan, 58, war historian. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Glenn Nolan, who married a local restaurant owner 11 years ago, says Australians living here feel they have more freedom than at home. "Australia has become too much of a nanny state, where you have a minority dictating to the majority. One example is the Muslim issue: you can't say anything. You're gagged."

Here, he says, you can have a few beers and drive without worrying about losing your licence. "You know you've had enough when you fall off your motorbike," he laughs.

Russell Hutchinson, 67, says those people who criticise him for marrying Hanh, a local woman 42 years younger than him, "can all get stuffed". Hutchison was a raw navy recruit aged 16 when he made a brief port visit to Vung Tau in 1965, returning in 1967. He believes he is sterile as a result of water contaminated with Agent Orange that was recycled on the ships he served on, and admits he is quick to become angry.

He met Hanh in a bar in Vung Tau bar seven years ago. Hutchison, who has an irregular heartbeat and other health problems, receives a TPI pension of $877 a fortnight. (Many of the Australian veterans in Vung Tau receive the TPI pension, which entitles them to benefits that include medical care. Hanh will be eligible for an Australian war widow's pension if Hutchison dies before she does.)

"Hanh would die for me – I mean that," Hutchison says, sipping beer in a bar below the single-room apartment he rents near Belly's Watering Hole. "But she must be thinking, 'If I put up with this old bastard for another 10 or 20 years' – she knows my health problems – 'and then he kicks the bucket', she will only be in her 30s or 40s and she'll be set for the rest of her life, with a war widow's pension that will allow her to look after her family. That is a fortune in this country. Here, the family comes first. I know that. I don't care. I love her to bits."

Later, over a meal of prawns, I ask Hanh what she thinks of Hutchison, a former bus driver on the NSW Central Coast. "I love him. I take care of him," she says. Hutchison says he can "count on the fingers of two hands" relationships between Australians and local women that have lasted for years in Vung Tau. One Australian bought a house for his new bride but a week later came home from the bars to find that all his clothes were on the footpath and he was locked out. "This shit happens all the time," Hutchison says. "Other marriages work okay. That's life."

Impoverished families from the Mekong Delta send their daughters to Vung Tau to work in the bars, he says. "It's hard, but they do whatever they have to do to get money to send back to the family. They go to bed with blokes. It's as simple as that." Hutchison adds that he has seen girls as young as 15 working in the bars. It was in Vung Tau, in 2005, that former pop star Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was convicted of sexually molesting two girls aged 11 and 12. He was jailed for nearly three years before being deported.

Long Tan is silent now, only a late-afternoon breeze rustling through nearby rubber trees. Here, half a century ago, 108 soldiers of D Company, 6th Battalion RAR, hunkered down for four hours in a tropical downpour, outnumbered at least 10 to one. At the end, piles of enemy soldiers lay in red mud, mutilated by a barrage of artillery fire.

All but 17 Australians survived (another soldier died later from his wounds) and by Australia's official count, 245 Vietnamese were killed and three captured.

But decades later, the battle remains a sensitive issue for Vietnam, which still claims in propaganda that its forces were the victors. The country's rulers cancelled official events marking the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan last August 18, angering several thousand Australian veterans and family members who had planned to attend a commemorative ceremony at the site of the fighting where an unmarked white cross stands.

Now, despite the high-level political intrigue over the battle, Australian veterans have forged ties with their former enemies. Plans are underway for a joint Australian-Vietnamese war memorial and an RSL-like centre in Vung Tau, where former foes can meet socially.

Rod "Rocket" Harlor, 68, who mostly fought in Vietnam with a platoon of 9th Battalion RAR and was based at Nui Dat in 1969, says one of the reasons he has made Vung Tau his home is because of friendships he has made with the Vietnamese, including some former North Vietnamese soldiers. "Most of the people here don't know of the war – they were not born when it happened," Harlor says, standing arm in arm at the Long Tan cross with Vo Xuan Thu, a veteran of the North Vietnam Army who has memories of battles with Australians. "Vietnam is a very young society. The Australian veterans have no problems with the locals, including our former enemies like Mr Thu here, who is a good friend to us."

Harlor says the Vietnamese saw the Australians as the "honourable" enemy in a largely American war. "We did the right thing by the POWs and civilians," he says.

Thu insists on commenting, too. "I am very happy to be with [the Australians]. They are my friends and I really appreciate their friendship, their understanding and their feelings," he says in the Vietnamese language.

Harlor, whose wife passed away in Australia years ago, says he can't get the smile off his face when he walks around Vung Tau, which has better infrastructure than most Vietnamese cities. He pays $400 a month for a furnished apartment with a pool and Wi-Fi. Competent medical and dental services are cheap compared to Australia; a bowl of noodles costs less than $2, a beer $1. "The kids give you a high-five on the street and somebody will just pull up on a motorcycle out of the blue and want to have a chat in English," he says. "It's a wonderful place to live. I swore I'd never come back after the war, but here I am."

The radio crackled "contact" in the Battalion Operations Centre at Nui Dat at 3.20pm on August 18, 1966. Graeme "Breaker" Cusack, a second lieutenant with 6th Battalion RAR, was first to hear that Australia's fiercest battle of the Vietnam War was underway.

Cusack clearly remembers the dramatic events that unfolded in the following hours but says he has lost all memory of the next day, when he went to the battlefield while soldiers were carrying out the gruesome task of collecting body parts (most of the Vietnamese casualties had been hit by fierce artillery barrages).

Years later, in Australia, a counsellor suggested that Cusack return to Vietnam "to put the ghosts of the war to rest". "I replied, 'I am not going back to that so-and-so country,' " he says. But in 2004, he watched Mel Gibson's movie We Were Soldiers, which tells the story of the US's first major battle of the war. Then a Tour Vietnam brochure arrived, unsolicited, in the post.

He called a mate who'd also served in the war and booked a trip, arriving 38 years to the day after he had flown out of Vietnam. On that initial return trip, he met a Vietnamese woman in her late 30s called Ha. Within two days of returning to Australia, he decided to sell everything and move to Vietnam, leaving behind three failed marriages and bouts of suicidal depression.

Cusack married Ha in 2005, but that marriage didn't work out, either, and in 2011 he married his second Vietnamese wife, Phuong. They live 30 kilometres from Vung Tau in a house where he displays his war medals and memorabilia. On a clear day, from his garden, he can see a mountain range 15 kilometres away. It was there, during the war, that the North Vietnamese occupied a series of secret tunnels and bases from which they launched attacks on the Australians at Nui Dat. In return, "we bombed the shit out of them", he says.

Aged 78 and suffering the early stages of a nervous disorder, Cusack says he has never looked back since moving in 2004 to Vung Tau, where he has conducted battlefield tours and volunteered his time to be caretaker of the Long Tan cross.

Four years ago, Phuong gave birth to a girl, Anna. "I never thought I would have a baby at my age," says Cusack. "But she is just the most beautiful girl in the world. She helps keep me young. I love it. This is home now. I will die here."

 

[Viet]

Question:
How much is Vietnam´s national oil/gas reserve in storage?

PetroVietnam alone has about 10-15 million tons (72-107 million barrels). the number is expected to increase.