Pentagon seeks return to long-abandoned military port in Vietnam

Pentagon seeks return to long-abandoned military port in Vietnam

CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam -- Forty-five years ago, American cargo ships filled this vast harbor, unloading supplies day after day for U.S. troops fighting the Viet Cong.

Today, the bay’s azure waters are largely empty, except for local fishing boats. The once-bustling U.S. airbase here, formerly home to fighter squadrons and a combat hospital, is abandoned, a reminder of the U.S. military’s exit from most of Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War.

But the Pentagon is plotting a return.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta flew in to Cam Ranh Bay, the first Pentagon chief to come to this deep-water port 200 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City since the war. He recalled “the great deal of blood that was spilled in this war on all sides â€" by Americans and by Vietnamese.”

He also made clear that the U.S. is hoping that hard history will not stand in the way of a U.S. return to the sheltered anchorage off the strategically-important South China Sea.

“Access for United States naval ships into this facility is a key component” of the U.S. relationship with Vietnam, “and we see the tremendous potential here,” Panetta told reporters, standing on the stern of a gray-hulled U.S. Navy supply ship anchored near the bay entrance, undergoing maintenance.

The vessel is one of only a handful of U.S. ships that the Vietnamese have allowed back to Cam Ranh Bay since diplomatic ties were reestablish ed in 1995. But it is unarmed and sails with a largely civilian crew, a requirement imposed by the Vietnamese government that has prohibited military ships from docking since 2002, when Russia closed the base it had there after the U.S. departure.

U.S. warships have called regularly at other Vietnamese ports since the guided missile frigate Vandergrift made a port call in Hanoi in November 2003.

Johnson stopped at the base in 1966 on a visit to the warzone to pin medals on wounded soldiers. Hanoi maintains a small naval base on the site of the former U.S.-built installation, as well as a small civilian port in another part of the sprawling bay. There is a new airport and plans to open beach resorts where U.S. Air Force fighter pilots once swam in the ocean after returning from missions.

During the war, the harbor was so busy that cargo ships carrying supplies for U.S. units had to anchor for weeks at a time outside the bay until there was room for them to ente r and unload. Now fewer than five ships were visible.

Panetta was a young Army officer during the 1960s, though he did not serve in Vietnam.  But he harkened back to the war Sunday, arguing that the scars it left on both countries should not prevent them from cooperating half a century later.