| allhands.archive.0404 - Message 49 |
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| "Patslist" patslist | Re: Fwd: oil and gas prices | Fri, 2 Apr 2004 08:40:15 -0500 |
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President Eisenhower provided support (money, arms, equipment) to the French who were fighting to keep Vietnam as a colony. There may have been a few US military personnel there as well, but these would have been a very small number.
Going back a bit in history: John Birch, BTW, was a Baptist missionary in Vietnam when WW-II came. He was commissioned in the army, and served in OSS. He spoke fluent Vietnamese, French, and probably other local languages. He was captured at the end of the war by the Chinese Communists, and he and another man were singled out and executed.
The first military woman to serve in Vietnam was a WAC major, born there, who spoke both Vietnamese and French fluently; she was assigned to the MAAG (Military Assistance Advisory Group or something very similar), in 1962. She died about three years ago. The military presence in Vietnam was very small until the mid-60s (LBJ) when the decision was made to send ground troops. At one time (before the buildup), Vietnam was a plum assignment, considered ideal for families.
Military assistance abroad, and to some extent within in the USA, is a very big effort within the US Government and the Department of Defense -- and has been since at least the World War II time frame.
You may or may not know that the US Army infantry troops and Navy were sent into Western Russia at the end of WW-1, and spent several miserable years in the frozen Russian north trying to help the anti-Bolshevik forces. It was not successful, and US forces were eventually withdrawn. Of course, there were also casualties. The conditions were absolutely miserable (cold, poorly supplied, limited medical care, etc.), and it created a great deal of ill-will that has sometimes clouded the relationship of the US and the Soviet Union or it's successors.
There are US military personnel stationed in virtually every country recognized as such in the world. The fact that US military personnel are in a country, doesn't by itself, prove anything one way or the other. There may even be a US military person assigned to the Vatican for all I know!
We also have foreign military missions in the US -- hopefully this doesn't mean they are trying to take us over! [That's a joke....]
An example: there is a very heavy US military and contractor presence in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi National Guard (their army) is heavily dependent on the US Army for training, equipment, weapons, etc. Ditto for the Saudi Air Force -- there is a strong relationship between the SAAF and the USAF.
In 1996 a US Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia was blown up by a terrorist attack. There had been warnings about increased terrorist activities, and there were some efforts to increase security, but the Saudi hosts wouldn't allow it. The large tanker truck, loaded with explosives, was parked near the apartment building and abandoned. There was no central alarm system, and several courageous airmen ran from room to room trying to alert people. The tanker exploded, demolishing one side of the building, killing 19 USAF personnel, and wounding some 240 more. It killed about 250 Saudis who lived nearby. The follow-on investigation was a farce. The administration support, from President Clinton down, for the Saudi intransigence was incredible. I'm not sure what happened to the perpetrators, who were in Saudi hands.
>From time to time all-American right-wingers come out with some weird stuff like the German Army or Air Force are trying to stage a coup (there are hundreds of German military personnel in the US, most at schools in Texas), or that UN forces are trying to do something in the USA.
It is a fact that we provide training to a wide variety of foreign military personnel from Europe, Asia, South America, you name it, they're probably here going to a US military school! I went to one year long military school in the mid 70s and we had (then) Yugoslav, Israeli, Finnish, German, English, Austrian, French, Australian, Philippine, Chinese (Taiwan), South American, Panama, African, etc, etc, etc, students -- in fact about 5-10% of the slots were taken by foreign students.
Pat J.
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