As the Obama administration revamps its Asian strategy in response to a rising China, the US military is eyeing a return to some familiar bases from its last conflict in the region, the Vietnam War.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon has intensified discussions with Thailand about creating a regional disaster-relief hub at an American-built airfield that housed B-52 bombers during the 1960s and 1970s.
US officials said they were also interested in more naval visits to Thai ports and joint surveillance flights to monitor trade routes and military movements, Washington Post reported. The Pentagon is also seeking greater accommodations in the Philippines, including at the Subic Bay naval base and the former Clark Air Base, once the largest US military installations in Asia as well as key repair and supply hubs during the Vietnam War.
The US military either abandoned or was evicted from its Southeast Asian bases decades ago. Amid concerns about China’s growing military power and its claims to disputed territories, however, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines have cautiously put out the welcome mat for the Americans again. In response, Pentagon leaders have flocked to the region to speed up negotiations and fortify relations. The rapprochements so far have focused on limited steps, such as port visits and joint exercises, but the administration hopes they will lead to a more extensive and persistent US military presence. “Symbolically, those places are really attached to a very recent history,” said a senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Part of moving forward with a lot of these nations is making amends with those symbols.” US officials said they had no desire to re-occupy any of the massive Southeast Asian bases from last century. Nor do they have the money to create new ones. So they’re looking for permission to operate from the old installations as guests, mostly on a temporary basis.
“I don’t carry around a backpack with American flags and run around the world planting them,” Army Gen Martin E Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters after returning from a visit this month to Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. “We want to be out there partnered with nations and have a rotational presence that would allow us to build up common capabilities for common interests.” The US armed forces have been allowed, to varying degrees, to visit or conduct training exercises at its old bases for several years. But talks about expanding access have taken on a new urgency since January, when President Obama announced that the US was making a strategic “pivot” to Asia after a decade in which it was preoccupied with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The administration has denied that its resurgent interest is designed to contain China, which has alarmed many neighbors by making expansive territorial claims in the resource-rich South China and East China seas. US officials said their primary goal in Asia was to maintain stability by ensuring freedom of navigation and free trade with the world’s fastest-growing economies, including China. But analysts said the US strategic pivot and fresh basing arrangements were necessary to reassure allies that Washington will maintain its Asian security commitments and remain an effective counterweight to China, despite looming defense cutbacks at home.
