Secretary Pete Hegseth is revisiting some of the scenes of America’s two bloodiest wars since World War II, buttressing defenses against the same enemies—the Chinese and the Russians—with whom Americans fought and died in Vietnam and Korea.

In South Korea, Mr. Hegseth is focusing on a highly sensitive topic: transferring operational control to the top Korean commander in time of war from the American general who commands U.S. Forces Korea as well as the Combined Forces Command and the UN Command. American and Korean negotiators are addressing the trickier aspects of this transfer, while the Americans press the South to increase defense spending and contribute more to the costs of keeping 28,500 American troops on bases there, as President Trump demanded in his first term.

Mr. Hegseth got a first-hand taste of the standoff on the Korean peninsula after spending two days in Vietnam discussing the shipment of heavy arms for the Vietnamese Communists, who fought the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies using Chinese and Soviet weapons between 1965 and the American withdrawal in 1973.

Just after flying to Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, from Hanoi, Mr. Hegseth headed to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has divided North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War. There, he was greeted by South Korea’s defense minister, Ahn Gyu-back, who escorted him to the Joint Security Area (JSA)—the site where the war truce was signed in July 1953.

Mr. Ahn noted that Mr. Hegseth had called the JSA “the frontline of division and a place of dialogue.” This carefully constructed remark acknowledged the importance of the JSA as the venue for negotiations when President Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the third time in June 2019. It was also at the JSA that Mr. Kim met former South Korean president Moon Jae-in in 2018, during a period of hopeful North-South rapprochement.

For Mr. Hegseth, the visit to the DMZ was typical of visits made by thousands of sightseers, but it also symbolized the American-Korean alliance amid deepening North-South confrontation. Currently, Mr. Kim refuses to meet with anyone from the South, which he has declared the “enemy” while tightening his alliance with Russia’s president. North Korea has sent thousands of troops and steady shipments of arms to Russian forces in Ukraine.

Mr. Hegseth is urging South Korea to invest more in its own defense and possibly increase its share of the costs for American troops and bases, which currently stand at $1.1 billion a year under President Biden. During his first term, President Trump demanded $5 billion annually but has not repeated that figure during his second term. Trump also did not mention defense during his recent visit to Pusan, where he met President Xi Jinping ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in nearby Gyeongju.

After meeting other defense ministers in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, Mr. Hegseth flew to Hanoi. There, he discussed selling warplanes and other arms in meetings with Vietnam’s leader To Lam, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, as well as with Vietnam’s president Luong Cuong and defense minister General Phan Van Giang.

Mr. Hegseth is believed to have discussed the sale of aircraft—including transport planes and helicopters—to a regime that has moved much closer to America in the 30 years since Hanoi established diplomatic relations with Washington, two decades after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

During the Vietnam War, Russia supplied Hanoi with heavy ammunition, including short-range missiles that shot down numerous American warplanes, while China provided rifles and machine guns. The legacy of Vietnam weighed heavily on Mr. Hegseth’s visit.

As a symbol of regretful remembrance, he “returned” to Vietnam some souvenirs belonging to a deceased Communist soldier, including a belt, a knife, and a leather box. Mr. Pham, a Vietnamese official, in turn gave Mr. Hegseth identification cards of two American soldiers.

More significantly, they discussed measures to combat Agent Orange, which was sprayed over vast stretches of jungle, as well as ongoing efforts to search for missing American soldiers.
https://www.nysun.com/article/hegseth-revisits-vietnam-and-korea-sites-of-americas-two-bloodiest-wars-since-world-war-ii