T. Dean Reed
Writer, The Reed Report
May 22, 2014
The young Vietnamese naval officer, Lt. Commander Nguy Van Tha, opened fire on the Chinese warships. Only the last engine on his corvette, the Nhat Tao, was working and he was unable to avoid devastating return fire. As three other Vietnamese ships escaped the Paracel Islands, his crew on the Nhat Tao was ordered to abandon ship. The captain, Nguy Van Tha, stayed aboard and his ship sank to the bottom of the South China Sea.
That was 40 years ago, on January 19, 1974, when Vietnam defended against Chinese encroachment in the Paracels, one of many vain efforts before and since.
Today, the captain’s heroism lives on for many Vietnamese people such as the 74-year-old war veteran who told Agence France Presse in Hanoi: “We are ready to die to protect our nation.”
He spoke in the wake of violent demonstrations against Chinese companies operating in Vietnam, with factories burned. China had placed a massive, billion-dollar oil rig near the Paracels but well within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, igniting the latest explosive confrontation in Asia, or, as the Wall Street Journal wrote: “Another week, another step in China’s methodical conquest of the South China Sea.”
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-dean-reed/vietnam-vs-china-the-capt_b_5374839.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics
