
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990                   TAG: 9004090279
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. BASE IN VIETNAM MAY BE POSSIBLE

Members of a House committee hope to get permission this week to inspect Cam Ranh Bay - a U.S.-built military base in Vietnam that, a congressman says, could one day end up back in American hands.

The Armed Services Committee delegation wants to visit the base as part of a 10-day trip to Vietnam, Guam, Singapore and Indonesia that is scheduled to end on April 17. The mission's purpose is to explore alternatives to United States military bases in the Philippines and examine U.S. security responsibilities in the region.

The Soviet Union moved into Cam Ranh Bay after the Vietnam War, but Pentagon officials said in January that the Soviets had withdrawn some fighter planes and bombers. Visiting the base would require both Soviet and Vietnamese cooperation.

Vietnamese officials surprised several American lawmakers recently by suggesting privately that the United States might be allowed to return to the base if relations between the countries continue to warm, Rep. Tom Ridge, R-Pa., said in an interview last week.

The lease on the six U.S. military installations in the Philippines expires in 1991, and American officials are anticipating difficult negotiations for continued base rights there.

The possibility of the Soviets completing their withdrawal at Cam Ranh Bay and the Americans returning was raised in February at a forum in Bali, Indonesia, sponsored by the Henry R. Luce Foundation, Ridge said. He said he attended the forum along with several other congressmen and a group of top-ranking Vietnamese government officials.

"That possibility was discussed and under the right set of circumstances I think the Vietnamese would welcome it," said Ridge, who is the only member of Congress to have seen Vietnam War combat as an enlisted man.

"One of the ranking Vietnamese officials said, `I can see the day when American ships are docked in Cam Ranh Bay,' " Ridge said, adding that the official later specified that he meant warships.

"We said, `Do you mean just for refueling?' and they said, `No, for repairs,' " Ridge said.

Ridge said conditions of the forum prevented him from identifying the Vietnamese official.

Ridge said an American takeover at Cam Ranh Bay would be a natural outgrowth of normalized relations with Vietnam, and that it would make sense because "we built it."

by CNB