WORLD : Cam Ranh Bay Put Off-Limits to U.S. Congress Delegation
A delegation from the U.S. Congress was refused permission to visit a former U.S. military base now used by the Soviet Union at Cam Ranh Bay in southern Vietnam, delegation leader Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) said here today.
Schroeder, whose delegation is assessing possible sites for U.S. bases in Asia, met here with Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach for talks that centered on the Soviet presence in Vietnam and the situation in Cambodia.
She said at the end of the meeting that Hanoi had repeated its refusal to allow the delegation to visit Cam Ranh Bay.
The former U.S. base at Cam Ranh Bay, 220 miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, the former South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, is now used by the Soviet Union’s Far East fleet.
“There is tension between the Foreign Ministry and the commander in chief” of the Vietnamese armed forces over the delegation’s visit, Schroeder said during a short stopover here today before leaving in the early afternoon for Cambodia.
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