US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, is drawing heavily on his lifetime links to Asia in his first visit to the region since taking over in February.
The image of the 66-year-old former Republican senator from Nebraska has been bolstered during the visit by tales of his long association with the region, and he has even met with a former adversary.
Hagel is attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security dialogue he helped launch when he was still a US lawmaker, this weekend.
At the opening dinner of the conference on Friday, Hagel chatted with the keynote speaker, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
“They discussed the importance of strong US-Vietnamese military ties, and they learned over the course of the conversation that they served in combat on different sides in the Mekong Delta in 1968,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
“Both men were wounded in fighting. The Prime Minister invited Secretary Hagel to return to Vietnam and Secretary Hagel looks forward to a future visit.”
Earlier, in a stopover in Hawaii en route to Singapore, Hagel had dinner at the Halekulani Hotel with military officials from the US Pacific Command.
It was a sentimental visit for the secretary — in July 1968, then Sergeant Hagel and his brother Tom spent a week of rest and recreation there during the middle of their Vietnam tour of duty.
Hagel’s family was also able to make the long trip out from Omaha, Nebraska, with funds raised from their local community, and they all stayed at the Halekulani hotel.
Hagel had volunteered for Vietnam, where he was twice decorated with the Purple Heart, one of the US military’s highest honours.
In Singapore, one of the first counterparts met by Hagel at the security conference was Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin of the Philippines.
Hagel told Gazmin of his high regard for the people of the Philippines, saying he had heard a lot about them from his father who served there during World War II with the 13th Army Air Corps.
The US defense chief recalled a visit to the Philippines in the 1980s as president of the United Service Organizations (USO), which provides services and live entertainment to American troops.
Hagel travelled to Clark Air Base north of Manila to visit US servicemen and was surprised in a tour of the base museum to see a picture from World War II of his father in a foxhole — the same photo that hung in the family home.
US defense chief draws on past links to Asia
