[VT]: Phonecall to the United States

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Minister of Foreign AffIrs Nguyễn Mạnh Cầm would in a haste call his counterpart in the United States. Normally this call would be to discuss the course of future relations between their two nations, but something far more drastic had arisen. Something they needed to discuss ASAP.

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[Odinson]

Jackson Fitzgerald, the Secretary of State of the United States, was in the privacy of his office in the Harry S Truman building in Washington D.C. Secretary Fitzgerald was working on some matters regarding the situation in Turkey. At some point he was interrupted by his personal secretary who informed him that an urgent call was coming in from Vietnam. Secretary Fitzgerald took the call immediately on an encrypted line.

"This is Secretary Fitzgerald," he said as he waited for a response.

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"Greetings. This is Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Mạnh Cầm. Before I start I would like to thank your government for the congratulations letter we were sent. A formal response will be on its way soon. However this is not what this call is in regards to unfortunately. Thailand has invaded Laos. I am calling you to give you our opinion on the situation. This invasion is unacceptable, and it threatens stability in South East Asia. We would like to know if the United States has an opinion on this invasion, and if you would launch a protest against an intervention should we vote to intervene."

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In the privacy of his office and on the encrypted line, Secretary Fitzgerald listened to his Vietnamese colleague and responded. "I would agree with your assessment of the Thai invasion of Laos, it is very troubling... The White House would not protest against Vietnamese intervention, so long as it was done within international law and the result of the intervention was not the annexation of Thailand, or putting in place a puppet government. I apologize for being so blunt, but I think that it has served our two states well so far to be open and honest with each other. If your government wanted to organize an international peacekeeping force or coalition to intervene, we would be willing to support this resolution in the Global Assembly, or propose it ourselves if you would prefer. Is this something that your government would be interested in?" he asked.
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"We would be interested in forming a peacekeeping coalition to stop this war. It may be that Laos will be overrun before we can mount intervention through such a thing however. So for the time being while we organize such a force we are thinking of declaring a no fly zone. We have no interest in invading or taking Thailand and are frankly shocked a nation we wished tk found a new ASEAN with would invade 9ur direct neighbor. However should we intervene and push Thailand out and they choose to continue war we would have to occupy while we work with the international community to bring about a peace. I think having the United States with us in this would dispell any notion we would be setting up a puppet government. No doubt it would bring back the accusations of colonization that were leveled at us during our original intervention in Cambodia in the 70s. We want to avoid that."

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"If your intentions are to keep the peace southeast Asia and maintain what was the status quo, you have the support of the United States. A lot of our assets are tied up in Europe at the moment, but that will be changing soon. The Turks have effectively surrendered, and we will begin withdrawing soon. What kind of deployment do you think your government would need from the United States, if we were to assist Vietnam in restoring the previous order to the region?" Secretary Fitzgerald asked. He started looking over classified State Department documents that showed what the United States was realistically capable of sending out into the Pacific.

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"Fast response assets such as special forces would be ideal. Green Berets, SEAL Teams, and anything like that. Your Airborne would be able to arrive here quickly. Once we gain air superiority they woild be able to land however they like. One major issue however will be the Thai navy should they back down. We don't know the size of it or its make up. But, it could cause havoc on the shipping lanes here."

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"We are currently supplying Laos with our reserve military equipment and giving them the ability to move through our country to avoid Laos. Meanwhile we are attempting to talk down the Thai and get them to agree to an immediate ceasefire. If the conflict continues to escalate then we will make our move to push the Thai out. But there is disturbing news in that China may attempt something as they have threatened to intervene as well."

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"We are currently supplying Laos with our reserve military equipment and giving them the ability to move through our country to avoid Laos. Meanwhile we are attempting to talk down the Thai and get them to agree to an immediate ceasefire. If the conflict continues to escalate then we will make our move to push the Thai out. But there is disturbing news in that China may attempt something as they have threatened to intervene as well."

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"That is troubling news indeed," the Secretary of State said. "There are measures that the United States can directly take, but are there any more background options that we can take. I've been told that the Pentagon has reviewed the order that Vietnam made to American Defense Sales. While only part of the order has been approved, I think that your government will still be pleased. American Defense Sales will, if you accept, issue a limited production license to Vietnam for the following products at the following quantities, provided that you issue the lump sum below:
[60] General Dynamics–Grumman EF-111A ($1,181,978,108)
[10] Boeing E-3 Sentry ($2,700,000,000)
[60] F-4G Wild Weasel V ($1,437,480,000)
[60] Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler ($3,744,000,000)

"I just gave you the full price that we would normally charge for the quantity of those products. The grand total would be $9,063,458,108. However, due to the circumstances and the new relationship we are trying to build between our countries, we would be willing to reduce the price by half. This means that it would only cost Vietnam $4,531,729,054... We could just call it even at $4.5-billion. Also, if your government pays for the Hamilton-class frigates that we produced in accordance with our treaty, we would be happy to turn those over to your navy as well.

"Other than the other items that your government requested in the first American Defense Sales request, are there other items that your government may be interested in? I can't make any promises, but I can talk to the Pentagon and the White House and see what I can do," he said.

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"Those items, including the Hamiltons will be of great use to us and our military. Outside of SEAD some of those aircraft have the capability for us to be able to monitor communications and help Laps with intel. As for the Hamiltons how much do you want for them again? We can transfer it as a part of the purchase for this.

Outside of that we need to purchase equipment to funnel to Laos. There are two things Laos will need in order to fend off Thailand on its own. The ability to destroy enemy aircraft and vehicles. If possible we would like to purchase from you MANPADS and Anti tank weapons. We can then funnel these weapons to Laos using our large border with them."

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"The Treaty of Jeju says that you are only obligated to pay the production cost of each cutter, which is $503,300,000 each. This would be a total of: $3,019,800,000... In regard to the other weapons or vehicles, give me specifics and I'll see what I can do. I think that the President will probably need to seek authority from Congress to sell weapons on this scale, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. The State Department has been informed that Thailand may be interested in some kind of ceasefire... I was just told about this recently, I don't have all of the details. Do you know anything about that?" he asked as he reviewed a few classified documents.

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"Very well, I will go ahead and get the money transfered asap. As for the weapons. I believe earlier generation iterations of current weapons would do the trick. FIM-92A and FIM-92B Stingers as well as stockpiles of the older FIM-43 Redeye. Preferably the Block III FIM-43C and Block II FIM-43B. For anti tank equipment we are looking at the M72A2 AND M72A3 Law, and BGM-71D TOW 2as well as what ever other variants of the TOW you can sell. We are picking older models as to hopefully make it easier to get approval."

"In regards to the cease fire we managed to negotiate a little with Thailand and are hoping that we can continue to convince them to pursue the path we laid out. In which they let us arbitrate peace talks, and agree that they will have no military presence in Laos while Vietnamese peace keepers stay to ensure it remains that way. Vietnam and Thailand jointly must then pay all reparations to Laps and assist in rebuilding what Thailand destroyed. Not just buildings and infrastructure, but also lives. We wanted ASEAN so to perpetuate peace. But now Thailand has poisoned the well and it is our responsibility to put back what they have broken. Trust is something that is hard to earn back, but we are determined to do it... especially if we have help from the international community. If possible, we would like to have nations that America trusts join us in the post war peace keeping mission. To send a resounding message of international unity."

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