I was thinking the same thing. French Indochina wasn't important enough to France for her to keep fighting after Dien Bien Phu, and once the UK turned over Hong Kong their incentives to mess with WestPac kinda evaporated. We have the Aussies, the Japanese, possibly the ROK, and if we're lucky perhaps Indonesia and India (occasionally). The Kiwis and Canucks are useless.
I was thinking the same thing. French Indochina wasn't important enough to France for her to keep fighting after Dien Bien Phu, and once the UK turned over Hong Kong their incentives to mess with WestPac kinda evaporated. We have the Aussies, the Japanese, possibly the ROK, and if we're lucky perhaps Indonesia and India (occasionally). The Kiwis and Canucks are useless.
I served an exchange tour with the RCN. They are professional and competent. They do have a Pacific coast--and a "Fleet" (Escort squadron and MPA) out there. Their current PM is a useless soy boy, I agree. On the other hand, look what we've got.
As an Australian, I regard the Kiwis as worse than useless on the China front: they are positively counter-productive. Going to start calling them French New Zealand.
I was thinking the same thing. French Indochina wasn't important enough to France for her to keep fighting after Dien Bien Phu, and once the UK turned over Hong Kong their incentives to mess with WestPac kinda evaporated. We have the Aussies, the Japanese, possibly the ROK, and if we're lucky perhaps Indonesia and India (occasionally). The Kiwis and Canucks are useless.
I served an exchange tour with the RCN. They are professional and competent. They do have a Pacific coast--and a "Fleet" (Escort squadron and MPA) out there. Their current PM is a useless soy boy, I agree. On the other hand, look what we've got.
As an Australian, I regard the Kiwis as worse than useless on the China front: they are positively counter-productive. Going to start calling them French New Zealand.