...while a major epidemic outbreak on the Asian mainland was underway.
More details leaked out with this article:
The Theodore Roosevelt's stop in Vietnam in early March marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the country and the United States. It was also meant to serve as a symbolic show of U.S. strength and influence in the region, in the face of a rising China. Planning had been in the works for months.
But senior military officials had not anticipated that a virus would be spreading around the world. They monitored the threat but concluded that it was minimal. Vietnam had fewer than two dozen confirmed cases of the virus by the time the ship was approaching the waters outside Da Nang.
Adm. Philip Davidson, the U.S. military's top officer in the Pacific, ordered the ship to continue as planned. Gilday described it as a "risk-informed decision."
Sailors spent five days in the coastal city, mingled with Vietnamese civilians during a reception and performed community service projects. One group stayed at the same hotel as two British tourists who were later confirmed to have the virus.
https://www.stripes.com/news/navy/how-an-outbreak-on-the-uss-roosevelt-became-a-defining-moment-for-the-us-military-1.626326
Letting thousands of sailors go ashore when the scope of the problem was unknown. Cruise ships in Southeast Asia were already being refused port calls in Vietnam and other southeast Asian ports for two weeks. The epidemic was already raging on the Diamond Princess in Yokohama. Yet they pulled into Danang anyway to score diplomatic points? Like pulling a ship into uncharted coastal waters. A "risk informed decision," it wasn't. It's likely this was an order from the anti-China, South China sea obsessed civilian leadership, this is the blunder reflecting our generally incompetent, corrupt, and complacent civilian leadership. The letter from Crozier is a mere aftershock, distracting from the main issue.
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