Aircraft Carrier Wasn’t Sailing to Deter North Korea, as U.S. Suggested
Sea of Japan N. Korea S. Korea 2 Japan China South China Sea Philippines 1 Indonesia
3 April 8 Pentagon statement said the Carl Vinson was departing Singapore.
"This should have been communicated more clearly at the time." Sea of Japan N. Korea Japan
S. Korea China The Carl Vinson was thought to be headed for the Sea of Japan last week.
3 APRIL 18, 2017
The miscues began on April 9 when the public affairs office of the Navy’s Third Fleet issued a news release saying
that Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the Pacific commander, had ordered the Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carrier, and its strike force — two destroyers and one cruiser — to leave Singapore and sail to the Western Pacific.
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITTAPRIL 18, 2017
WASHINGTON — Just over a week ago, the White House declared
that ordering an American aircraft carrier into the Sea of Japan would send a powerful deterrent signal to North Korea and give President Trump more options in responding to the North’s provocative behavior.
Mr. Mattis, however, had conflated two things: Admiral Harris had canceled only a port call for the Carl Vinson in Fremantle, Australia, according to Pentagon officials, because he feared
that images of sailors on shore leave would be unseemly at a time when North Korea was firing missiles.
In July 2010, President Barack Obama ordered the aircraft carrier George Washington to the Sea of Japan
to intimidate the North after it had torpedoed a South Korean Navy corvette, killing 46 sailors.
