U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived at a former U.S. air and naval base at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, Sunday, becoming the highest ranking American official to visit since the war ended, The Associated Press reported. Panetta said he hopes to encourage efforts with Vietnam to identify and locate more of the U.S. war dead who are still declared missing; there are approximately 1,200 unaccounted for service members believed to be in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, Panetta plans to visit the USNS Richard E. Byrd, a cargo ship operated by the Navy's Military Sealift Command that is used to move military supplies to U.S. forces around the world. His visit comes a day after he addressed a defense conference in Singapore, where he stressed that America's new military focus on the Asia-Pacific is not intended to raise tensions in the region, or threaten Beijing.
