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courtship, Hanoi entered COMECON, the communist economic
organization, last June 1978. In November 1978, Vietnam signed
a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which stipulated that
if either country were threatened with attack, they would :
"immediately consult each other with a view toward eliminating
the threat." As events unfolded, this treaty provided an
important measure of security to Hanoi for its Christmas
invasion of Kampuchea.
Following the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea and the
Chinese attack on Vietnam, the Soviet military presence in
Vietnam has grown rapidly, including large-scale military supply
and logistics support of Vietnamese armed forces, and use by
Soviet ships and aircraft of Vietnamese military facilities.
Soviet personnel support both the delivery of military equipment
to Vietnam and the movement of Vietnamese personnel and equipment
to various points throughout Indochina, representing a' signi-
ficant new development. Use of ports began on April 1 when a
Soviet destroyer visited Da Nang and, most recently, a Soviet
diesel submarine and submarine tender visited Cam Ranh Bay.
Soviet TU-95's long range reconnaissance aircraft
have
used Vietnamese facilities at Da Nang on at least two occasions.
The Soviets and the Vietnamese explain these activities as
normal aspects of relations between the two countries made
necessary by the threat from China.
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