Odd fact of the day

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - 4:16 PM Share

I didn't know we imported oil from Vietnam.

(This post has been updated.)

EXPLORE:OIL

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ROBERTD

5:13 PM ET

March 3, 2009

Where does it say anything

Where does it say anything about Vietnam?

TOM RICKS

8:16 PM ET

March 3, 2009

Sorry, wrong link

That Energy Dept imports chart has changed since I last checked it. I'll get a new chart in there. In the meantime, here's a better link:

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mtxim_nus-nvm_1a.htm

MUSTARD OIL

2:36 AM ET

March 4, 2009

dominoes?

Some people used to say that this was why we were so interested in Vietnam 45 years ago. I have no idea if there is truth in this.

WALKING WOUNDED

9:06 PM ET

March 4, 2009

Oil in the S. China Sea...

was eventually exploited by Standard Oil, under leases negotiated between China and VN.

There is a wonderful theory that SO used the blast from bombs dumped by returning US carrier jets to map the fields during the war.

CHARLIEFORD

3:52 AM ET

March 4, 2009

Call me conspiracy minded

but for awhile there I thought maybe this was a plot to get us all to read the thing a dozen times and by then we'd have it almost memorized. And you could say, "Sure, no Vietnam in there, but now you all know so much more about the sources of our oil imports! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

TOM RICKS

3:59 AM ET

March 4, 2009

Much better!

I wish I'd thought of this.

TOMMC

4:08 AM ET

March 4, 2009

Green Energy

I voted for McCain but I like Obama's emphasis on Green Energy from a National Security perspective. I thought he was going to be Bill Clinton Part 2 (Pro-Outsourcing, Affirmative Action, etc.) but instead he's doing a lot of common sense stuff (Green Energy, National Healthcare, Increasing Pell Grants, etc). Being a Republican it's tough being a member of a party led by Bobby Jindal and Rush Limbaugh. If the election were held again I'd vote for Obama. Gas is going to be back at 4 bucks a gallon within a year or two so it's a good that he's staying focused on this.

KENNETH SORENSEN

1:15 PM ET

March 4, 2009

I for one am not surprised if

I for one am not surprised if the US gets some oil from Vietnam*, and I am well aware that Vietnam has offshore fields. If you combine this knowledge with the known fact that Vietnam's ressources have been neclected during all those years it has been in war, I really do not see anything surprising here.

Oil is dead plant-material and other biolochical residues that later have had some deposits on top of it, which have pressed it - under anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions to......oil. Therefore you often find it at river-mouths or places where ancient rivers mouthed, be it in the Mexican Gulf, outside the Amazon-basin or in the North Sea. There is probably also a good deal outside Karachi in Pakistan, where the Indus-river have been emptying its contents for millenia.

___________________
*) Every time the talk is about Vietnam, any living American must feel ashamed, of what his country did to this country. We have Robert McNamara's, the former rationalisation expert at Ford Motor Company, own words, that this was not a war against some communists wanting to take over the world, but a war against the people of Vietnam. And right to the end of time, Americans will be collectively haunted for what they have done in Vietnam (and Cambodia). There is simply no excuse for it. And by constantly reminding Americans of this, we (hopefully) ensures that a more humble approach to the world will establish itself. Hint: start by completely root out The Israel Lobby, by enforcing and EMBARGO on Israel, until it aggress to take in all the descendants of the 800.000 Palestinians expelled in 1948 - today more than 3 million people. If you do not, then I fear we will have a repetition. You must adress this enemy within- The Israel Lobby - the greatest security Peril that the world have seen since WW2.

BLUE13326

3:46 PM ET

March 4, 2009

We're going to continue to

We're going to continue to need to get oil from anywhere we can; considering Obama refuses to promote a sane alternative energy policy, oil is almost certain to top $200/b when the world economy recovers.

Only a fool could look at Obama's energy policy and believe it's going to have any major impact on our reliance on foreign oil.