Forget bone spurs, Trump will FINALLY serve his country in Vietnam: President to meet strongmen Putin and Duterte in Asian country 49 years after medical condition meant he couldn't be drafted to fight there

  • President Donald Trump will be in Da Nang, Vietnam on Friday for a trade conference with 21 heads of state and more than a dozen big-name CEOs
  • Among the meetings expected to be on his schedule: Philippine strongman president Rodrigo Duterte and Russian president Vladimir Putin
  • Duterte says 'Lay off' – he won't let Trump boss him around on human rights
  • Putin is still the focus of investigators in Washington who suspect he tried to monkey-wrench the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win
  • The APEC economic conference comes as at least 106 people are dead from Typhoon Damrey, which still threatens mass flooding
  • Trump never served in the Vietnam War, getting a medical deferment for bone spurs in his heel, although he later said he couldn't remember which foot it was
  • The U.S. stored Agent Orange near Da Nang decades ago; Vietnamese people are still suffering from cancer and birth defects as a consequence of using it

Donald Trump arrives in Vietnam on Friday as the nation is recovering from a deadly typhoon – and threatens to unleash his own storm on the Pacific Rim country as business leaders and regional leaders gather.

It was Vietnam that Trump avoided visiting in 1968 when a doctor declared that he had a bone spur in his heel so he couldn't be drafted into the U.S. Army.

Now he's coming to Da Nang, just blocks from the beach where American servicemen stormed ashore in 1965 – and near where the U.S. stored its supply of Agent Orange for years.

On the agenda after Trump's lunchtime welcome on Friday is a speech to CEOs and two expected landmark sit-downs – his first with controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and a closely watched meeting with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.

Duterte in particular has proved a tough customer, the Pacific Rim's answer to Trump's unapologetic gunslinger ethos.

He told reporters Wednesday in Manila before leaving for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that he wouldn't let the American president boss him around on human rights topics when they meet.

'You want to ask a question, I'll give you an answer: Lay off,' he said he would tell Trump. 'That is not your business. That is my business. I take care of my country and I will nurture my country to health.'

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President Donald Trump will be in Da Nang, Vietnam on Friday for a trade conference with 21 heads of state and more than a dozen big-name CEOs

President Donald Trump will be in Da Nang, Vietnam on Friday for a trade conference with 21 heads of state and more than a dozen big-name CEOs

Trump said as he was leaving China for Vietnam that first lady Melania would stay behind to see giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo and visit the Great Wall

Among the meetings that will be on the president's schedule is his first-ever face-to-face with Philippine strongman president Rodrigo Duterte, who says he won't let Trump boss him around on human rights

Among the meetings expected to be on his schedule: Philippine strongman president Rodrigo Duterte, who says he won't let Trump boss him around on human rights

Trump was expected to have a meeting with Putin (left, pictured in July), whom investigators in Washington suspect tried to monkey-wrench the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Trump is also expected to have a brief meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the focus of investigators in Washington who suspect he tried to monkey-wrench the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win

Da Nang is a seaside town in modern Vietnam where American forces landed in 1965, near the beginning of a protracted, bloody war

Da Nang is a seaside town in modern Vietnam where American forces landed in 1965, near the beginning of a protracted, bloody war

Trump was briefly considered available for the Vietnam War draft in 1966 and 1968 (class '1-A') but spent most of his time on the Selective Service rolls in a student deferment ('2-S') or available only in a 'national emergency' ('1-Y') before ultimately being disqualified ('4-F')

Trump was briefly considered available for the Vietnam War draft in 1966 and 1968 (class '1-A') but spent most of his time on the Selective Service rolls in a student deferment ('2-S') or available only in a 'national emergency' ('1-Y') before ultimately being disqualified ('4-F')

More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in the past 16 months as armed suspects have resisted arrest in Duterte's war on drugs. Police blame the drug-runners, but Duterte's critics say his shock troops are conducting summary executions with no real oversight.

Duterte has openly instructed his police to kill any 'idiots' who violently resist arrest.

In May, Trump praised him during a phone call for doing an 'unbelievable job on the drug problem,' according to a leaked transcript

Still, Duterte has openly refused to consider visiting the White House, saying in June that 'there will never be a time that I will go to America during my term, or even thereafter. I've seen America and it's lousy.'

The two men will meet briefly in Da Nang and follow up with longer bilateral talks next week in Manila.

Any Trump meeting with Putin would become fodder for controversy as a special counsel in the United States is pressing ahead with a probe into whether Trump's campaign aides colluded with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Trump will come to Vietnam on the heels of a pomp-and-circumstance visit to China

Trump will come to Vietnam on the heels of a pomp-and-circumstance visit to China

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting will be a more workmanlike diplomatic stop

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting will be a more workmanlike diplomatic stop

Vietnamese honor guards will be tired from all the standing after greeting more than 20 foreign heads of state this week in Hanoi and Da Nang for two different multinational meetings

Vietnamese honor guards will be tired from all the standing after greeting more than 20 foreign heads of state this week in Hanoi and Da Nang for two different multinational meetings

Both the White House and the Kremlin have denied there was any such connection.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed Wednesday that that one-on-one would 'likely' take place on the sidelines of the APEC event. Trump and Putin last met in Hamburg during the July G20 summit.

But in a briefing with reporters Thursday in Beijing, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson downplayed the idea – saying no Trump-Putin meeting was ever firmed up. 

'There's never been an agreement to – certainly not to a formal bilat,' Tillerson said, referring to a bilateral meeting between the two presidents. 

But he allowed that 'it wouldn’t be at all unusual if they ended up with some sort of "pull aside"' – provided there's 'something sufficiently substantive to talk about.' 

Putin and Trump would likely discuss economic cooperation designed to put a stranglehold on North Korea, along with Moscow's continuing support of Bashar al-Assad's regime in war-torn Syria.

And Tillerson said there are also 'significant conversations underway with Russia on the situation in Ukraine.'

And Russian meddling in the U.S. election 'stays on that list,' he added.

Owners of the 5-month old bar named after U.S. President Donald Trump, Nguyen Ha Anh Tuan, 32 - right, and Huynh Nhat Quang, 30 - left, pose for a portrait inside their Trump Bar on November 9, 2017 in Danang, Vietnam

Owners of the 5-month old bar named after U.S. President Donald Trump, Nguyen Ha Anh Tuan, 32 - right, and Huynh Nhat Quang, 30 - left, pose for a portrait inside their Trump Bar on November 9, 2017 in Danang, Vietnam

Trump has a close relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, something that makes the Vietnamese nervous

Trump has a close relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, something that makes the Vietnamese nervous

After Vietnam, Trump will go to Manila in the Philippines – where a multitude of protesters are already piping up to object to his presence

After Vietnam, Trump will go to Manila in the Philippines – where a multitude of protesters are already piping up to object to his presence

On the heels of pomp-laden swings through Japan, South Korea and China, Trump can expect a lower-key affair at the Vietnam APEC conference

In Beijing he was the guest of honor, a U.S. president continuing the tradition of Richard Nixon in keeping trade and diplomatic ties open with the world's largest communist nation.

In Da Nang, he will be first among equals but only one draw among 21 heads of state, and leaders of companies like FedEx, Airbnb and Facebook.

Trade will be on their minds, especially following Trump's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a 12-nation deal that the president called 'awful' for American businesses as he ran for the White House.

The TPP's aim is to eliminate tariffs on agriculture and industrial imports and exports among countries as far-flung as Singapore and Canada. Vietnam is hoping to use the agreement to lessen the impact of China's gargantuan economy in the area.

Also covered are labor agreements, government subsidies for key industry sectors and a host of other complications.

Vietnam's economy is expanding by nearly 7 per cent per year, making it one of Asia's manufacturing stars.

Arizona Sen. John McCain today
Arizona Sen. John McCain in 1967

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who was wounded and tortured during the Vietnam War, has been openly critical of Trump for obtaining medical deferments so he could avoid being drafted into the military 

The remaining 11 countries sought to ink a deal without the U.S. on Thursday, spurred on by heavy lobbying from Japan.

Canada and Mexico, both TPP countries, are treading carefully since they are simultaneously renegotiating the NAFTA agreement with Trump's trade team.

Damage from Typhoon Damrey is posing the threat of mass flooding in Da Nang; at least 106 people are dead and 25 more missing, and seven reservoirs are near their breaking points.

Releasing the waters could flood parts of Da Nang and nearby Hoi An, the hub for Vietnamese tailoring, during the extended weekend.

The coastal city, a seaside waystation between the metropolises of Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, will host its largest-ever diplomatic event, but older residents still see Da Nang through a more sinister historic lens.

It was here that the U.S. Army stored its stockpiles of the deadly defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, dispersing it from crop-dusting planes to flush out North Vietnamese guerrillas from swaths of dense jungle.

Dangerous: The Vietnamese are paddling boats through the flooded streets of Hoi An – just a half-hour's drive from Da Nang – after a powerful typhoon rocked the country and killed more than 100 people

Dangerous: The Vietnamese are paddling boats through the flooded streets of Hoi An – just a half-hour's drive from Da Nang – after a powerful typhoon rocked the country and killed more than 100 people

The chemical is now blamed for epidemic-levels of birth defects and cancers among large numbers of civilians in Vietnam, and the U.S. is still paying annually to decontaminate soil.

And in the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides medical treatment to Vietnam War veterans whose exposure to Agent Orange has led to diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and prostate and respiratory cancers.

The VA is currently considering whether to expand that list to include bladder cancer and hypothyroidism.

Small numbers of protesters risking arrest inside the Da Nang airport have seized on Trump's signature hairdo and complexion, hoisting signs calling him 'President Agent Orange.'

Trump never served in uniform during the Vietnam War, earning five deferments from the draft – including one medical exemption in 1968 on the basis of a bone spur in his heel.

Speaking to reporters in Iowa during the presidential primary season in 2015, he said he couldn't remember which foot was afflicted.

The cavalier brushoff has long stuck in the craw of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who was captured in Vietnam after crashing the plane he was piloting, and tortured for years by the North Vietnamese.

Da Nang is where the U.S. Army stored its stockpiles of the deadly defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, dispersing it from crop-dusting planes to flush out North Vietnamese guerrillas from swaths of dense jungle

Da Nang is where the U.S. Army stored its stockpiles of the deadly defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, dispersing it from crop-dusting planes to flush out North Vietnamese guerrillas from swaths of dense jungle

'One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level of America,' McCain said last month.

'And the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong.'

Trump's arrival in Da Nang directly from Beijing has been noticed, and adds to Vietnam's longstanding animosity toward China that dates back nearly 2,200 years.

The Han Dynasty Chinese first colonized northern Vietnam in the second century BC, an occupation that continued for most of the next 1,000 years.

The Ming Dynasty later tried again to conquer Vietnam but couldn't maintain its grip for more than a few decades.

More recently, a 1979 months-long border war killed tens of thousands of people in both China and Vietnam in only a few months.

And as Beijing races to claim nearly all of the South China Sea as its own – complete with dredging to build up man-made militarized islands – Vietnam continues to cry foul over parts of the water generally recognized as part of its economic zone.

Underneath that region's seabed lie valuable oil reserves that China wants to keep for itself.

As much as Vietnam's leaders would like Trump's help shoving China back into its own territorial waters, they have consistently abided by what the nation knows as its 'three nos': no military alliances, no foreign country's bases on its soil, and no allowing any nation to use Vietnam in a ploy to undermine an ally.

APEC's members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S. and Vietnam.

Trump will also attend a separate summit on Saturday in Hanoi, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

ASEAN's 10 members include seven from APEC. They are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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