The following article by Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt was posted on the New York Times website April 18, 2017:
MC2 SEAN M. CASTELLANO / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
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. “We’re sending an armada,” Mr. Trump said to Fox News last Tuesday afternoon.
The problem was that the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the three other warships in its strike force were that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula. Continue reading “Aircraft Carrier Wasn’t Sailing to Deter North Korea, as U.S. Suggested”