FOREIGN POLICY/MILITARY/NAVY/NORTH KOREA: “The Navy confirmed Tuesday [4-18-17] that it didn’t send one of its aircraft carriers directly toward North Korea amid growing tensions with Pyongyang, despite representations by President Donald Trump and his top defense advisers that it was on its way.
In fact, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was thousands of miles away on exercises off the northwest coast of Australia and likely won’t arrive near the Korean Peninsula until sometime next week.
The U.S. Pacific Command released a statement Tuesday that said the Vinson is now heading toward the Western Pacific as ordered after a shortened training exercise with the Australian Navy. The statement described the move as a ‘prudent measure.’
The White House’s avowed deployment of the Vinson came as foreign adversaries from the Middle East to Russia and the Far East have been looking to test the mettle of Mr. Trump. On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that it scrambled fighter planes earlier this week to intercept two Russian bombers off the coast of Alaska, the first such incident since 2015.”
-Ben Kesling and Felicia Schwartz, “U.S. Carl Vinson Carrier Wasn’t on Way to North Korea,” The Wall Street Journal online, April 18, 2017 7:55pm