Extraordinary progress of US-Vietnamese relations after 25 years

In 1995, when U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam by the time the two countries had nearly no economic relations, and citizen connection was still limited.

Nowadays, The United States has cooperated with a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam in a wide range of aspects such as economic activities, development, education, medical, energy and security through commitment to peace and prosperity.

Vietnam is actually a reliable partner and has built a friendship with the United States based on trust and mutual respect.

Dismiss/ignore differences, acknowledge history, and move towards future

If we look back what we have achieved together, the progress of bilateral U.S.- Vietnam relations over the past 25 years have been extraordinary.

Our predecessors dismissed differences, acknowledged history and committed to move toward as friends, not opponents.

The veterans and their families in both U.S. and Vietnamese sides were the first to face the past and started building bridges between two countries so that the governments could enhance the bond of the 2 countries successfully.

The United States and Vietnam started to engaged in collaboration to address the humanitarian and war issues left many years before the normalization of relations.

Many U.S. and Vietnam teams have collaborated to repatriate missing soldier's remains recovered from the U.S.-Vietnam war since 1988. In 1991, the Defense POW/MIA (Prisoners of War/Missing in Action) Accounting Agency Office was founded in Ha Noi.

In the presidential term of George H.W. Bush, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has assisted persons with disabilities through Leahy War Victims Fund. The United States and Vietnam started collaborating to help Vietnam eliminate the danger posed by unexploded ordnance (UXO).

We have gradually built some people-to-people activities such as establishing Fulbright program in 1992 and then founded Fulbright Economic Teaching Program (FETP) in 1994. These programs have train millions of policy makers, educators, and business leaders.

To give just two specific examples among many people, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended FETP program and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States.

The first steps laid the foundation for establishing diplomatic relations and opening two embassies in Washington and Hanoi in 1995. After that, in 1997, Mr. Douglas "Pete" Peterson was appointed as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam confirmed by United States Senate.

These programs have train millions of policy makers, educators, and business leaders.

Ambassador Peterson, who served as a United States Air Force pilot during the Vietnam war and experienced over six years as a prisoner of war, spent all his term healing and building long-term relationship between the United States and Vietnam.

"I want to heal the wounds between the United States and Vietnam. It's a tragic history that we've shared as two peoples. No one can change that, but there is a great deal we can all do about the future. And that's why I'm in Vietnam." said Mr. Peterson.

A shared future of trust, peace, and prosperity

Ambassador Peterson is not the only one who believe that he can do "a great deal for the future" of U.S.-Vietnam relations. Some important politicians and celebrities in 2 governments, including the late Senator John McCain, Senator Patrick Leahy, the former Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador Le Van Bang, the late Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, the former Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Van Cam and other politicians stand for a shared future of trust, peace, and prosperity.

According to Mr. Mike Pompeo – U.S. Secretary of State, "In the past, we were opponents on the battlefield. But today, our security relation is all about cooperation." The cooperation is in different levels, from the high-level visit of U.S. Secretary of Defense to our male and female soldiers serving in the two militaries. For example, in the past 3 years, The United States Coast Guard has transferred 24 patrol boats and a 3,000-ton, 115-meter Hamilton-class cutter to Vietnam's Coast Guard. Members of the U.S. Force Guard worked together with Vietnamese crew members to transfer the ships to Vietnam's Coast Guard.

During the visit to Ha Noi in November 2019, U.S. Secretary of Defense agreed to expand the program by the delivery of the second Hamilton-class Endurance Cutter to Vietnam's Coast Guard in 2020.

Vietnamese officers have been attending military training programs at professional military schools and two Vietnamese pilots have recently attended the training with U.S. officers in Aviation leadership program funded by U.S. Air Force.

In the past 3 years, U.S. Coast Guard has transferred 24 patrol boats and a 3,000-ton, 115-meter Hamilton-class cutter to Vietnam's Coast Guard.

U.S. officers have continually cooperated with Vietnamese counterparts to make humanitarian assistances and cultural exchanges within the frame of annual Pacific Partnership program. We are glad to announce that this summer, Vietnam will nominate staff for the first time to attend internship/training at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

U.S.- Vietnam cooperation has continually developed in other important areas including peacekeeping, mine clearance, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, law enforcement, criminal justice reform.

U.S. and Vietnamese business leaders have gradually enhanced many solid trade relations to make such ties more develop.

Vietnam started from the period of no economic relations with the United States 26 years ago; today we reached a bilateral trade turnover of over USD 77 billion.

Some U.S. large companies have invested billions of USD to many Vietnam's manufacturing areas and infrastructure, and we expect U.S. investments in energy and infrastructures to continue and even more develop within the framework of "ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific region". Enterprises in the two countries will continually cooperate and conduct many innovations to make the United States and Vietnam more and more thriving.

I strongly believe that U.S.- Vietnam cooperation to ensure circulation of commodity, free investment and justice will continue to contribute to our mutual prosperity. And we are committed to not only economic growth but also sustainable development.

Investing in U.S.-Vietnam future partnership creates chances for building the long- term friendship of the young generation.

To achieve these developments, we cooperate with Vietnam to protect and conserve Vietnam's natural resources – working together, we have invested in sustainable forest management; acted against illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing as well as wildlife trafficking, and improved air and water quality.

Investing in U.S.-Vietnam future partnership creates chances for building the long- term friendship of the young generation. Founded in 2000, Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) has granted nearly 600 scholarships to Vietnamese students who follow Master's and Ph.D. programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Nowadays, some VEF alumni have worked in many universities around Vietnam, contributing the training of the next generations of Vietnamese scientists and engineers.

Every year, millions of young Vietnamese citizens enroll in American universities. They contribute to the academic quality of U.S. institutions, and when those alumni return to Vietnam, they continue contributing to the developing economy of Vietnam with their world class education.

Everything we achieve is all built on bravery, goodwill and effort from those who came before.

Besides assisting Vietnamese students pursue their studies in the U.S., we also support Vietnam modernize university education system. We proudly support Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV), the first private, independent and non-profit school in Vietnam, which is combined between tradition and abundant cultural heritage of Vietnam with the tradition of problem-based learning, critical research and analysis of U.S. university education.

FUV is bringing university education standards at the world level to Vietnam and helping to liberate the enormous potential of Vietnam's education sector.

Although our partnership with Vietnam still concentrates on the future, we actively cooperate in resolving humanitarian issues and remaining war issues.

We do that because we realize that these issues are not just a "bridge" bringing two countries back together in 1995 but they are also basic factors today which help our relationships to move forwards.

Since 1988, the remains of 727 lost American in the war have been defined thank to the collaboration of American and Vietnamese working groups in order to find and return remains of sacrificed soldiers.

Today, we are enthusiastically working to support Vietnam in finding Vietnamese soldiers who were missed in the war.

During the time as an American Ambassador to Vietnam, I had the pleasure of visiting Truong Son and Bien Hoa cemeteries to pay respect to all Vietnamese soldiers who died in the war.

These are really moving experiences to me personally, made with the spirit of reconciliation and mutual respect.

Since 1989, the U.S. supplied over 113 million USD to support Vietnamese people with disabilities and help millions of disadvantaged people in Vietnam. Since 1993, the U.S. contributed over 130 million USD to help Vietnam clean unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Our partnership with the Vietnamese government in this area has been very successful, and over the last 2 years there have been no casualties related to unexploded ordnance in Quang Tri Province, where there U.S. government program supported.

In 2018, USAID successfully completed the $110-million dioxin treatment project at Da Nang airport, and last year, together with Vietnamese partners, we started to handle dioxin at Bien Hoa airport, the last major dioxin hotspot in Vietnam.

The U.S. – Vietnam partnership is also responding to today's urgent challenges. This year, the United States and Vietnam have adopted long-term cooperation in the medical field to strengthen Vietnam's ability to cope with COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Vietnam was very lucky when having three different units, each with its own specialization and competence, joined to support this struggle.

Create opportunities for young people

The United States Agency for International Developmet (USAID) has capitalized on its long-term history of operation in Vietnam – since 1989 – to quickly mobilize non-governmental resources and partners to support emergency responses to the pandemic.

The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), with 22 years of working with The Ministry of Health of Vietnam, has directly provided technical assistance to govermental partners in the context of science and technology promptly converting.

The Embassy's Medical Attache Office, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense, has coordinated closely with units in The U.S. Diplomatic mission to seek chances for exchanging information and equipment which related to personal protective clothing, ventilators and other technologies.

We are all responsible for continuing to build relationships based on trust and friendship that are foundation of our relationship, from security and health cooperation to economy and people exchanges.

In the process of cooperation to support Vietnam, these three agencies have brought Vietnam and U.S. closer together.

Looking back at what Vietnam and U.S. have achieved together over the past 25 years and even before 1995, it's clear that this year our two countries have many things to celerate. 

However, I think that it's important to consider our work  unfinished yet. There are some areas which we expect Vietnam to do more, and there are areas with differences from the two sides.

As friends, we will openly and frankly solve these issues with Vietnamese leaders, and carefully listen to their responses and work together to find out common solutions.

When I heard everyone saying that all we achieved in the United States - Vietnam relations is a miracle, I remember what Ambasssador Peterson used to tell me: although the steps we have made are very significant, that is not a coincidence.

Everything we achieve is built on bravery, goodwill and efforts from those who came before. The strong comprehensive partnership we have today is the result of countless activities and many decades of sincere dedication to economics and people exchanges.

I look forward to continuing development of bilateral relations in 2020 and in the next 25 years in our partnership.