22 APRIL-MAY 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and Democrats such as Senators John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, and Bennett Johnston, and Congressman Pete Peterson, who later became the first U.S. ambassador in Hanoi. Most important, Republican Senator John McCain—a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war—declared that “tangible progress” had been made toward the fullest possible accounting. “We have looked back in anger at Vietnam for too long,” he added. “I cannot allow whatever resentments I incurred during my time in Vietnam to hold me from doing what is so clearly my duty.” McCain also pointed out the strategic advantages of a positive relationship with Vietnam. Noting that Vietnam would join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, McCain wrote: “An economically viable Vietnam, acting in concert with its neighbors, will help the region resist dominance by any one power.” Forging the New Relationship In November 2000, Bill Clinton made the first U.S. presidential visit to a united Vietnam. In a speech broadcast live, the president outlined the key elements of a diplomatic agenda he hoped the United States and Vietnam would pursue. Describing Vietnam’s progress from isolation to the political and economic reforms called đổi mới, the president predicted (correctly) that a bilateral trade agreement with the United States would lead to Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization and to the country’s integration into the global economy. Together, he said, Vietnamese and Americans would find and return the remains of soldiers who perished, eliminate land mines and unexploded ordnance, and clean up Agent Orange. For the next 25 years, we pursued that agenda. My most significant accomplishment as ambassador was to facilitate the visit of Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng to the United States in July 2015. In a meeting that broke historic ground, President Barack Obama stated that the United States could respect political systems that differed from our own. He spoke respectfully about how deeply the United States valued human rights, saying, “This is just who we are.” The president and general secretary issued a joint statement after the meeting that included a commitment to “respect ... each other’s political systems”—the most important line in the document for the Vietnamese. The two leaders made other significant commitments, such as continuing party-to-party dialogues, cleaning up dioxin, promoting human rights, supporting educational exchange, and finishing trade negotiations. In 2016 I had the honor of hosting President Obama in Vietnam. Those three days were, for me, the highlight of a long diplomatic career. The president met with leaders, spoke with young people and entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City, committed to dioxin cleanup—a process that continues to this day—and agreed to open Fulbright University, the only U.S.-style institution of higher education in Vietnam. During Obama’s presidency and the first term of President Donald Trump, the partnership evolved from one focused primarily on addressing the legacies of war to a regional security partnership that also addressed common challenges like climate change, public health, and global peacekeeping. At the same time, commercial relations between the United States and Vietnam surged. From less than $800 million in 1995, two-way trade ballooned to $138 billion in 2022. The United States is now Vietnam’s largest export market, and Vietnam was our eighth-largest trading partner for the past two years. The year 2023 marked a record high in U.S. investment in Vietnam, with $36 billion in registered investment capital—a 32 percent surge from the previous year. Analysts predict that Vietnam will grow approximately 6.6 percent per year for the next 10 years. Ambassador Ted Osius meets 8-year-old Phú at an orphanage in Ha Tinh province. COURTESY OF TED OSIUS
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