THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL-MAY 2025 35 FOCUS TOWARD A MORE “GEOPOLITICALLY DRIVEN” RELATIONSHIP Reflections of the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, 2011-2014 ON THE U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONSHIP Moving beyond legacy war issues required building trust in the U.S. commitment to a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam. BY DAVID B. SHEAR David B. Shear, a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, served as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 2011 to 2014. He also served in Sapporo, Beijing, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington, D.C. From 2014 to 2016, he served as assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. He is now an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. It became clear to me as I prepared to depart Washington for Hanoi in summer 2011 that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and East Asia and the Pacific Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell did not want me to just continue strengthening bilateral U.S.- Vietnam ties in the tradition of post-1995 ambassadors. They agreed with my conviction, developed during my 2008-2011 role as China desk director and China deputy assistant secretary, that the United States needed to establish a geopolitically driven relationship with the Vietnamese that would strengthen our position in the region vis-à-vis an increasingly assertive China. Ambassador David Shear visits an orphanage in Bac Ninh province in March 2012. COURTESY OF DAVID SHEAR
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