In 1995, when President Bill Clinton announced that the United States would normalize diplomatic relations with Vietnam, cooperation and exchange on trade and diplomacy between the two peoples were still very limited. Today, after 28 years of establishing diplomatic relations, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States has made great strides on the basis of mutual benefits, respecting each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions. A series of cooperation fields between the two countries such as trade, education, culture and health have been stable, solid and have been raised to a new height.
The governments and peoples of both countries see history and are committed to looking forward as friends, not enemies. “Closing the past, looking to the future”, it is not an easy journey and it takes twenty years to start a bilateral relationship, especially for the people of both countries who have been through the war. Veterans on both sides and their families were the first to face the past and begin to build bridges so that the two governments could successfully bond. The two governments began working together to resolve humanitarian and war issues many years before the normalization of relations. Since 1988, working groups of the United States and Vietnam have cooperated to find and return the remains of service members. In 1991, the US Department of Defense's Office for POWs and Missing Persons was established in Hanoi. During the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has begun assisting people with disabilities in Vietnam through the War Victims Assistance Fund established by US Senator Patrick Leahy. Since 1993, the United States and Vietnam began working together to help Vietnam eliminate the threat from unexploded ordnance (UXO).
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The organization "American Veterans Association in Vietnam" transfers documents on missing Vietnam People's Army soldiers, February 1995. Source: War Remnants Museum
Cultural and educational exchange activities carried out such as the Fulbright Program (1992), the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP) in 1994… have trained thousands of policymakers, educators and business leaders. These first steps laid the foundation for the formal establishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of the two embassies of the two countries in Washington and Hanoi in 1995. In May 1997, Ambassador Le Van Bang became the first Ambassador of Vietnam to the United States and the US Senate also confirmed Mr. Douglas "Pete" - a former US Air Force pilot who spent more than six years as a US prisoner of war in Vietnam as the first ambassador to Vietnam during the war in Vietnam. Ambassador Peterson spent his entire term healing and building a long-term relationship between Vietnam and the United States. Peterson isn't the only one who believes he can do "a lot for the future" of US-Vietnam relations. Important figures in the governments of the two countries, including the late Senator John McCain, Senator Patrick Leahy, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador Le Van Bang, the late Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, former Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam…and many others have advocated for a common future with trust, peace and prosperity.
Currently, Vietnam is still heavily polluted by landmines and explosives left over from the war. The activities of the United States to support Vietnam in demining and disposing of landmines and people with disabilities are increasing. Since 1989, the United States has provided more than $113 million in aid to support people with disabilities in Vietnam.
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US President W.J. Clinton at a donation of equipment to help landmine victims, 2000. Source: War Remnants Museum
In December 2013, Vietnam and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding on continued cooperation in overcoming the consequences of mines and explosives. The United States is the largest donor for mines and explosives remediation activities in Vietnam, contributing more than US$140 million since 1994 and in recent years the casualty rate due to unexploded ordnance has decreased significantly. The efforts of the United States to solve the "legacy" issues of war ... have created the basis for defense relations between Vietnam and the United States.
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CPI (USA) staff is handling bomb in Quang Tri province, November 23, 2003. Source: War Remnants Museum.
The relationship between the two countries is getting closer and closer when there are continuous high-level visits. In turn, the US presidents made official visits to Vietnam such as: Bill Clinton (2000), George W. Bush (2006), Barack Obama (2016) and Donald Trump (2017, 2019), most recently US Vice President Kamala Harris paid an official visit to Vietnam on August 24, 2021 to discuss bilateral and regional cooperation as well as establish the Southeast Asia Regional Office of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) visit to Hanoi. April 14, 2023 to promote important discussions with Vietnam on the occasion of the two countries' 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Partnership.
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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (right) receives US Vice President Kamala Harris at the government office in Hanoi on August 27, 2021.
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General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong received the US Secretary of State for a courtesy visit during his visit on April 14, 2023.
The Vietnamese side also had visits to the US by late Prime Minister Phan Van Khai (2005), President Nguyen Minh Triet (2007), Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (2008), State President Truong Tan Sang (2013), General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (2015), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (2017) and recently a business trip to attend the ASEAN - US Special Summit, and the Prime Minister's visit to the United States on May 11/20 and his visit to the United Nations from May 11 to 20. This event has enhanced understanding, created momentum for relations, through declarations to establish a comprehensive partnership in all fields between the two countries. Efforts to search for missing US service members, defuse bombs and mines, decontaminate dioxins, and coordinate the search for soldiers missing in the war play a core role in the process of normalizing Vietnam-US relations. This is a matter of cooperation that originated between the two countries after the war, first of all for humanitarian reasons, contributing to building trust between the two sides about the goodwill of harmony and healing the wounds of war.
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Inauguration and handover ceremony of park land at Bien Hoa airport which has just been cleaned of dioxin on March 7, 2023
On the diplomatic front in general and national harmony in particular, both sides have devoted themselves to contributing to the common achievements of both countries in the spirit of "peace - friendship - cooperation and development". And the War Remnants Museum joins forces and plays its part in the goal of building a common world peace. With its own unique features, the War Remnants Museum is attracting more and more domestic and foreign tourists to visit. Most of the foreign tourists left the words "No war! Peace!” to protest the war, to honor peace in the book of impressions. Among them, there are many veterans of the United States and its allies. Director of the Museum - Ms. Tran Xuan Thao shared: "Not to let the museum be just a place to recall the painful past or promote hostility, but to "sit back" to hope and heal so that war tragedies will no longer happen in the future. Each story displayed at the museum is one of the most powerful ways to approach, convey information to the public, and send a send the strongest message of peace to the public. These are memories, pieces of history, of the community and of an entire nation in the process of fighting for and keeping peace”.
In particular, the War Remnants Museum has now been displaying thematic topics on remedial activities of mines and explosives left over from the war, dioxin pollution treatment and support for people with disabilities, which have received the sharing and sympathy of many domestic and international visitors. On November 12, 2021, the launching ceremony of the upgrading project of thematic exhibition "Overcoming the consequences of war: joint efforts between Vietnam and the United States" took place at the War Remnants Museum. This is a project within the framework of cooperation between the United States Agency for International Development in Vietnam (USAID) and the Standing Agency of the National Steering Committee to overcome the consequences of landmines and toxic chemicals after the war in Vietnam (Steering Committee 701 - Ministry of Defense). On April 10, 2023, Dr. Tran Xuan Thao, director of the War Remnants Museum, and Ms. Aler Grubbs, director of the United States Agency for International Development in Vietnam (USAID) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in implementing the above project and hope that the exhibition will be widely introduced to the public in the shortest time.
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Project launch ceremony on 11/12/2021
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Signing Ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding on April 10, 2023