U.S. - Vietnam Relations
This information is courtesy of the State Department Country Notes on Vietnam, last updated November 30, 2010. The full Country Notes can be found here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4130.htm
President Bill Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 11, 1995. Subsequent to President Clinton's normalization announcement, in August 1995, both nations upgraded their Liaison Offices opened in January 1995 to embassy status. As diplomatic ties between the nations grew, the United States opened a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City, and Vietnam opened a consulate general in San Francisco. In 2009, the United States received permission to open a consulate in Danang; in 2010, Vietnam officially inaugurated a consulate general in Houston.
U.S. relations with Vietnam have become increasingly cooperative and broad-based in the years since political normalization. A series of bilateral summits have helped drive the improvement of ties, including President George W. Bush's visit to Hanoi in November 2006, President Triet's visit to Washington in June 2007, and Prime Minister Dung's visits to Washington in June 2008 and April 2010. The two countries hold an annual dialogue on human rights, which resumed in 2006 after a 2-year hiatus. Vietnam and the United States signed a Bilateral Trade Agreement in July 2000, which went into force in December 2001. In 2003, the two countries signed a Counternarcotics Letter of Agreement (amended in 2006), a Civil Aviation Agreement, and a textile agreement. In January 2007, Congress approved Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Vietnam. In October 2008, the U.S. and Vietnam inaugurated annual political-military talks and policy planning talks to consult on regional security and strategic issues. In August 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense and Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense held the first round of annual high-level defense talks, known as the Defense Policy Dialogue. Bilateral and regional diplomatic engagement has expanded at ASEAN, which Vietnam chairs in 2010, and continues through APEC.
Vietnam's suppression of political dissent has continued to be a main issue of contention in relations with the United States, drawing criticism from successive administrations, as well as from members of Congress and the U.S. public. Since October 2009, Vietnam's government has convicted more than 24 political dissidents, and has arrested an additional 15 others. The government has continued to further tighten controls over the Internet, press, and freedom of speech. In 2009, two journalists were arrested and convicted in connection with their reporting on high-level corruption, and several journalists and editors at leading newspapers have been fired. Several Internet bloggers were also arrested, jailed, and convicted after writing about corruption, and protesting China's actions in the disputed Spratly and Paracel Islands and Chinese mining of bauxite in the central highlands.
In contrast, Vietnam has continued to make progress on expanding religious freedom, although significant issues remain. In 2005, Vietnam passed comprehensive religious freedom legislation, outlawing forced renunciations and permitting the official recognition of new denominations. Since that time, the government has granted official national recognition or registration to a number of new religions and religious groups, including eight more Protestant denominations, and has registered hundreds of local congregations particularly in the central highlands. As a result, in November 2006, the Department of State lifted the designation of Vietnam as a "Country of Particular Concern," based on a determination that the country was no longer a serious violator of religious freedoms, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act. This decision was reaffirmed by the Department of State in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Nevertheless, there is room for further progress. The government's slow pace of church registration, particularly in the northwest highlands, and harassment of certain religious leaders for their political activism, including leaders of the unrecognized United Buddhist Church of Vietnam and Hoa Hao faith were an ongoing source of U.S. concern. Violence against the Plum Village Buddhist order at the Bat Nha Pagoda in Lam Dong and Catholic parishioners in Con Dau parish outside of Danang and outside of Hanoi at Dong Chiem parish at the hands of the police and organized mobs was particularly troubling.
As of November 12, 2010, the U.S. Government listed 1,711 Americans unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, including 1,310 in Vietnam. Since 1973, 935 Americans have been accounted for, including 661 in Vietnam.
Additionally, the Department of Defense has confirmed that of the 196 individuals who were "last known alive" (LKA) in Vietnam, the U.S. Government has determined the fate of all but 25. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting command (JPAC) conducts four major investigation and recovery periods a year in Vietnam, during which specially trained U.S. military and civilian personnel investigate and excavate hundreds of cases in pursuit of the fullest possible accounting. Unrestricting areas previously denied to JPAC personnel has been a recent highlight of cooperation by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as was the first-ever turnover of POW/MIA-related artifacts from the Vietnam Military History Museum, apparently a reciprocal action in response to U.S. turnovers of Vietnamese war artifacts. In June 2009, a coastal search mission by the oceanographic survey ship USNS Heezen was the first of its kind, creating the potential to recover hundreds of underwater crash sites. The U.S. would still like to see the provision of archival documents related to U.S. losses along the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail, as well as more openness in general with regard to Vietnam’s wartime archives. The United States considers achieving the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing and unaccounted for in Indochina to be one of its highest priorities with Vietnam.
Since entry into force of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement on December 10, 2001, increased trade between the U.S. and Vietnam, combined with large-scale U.S. investment in Vietnam, evidence the maturing U.S.-Vietnam economic relationship. In 2009, the United States exported $3.1 billion in goods to Vietnam and imported $12.3 billion in goods from Vietnam. Similarly, U.S. companies continue to invest directly in the Vietnamese economy. During 2009, the U.S. private sector committed $9.8 billion to Vietnam in foreign direct investment. Another sign of the expanding bilateral relationship is the signing of a Bilateral Air Transport Agreement in December 2003. Several U.S. carriers already have third-party code sharing agreements with Vietnam Airlines. Direct flights between Ho Chi Minh City and San Francisco began in December 2004. The Bilateral Air Transport Agreement was amended in October 2008 to fully open markets for cargo air transportation. Vietnam and the United States also signed a Bilateral Maritime Agreement in March 2007 that opened the maritime transport and services industry of Vietnam to U.S. firms.
Vietnam remains heavily contaminated by explosive remnants of war, primarily in the form of unexploded ordnance (UXO) including extensive contamination by cluster munitions dating from the war with the United States. The United States is the largest single donor to UXO/mine action. The Department of State continues to assist Vietnam in detecting and clearing unexploded ordnance, educating the public on the risks of UXO and providing assistance to the victims of UXO. Since 1993, U.S. has contributed over $50 million in clearance, education, and victims’ assistance programs.
While legacy issues such as UXO/demining, MIA accounting, and Agent Orange provided the foundations for the U.S.-Vietnam defense relationship, mutual interest in addressing the challenges of humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, search and rescue, and maritime security have allowed the defense relationship to accelerate in the past 3 years, with Vietnam participating in U.S.-provided capacity-building training in these areas. Many of these topics are discussed in annual bilateral defense discussions. In April 2009, a delegation of senior Vietnamese Navy and Air Force officers participated in a fly-out to the USS John C. Stennis in international waters off the coast of Vietnam. During August 2010, another delegation of government and military officials participated in a fly-out and tour aboard the USS George Washington just prior to the USS John S. McCain visit to Danang, Vietnam.
Two years after its first visit to Vietnam, the hospital ship USNS Mercy paid a port call to Quy Nhon in June 2010, where it provided medical and dental treatment to thousands; the USNS Mercy's June 2008 visit to Nha Trang reached over 11,000 Vietnamese patients. Other U.S. Navy visits in 2010 included the USNS Richard E. Byrd for maintenance and repair. Vietnam continues to observe multinational exercises such as the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) organized by the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the yearly GPOI CAPSTONE exercise organized by the U.S. Pacific Command. An active partner in nonproliferation regimes, Vietnam also takes full advantage of expertise, equipment, and training available under the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program and signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States to initiate a program--known as Megaports--to help Vietnam detect and identify weapons of mass destruction and their components at its commercial ports. Vietnam recently agreed to join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, and Prime Minister Dung was an active participant in President Barack Obama's April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.