Historical Legacies
The United States and Vietnam have prioritized addressing the legacies of war. In April 2023, USAID announced a partnership with the War Remnants Museum (WRM) in Ho Chi Minh City. The partnership involves adding an exhibit to the WRM to showcase efforts by both countries to overcome the consequences of the Vietnam War. This historical exhibit marks the first time that the U.S. government has had a direct stake in how the war is memorialized in Vietnam. The WRM has previously faced many criticisms for lacking a balanced perspective, portraying U.S. soldiers as criminals while ignoring atrocities committed by North Vietnamese forces. The new collaborative exhibit showcases the United States and Vietnam’s joint commitment to address war legacies based on mutual understanding and an honest acknowledgment of history. The exhibit is expected to open in 2025, in time for both anniversaries.
Despite its strong commitment, the United States still has work to do to address the legacies of the Vietnam War. As of 2022, the remains of 1,244 U.S. service members killed or missing in action were still not accounted for, with 470 of those declared “non-recoverable.” Progress toward recovering remains has slowed, given the logistical and scientific hurdles involved. In 2023, only four service members’ remains were successfully recovered.
In 2021, Austin, the U.S. defense secretary, and Vietnamese defense minister Phan Van Giang inked a memorandum of understanding in which the United States committed to assist Vietnam in locating, identifying, and recovering the war dead of Vietnamese forces. The Department of Defense intends to home in on relocation efforts by partnering with the United States Institute of Peace, USAID, U.S. academic institutions, and the Office of Defense Attache in Hanoi. While detailed implementation plans have not yet been established, the United States intends to target the following areas to aid in Vietnamese accounting efforts: archival research; digitization of documents; building technological accounting capacity; media outreach; exchanges between veterans, academia, policymakers, and technical and working-level people; and DNA analysis assistance.
Despite the recovery efforts of both U.S. and Vietnamese forces at play, the loss of lives affiliated with the former Republic of Vietnam (RVN or South Vietnam) has still not been officially recognized or addressed. While their war memorialization and recovery efforts thus far are commendable, the United States and Vietnam must include the RVN forces in these efforts to reconcile the Vietnamese-American community, a critical step in strengthening bilateral ties.
The United States also continues to work with Vietnam to remove unexploded ordnance (UXO) and remediate soil contaminated by Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the war containing high levels of the deadly chemical dioxin. USAID completed a multiyear project to remediate soil at Da Nang airport; the project was launched during the Obama administration, and the agency is currently working to clean up Bien Hoa, a former U.S. air base containing high concentrations of Agent Orange. In December 2022, USAID awarded a contract to develop a facility to treat more than 100,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil at the base. The project is expected to cost $450 million and be completed in 2030.
While the environmental remediation efforts are making considerable progress, more should be done to treat the victims of Agent Orange exposure. The U.S. government provides care and compensation for U.S. veterans exposed during the war, but more should be done in cooperation with Hanoi to treat Vietnamese victims. The U.S. and Vietnamese governments do not agree on who qualifies as being affected by Agent Orange exposure. Reaching such an agreement and increasing support to victims accordingly would mark an important step in reconciliation.
The United States continues to support demining efforts in Vietnam, investing over $206 million as of 2022 and removing 5,979 mines and UXO from 1,247,425 square meters (308 acres) of land as of July 2021. In 2022, the Department of State initiated technological support to the Vietnam National Mine Action Center and two provincial mine action centers to develop the ability to carry out demining in Vietnam independently. The Department of State has also supported education on UXO risk in primary and secondary schools in affected Vietnamese provinces, including Da Nang, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien Hue. Removal of all UXO from the war is a difficult feat, with millions of mines remaining undetected. The Vietnamese government speculates that, as of 2022, mines and UXO have caused over 40,000 deaths and 60,000 injuries since the war’s end. A notable nongovernmental organization (NGO) tackling this challenge is Project RENEW, a partnership established in 2001 between the Quang Tri Province government and international NGOs. Over 20 years, RENEW has successfully removed 815,952 explosives from Vietnam, less than half of what is estimated to remain. While it is impossible to remove all UXO, continued efforts are critical in decreasing safety risks throughout Vietnam.
The Vietnamese Diaspora
The end of the Vietnam War triggered a large-scale migration of Vietnamese nationals to the United States. At the end of the war in 1975, the United States evacuated around 125,000 Vietnamese nationals, many of whom had ties to the U.S. military and risked persecution by the victorious Communist government. The evacuation marked the first wave of Vietnamese refugees immigrating to the United States. A second wave began in 1978 and lasted into the 1980s, as many Vietnamese fled by boat to neighboring Southeast Asian states and were eventually resettled in third countries. Today, around 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrants reside in the United States, and the Vietnamese-American population totals more than 2 million.
Vietnamese Americans play an important role in U.S.-Vietnam relations. Most second-generation Vietnamese Americans have never been to Vietnam and many Vietnamese immigrants and their children remain fervently anti-communist. The community’s role in the deepening U.S.-Vietnam relationship has been conflicted, with many Vietnamese Americans eagerly forging new cultural and commercial ties, but others lobbying the U.S. government to adopt a more critical stance toward Hanoi.
For its part, the Vietnamese government refers to Vietnamese Americans as Viet Kieu, or “overseas Vietnamese.” After the war, the term was initially considered derogatory. But Vietnam’s relationship with the diaspora has evolved since the normalization of U.S.-Vietnam relations. Hanoi has worked to embrace the Vietnamese-American community, identifying it as a source of inspiration for Vietnamese at home. The cultural and political disconnect many Vietnamese Americans feel toward Hanoi will not disappear any time soon, but it is steadily shrinking. To further reconciliation efforts, the U.S. and Vietnamese governments should continue to support programs that allow Vietnamese Americans to return to Vietnam for cultural and educational exchanges. But they must also acknowledge and address the trauma suffered by Vietnamese on both sides of the war.
Educational Exchanges
About 30,000 Vietnamese students currently study in the United States, more than from any other country in Southeast Asia. The U.S. government is encouraging educational institutions to accept more Vietnamese students over the coming years. Vietnam has also welcomed U.S. universities to develop partnerships with Vietnamese institutions and even open campuses in Vietnam. The University of Arizona notably offers a collaborative program with Hanoi Law University (HLU) to earn both a bachelor of laws degree from HLU and a bachelor of arts in law degree from Arizona in only four years. Meanwhile, Troy University is currently partnered with Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and Saigon Technology University to offer a variety of undergraduate programs in Vietnam.
The United States’ Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) played an instrumental role in the early normalization of U.S.-Vietnam relations via educational exchanges. Established by Congress in 1999, the VEF was a flagship education exchange program created to advance Vietnamese science and technology capacities. The VEF, which operated in Vietnam from 2003 to 2016, allowed Vietnamese scholars of academic merit to study in the United States. Over its run, the VEF brought in 600 Vietnamese nationals to pursue graduate degrees in the United States and over 40 U.S. professors from U.S. universities to teach at Vietnamese universities. The VEF’s foundational first steps toward normalizing educational exchanges inspired emerging programs such as the Fulbright Program to continue encouraging exchanges between the United States and Vietnam, with the two programs developing a strong working relationship until the VEF officially closed its doors in 2018.
The United States, through the Fulbright Program, gives U.S. professionals an opportunity to study, teach, or research in Vietnam while learning about Vietnam’s language and culture. The Fulbright Economics Teaching Program emerged out of a 1994 partnership between Harvard University’s Vietnam Program and University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City. The program is now part of Fulbright University Vietnam, Vietnam’s first independent nonprofit university. Fulbright University Vietnam was commended in the announcement of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for its “growing role as a regional hub for public policy training,” as well as for its recognition of the importance of investing in human capital “as a critical resource for future prosperity, security, stability, and development.”
In 2022, the Peace Corps sent its first delegation of volunteers to Hanoi after 18 years of negotiations between the United States and Vietnam. The Peace Corps has championed “world peace and friendship through community-based development and intercultural understanding” since 1961. Internationally established and a hallmark for strong bilateral relations, the Peace Corps’ establishment in Vietnam marks a historic win for U.S.-Vietnam relations. The United States and Vietnam had been negotiating the bilateral agreement for the Peace Corps since 2004, inking a formal agreement in 2016 during the Obama administration. Implementation agreements were finalized in early 2021, formally recruiting staff later that year. With the Peace Corps’ Vietnam program established, the United States gives its citizens more opportunities to engage in both cultural and educational exchange opportunities, which are critical steps toward deepening mutual understanding between both nations.
A Bright Future for U.S.-Vietnam Relations
The bilateral relationship between the United States and Vietnam is only beginning to prosper. Expanded government-to-government ties have created deeper institutional linkages between the two countries. Their bilateral friendship will be able to endure changes in administrations in each country, regardless of their respective domestic political environments. Economic engagement in Vietnam is growing steadily in the wake of Western companies de-risking from China. In the semiconductor production sector, renewable energy sector, and critical mineral sector, among others, there are significant opportunities for a U.S.-Vietnam economic partnership.
Meanwhile, the United States and Vietnam continue to earnestly acknowledge their historical war legacies, paving the road toward an eventual mutual understanding between the two nations. Their strengthened bilateral relationship opens educational opportunities for people of both nations, including Vietnamese Americans, to play a role in the United States and Vietnam’s complicated and deepening friendship. And with important anniversaries of both the end of the Vietnam War and diplomatic normalization quickly approaching, the United States and Vietnam will only work to continue the momentum in their growing relationship.
Lauren Mai is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Gregory B. Poling is a senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS. Japhet Quitzon is a research associate with the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS.
Throughout this project, CSIS scholars received support and input from a wide range of U.S. and Vietnamese experts on Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asia Program thanks them for their counsel. The authors would also like to thank Giang Pham and Amelie De Leon for their assistance in producing this white paper.
This report is made possible with support from Energy Capital Vietnam and the Vietnam-America Research and Education Fund, Inc.
