5 Things About the U.S. and Vietnam

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken of his desire for Americans to one day think of the country and not the war when they hear the word “Vietnam.” While that moment might still be some time away, this nation of 90 million people is already playing a larger role on the world stage, whether it is making shoes and clothes or producing smartphones and other electronics. The visit of Nguyen Phu Trong, Communist Party general secretary, to the U.S. on July 7 is likely to push that process further. Here are five things to know about the blossoming relationship between Washington and its onetime foe.

#1: Trade is growing

Trade between the two countries is growing quickly. It has shot up from $220 million in 1994, when former U.S. President Bill Clinton lifted a trade embargo, to over $30 billion today. It is set to expand further if the U.S. and its trade partners–including Vietnam–secure a new regional trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

#2: Electronics are a big export

In recent years, much of that trade has encompassed exports of smartphones and other electronic items, which have overtaken textiles as Vietnam’s single largest merchandise export. Samsung Electronics Co. now accounts for nearly a fifth of the country’s total exports by value.

#3: Hillary Clinton supports Vietnam

Hillary Clinton has kept up the Clinton family tradition of bringing Vietnam in from the cold. At a regional security forum in Hanoi in 2010, she announced that a peaceful resolution to competing territorial claims in the South China Sea involving China, Vietnam and other nations was, as she put it, in America’s national interest. Beijing was enraged.

#4: China affects the U.S.-Vietnam relationship

If there is one stand-out event that drove Vietnam’s political leaders into closer alignment with the U.S., it was when China last year towed an oil rig into waters also claimed by Hanoi. The incident sparked a monthslong standoff at sea and a wave of anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam.

#5: Visas are still needed

The warming relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. doesn’t apply to tourism, or at least not just yet. While Vietnam dropped visa requirements for travelers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain on July 1, Americans didn’t make the list. Vietnam already waives visas for visitors from Southeast Asia and previously dropped visa requirements for tourists from four Nordic nations plus Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Japan and South Korea.