US-Vietnam: From enemies to friends

Four decades on, the trauma of the war between the US and Vietnam is beginning to fade, and the two countries are undergoing a transformation in relations. "We struggled 1,000 years against the Chinese, 100 years against the French and 20 years against the Americans. It is time to think of the future," said a ministry of foreign affairs spokesman in Hanoi recently. That future evidently assumes an ever-closer relationship between the old enemies, Vietnam and the US.

It has been an extraordinary transformation, to see the coming together of two nations so deeply divided by history, ideology and culture. To understand how it has happened, the part played by demographics is important. Seventy per cent of the population of Vietnam was born since 1975 and has no memory of the war. When I spoke to students at the Polytechnic University in Hanoi, they had no interest in discussing what they call "the American War". They wanted to talk about the future, not to dwell on the past. They would like, if at all possible, to study in the US because they admire its educational opportunities and - significantly - its "freedom".

Two young women spoke admiringly of former president Bill Clinton but made very long faces at the mention of President George W Bush: "He makes too many wars around the world," they felt.

Adapted from BBC World Service news, July 2006

chinese translation | japanese translation | korean translation