Behind visits that bolstered Vietnam - US relations

As President Joe Biden is set to visit Vietnam on September 10 and 11, Vietnamese ambassadors to the U.S. said the countries' relations have transformed thanks to their leaders' determination in making historic visits.

One of the most important visits was by President Truong Tan Sang to the U.S. in July 2013, which led to the countries upgrading ties to Comprehensive Partnership, said Nguyen Quoc Cuong, who worked as Vietnam's ambassador to the U.S. between 2011 and 2014.

"The countries did not reach a domestic consensus yet about upgrading the relationship with the other, so preparations for the visit were complicated," Cuong said.

President Sang and his entourage left Hanoi on July 23, 2013, for a three-day visit upon the invitation of President Barack Obama. It was the second U.S. visit by a Vietnamese head of state since the countries normalized relations, after President Nguyen Minh Triet came in June 2007, invited by President George W. Bush.

Vietnamese President Truong Van Sang (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama in the U.S. in July 2013. Photo by AFP

Cuong said when he picked up Sang at the airport and accompanied him in events in Washington, he noticed that Sang had difficulties stepping up and down a car.

Sang told Cuong that he had been arrested and tortured in the Vietnam War. As he refused to give up any confessions, a U.S. officer lost patience and kicked his leg, breaking it.

Dozens of years after the war, he said the leg still felt painful on cold days.

"I fell silent," Cuong said. "Then I shared the story with an advisor of President Obama. I added that many Vietnamese leaders had fought in the war and suffered injuries like Mr. Truong Tan Sang. Some still carried pieces of U.S. bullets in their body, some lost their wives or children during the war. So the fact that these Vietnamese leaders agreed to leave the past behind, overcame disagreements to look forward to the future, to upgrade relations with the U.S., was a historic opportunity."

The ambassador said Obama's advisor seemed to agree with him and asked if he could report the story to the president.

"I told him it's up to him," Cuong said. "Through this story, the U.S. leaders understood more about the vision and determination of our leaders, as well as the tradition of forgiving of Vietnamese people," he told VnExpress.

After Vietnam and the U.S. agreed to upgrade ties to Comprehensive Partnership, the U.S. suggested that the two sides issued a press release not longer than one page to mark the occasion.

But the Vietnam side believed that the upgrade of ties was an important event and the two countries needed to release a joint statement specifying the principals and meanings of the Comprehensive Partnership, Cuong said.

"Vietnam gave the U.S. a draft of the statement. After some discussions, the two sides then agreed to issue a joint statement of around three or four pages with the content basically similar to what Vietnam suggested."

In the joint statement, the two countries for the first time clearly determined the principle of mutual respect of each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political system, Cuong said.

U.S. presidents later all reaffirmed the U.S.'s policy of supporting a strong, independent, self-reliant and prosperous Vietnam.

Two years later, another U.S. visit, by General Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, set another milestone.

Pham Quang Vinh, who served as Vietnamese ambassador to the U.S. at the time, said that "It was the first visit by a [Vietnamese] General Party Secretary to the U.S."

Vinh said State Secretary Hillary Clinton invited Trong to visit the U.S. during her official trip to Vietnam in 2012.

But as the two sides needed to discuss many matters including their differences in political systems, the visit only happened in July 2015.

"2015 marked 20 years of the two countries' relations. It thus carried both symbolic and substantial meanings," Vinh said.

He said the visit happened after then State Secretary John Kerry, during a phone conversation with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh in February 2015, relayed an invitation by President Obama to General Secretary Trong.

The U.S. announced about the visit in early May that year, saying the two sides had agreed that Trong would meet Obama at the White House on July 7.

General Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (L) meets with President Barack Obama at the White House on July 7, 2015. Photo by VNA

According to plans, Obama would receive Trong in the Oval Office and have a 60-minute talk, including 15 minutes with the press. But the meeting actually lasted for nearly 90 minutes, including around 75 minutes between the two leaders.

"That meant there were many interesting points in their exchanges," Vinh said.

With Trong as the leader of Vietnam's Communist Party, the visit was important as it showed the countries' respect for each other's political systems, he said.

During Vinh's term from 2014 to 2018, two U.S. presidents, Obama and Donald Trump, visited Vietnam.

Obama paid a visit in May 2016, when he lifted arms embargo on Vietnam.

"The visit emphasized the Comprehensive Partnership, and affirmed that the U.S. highly valued Vietnam's strategic position and contributions in Asia and Asia-Pacific," Vinh said.

Half a year later, when Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency and announced his "America First" policy, he left many countries anxious about changes in the U.S.'s diplomatic initiatives.

Vietnam was not an exception. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in December 2016 had an "open and honest" phone conversation with the U.S. president-elect, which partly set the momentum for Phuc's visit to the U.S. in May 2017, making him the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the U.S. during Trump's presidency.

"Those efforts saved Vietnam and U.S. relationship from any disorder and allowed it to grow," Vinh said.

Six months later, Trump came to Da Nang for the APEC Summit and paid Vietnam a state visit.

President Donald Trump is welcomed at the Hanoi’s Presidential Palace, received by late President Tran Dai Quang, November 12, 2017. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Trump said during the Hanoi visit that for more than two decades, Vietnam and the U.S. have come together with common goals and shared interests, calling the connections "important."

Vinh said the past 10 years of Comprehensive Partnership saw strongest and most substantial developments of the Vietnam-U.S. ties in all fields, while Cuong said the bilateral relations have deepened with changes "in both quantity and quality."