Former ambassador Osius to release book on Vietnam, US journey to peace

"Nothing is Impossible: America's Reconciliation with Vietnam" would depict the journey for Vietnam and the U.S. from war adversaries to important partners, as well as their efforts to mend wartime wounds, said Osius, who was the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017.

Osius said he had directly observed how the U.S. and Vietnam came to reconciliation following the war, including through the stories of major players like late U.S. Senator John McCain, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former Vietnamese foreign minister Nguyen Co Thach and the first Vietnam ambassador in the U.S. Le Van Bang.

The book also includes the stories of Pete Peterson, who spent seven years in Hoa Lo Prison as a POW before becoming the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam in 1997. The foreword will be written by John Kerry himself.

Ted Osius was one of the first U.S. diplomats to work in Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. He helped with the establishment of the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in 1997, before being nominated by former U.S. President Barack Obama as ambassador to Vietnam in 2014.

Vietnam and the U.S. normalized relations in 1995 as announced by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. As the years passed, the two countries have become comprehensive partners, with bilateral trade increasing from $450 million in 1994 to $77 billion in 2019. For several years, the U.S. has been Vietnam's biggest export market, while Vietnam has been one of the U.S.'s quickest growing export markets.