United States–Vietnam relations

Early contacts between the United States and Vietnam began around 1787, when US minister to France Thomas Jefferson met the exiled Vietnamese Prince Cảnh, son of the future Emperor Gia Long in Paris, as Jefferson showed interest in dry rice varieties from Cochinchina (South Vietnam).

In 1945, toward the end of World War II, the US Office of Strategic Services assisted the Viet Minh in gaining intelligence against the Japanese. With the emergence of the Cold War, the US supported the anticommunist, French-associated State of Vietnam against the communist-controlled Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, the US supported the anticommunist South Vietnam as opposed to communist North Vietnam and fought North Vietnam directly during the Vietnam War. After American withdrawal in 1973 and the subsequent fall of South Vietnam in 1975, the U.S. applied a trade embargo and severed ties with Vietnam, mostly out of concerns relating to Vietnamese boat people and the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Attempts at re-establishing relations went unfulfilled for decades, until U.S. president Bill Clinton began normalizing diplomatic relations in the 1990s. In 1994, the U.S. lifted its 30-year trade embargo on Vietnam, though other sanctions remained. While trade was allowed to flow, it was not on normal terms as Vietnamese exports to the U.S. still faced high tariffs in the range of 40%-80%. The following year, both countries established embassies and consulates. Relations between the two countries continued to improve into the 21st century.