THE PRINCIPLES OF VIETNAM’S COMMUNIST PARTY IN ITS RELATION WITH THE UNITED STATES (1975 – 2013)

Tóm tắt

     This paper is an effort to recollect in the most complete way the Communist Party of Vietnam's foreign policies in general, and particularly its policies towards the United States in the last 40 years (1975 - 2013). In its relation with the United States, Vietnam has many times revised its policy orientation. From 1976 to 1978, the two countries conducted negotiations on normalizing their diplomatic relations but were unsuccessful due to major differences in their principles. From 1978 to 1986, Vietnam and the United States were in direct confrontation with each other. In late 1986, together with reforming its economic mindset, Vietnam abandoned the confrontational spirit and instead adopted the outlook to co-exist in peace with the United States, gradually normalizing its diplomatic relation with the United States. With the 7^th National Congress of Vietnam's Communist Party (June 1991), Vietnam decided to become proactive in its relations with the United States. Therefore, on 12^th July 1995, the two countries officially normalized their bilateral diplomatic relations. From 1995 until now, the Vietnam-US relationship has been highly regarded by the two, gradually moving toward a stable framework that goes in line with the principle to actively open up foreign policies and get engaged in international integration.