by Phuong Nguyen • May 22, 2016 • CSIS

Secretary of State John Kerry poses for a selfie with Vietnamese students in Hanoi, Vietnam in August 2015. Source: State Department’s flickr photostream, U.S. Government Work.
If Bill Clinton traveled to Vietnam to “heal the wounds of war” in 2000 and George W. Bush to announce the country was open for business when he rang the bell of the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange in 2006, President Barack Obama will usher in a new chapter in U.S.-Vietnam relations when he visits the capital Hanoi and economic hub Ho Chi Minh City on May 23-25.