Tue, 29 Apr 2025

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 Fifty years after the war, Vietnam faces a new US threat: tariffs

The South East Asian country is on a path to prosperity. The US-China trade war could change that.

* A young Vietnamese college student, Tung Linh, says she "basically knows nothing" about the bloody war between North and South Vietnam.
* Today's Vietnam is a vastly different country from when American troops withdrew in defeat - it's enterprising, growing fast, and getting richer.
* The authoritarian Communist leadership has embraced capitalism, aiming to become a reliable manufacturing hub and an alternative to China.
* However, this ambition is being threatened by US President Donald Trump's trade war, which could shatter Vietnam's economic potential.
* Vietnam is caught in the middle of the new American battle against China's rise as an economic superpower.
* Young Vietnamese people are eager to learn from America and benefit from globalization, with many studying economics and marketing.
* The country's leaders are implementing reforms to slash bureaucracy and attract foreign investment, aiming to escape the "middle-income trap".
* Vietnam has welcomed back those it once drove out, including descendants of "the boat people", who now make up a diaspora of nearly six million worldwide.
* As the US-China trade war continues, Vietnam is again being asked to choose between its two major trading partners, but it needs both for its economic growth.
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