How is the US viewed by the Vietnamese today?

Hi I am new the forum. I am curious as to how the Vietnamese view the US today

Vietnam is one of the most pro-American countries in Asia. 76% of its people view the US favorably.

Is the pro American feeling strong enough for military cooperation ?

Vietnam signed a pact which allows the transfer of nuclear fuel from US to Vietnam, USA also relaxed the arms embargo on Vietnam in october this year.

pangur wrote:

Is the pro American feeling strong enough for military cooperation ?

The reality is the majority of Vietnamese people nowadays have a very positive view on the US and the Viet Nam - US relations.
There are several reasons for this:
- First and foremost, many people think the collapse of the USSR indicates that American model is the better one. Apparently, most advanced countries nowadays are capitalist, and the most capitalist is the USA. Most people in Viet Nam have no ideas about the difference between American capitalism and the European 'social-democratic' capitalism, so they think the "American dream" is the way to go.
- After Viet Nam was re-unified in 1975, many Vietnamese people fled the country which was deep in poverty and ruins. Most of those people settled down in the US and/or the UK. Since then, they have been sending home a lot of money (tens of billions of US dollars every year in the last few years).
- The USA is considered to be a significant "counter-weight" to the presence of China in the region. Vietnamese have always had a huge distrust towards China regardless of China's political regimes. Currently, Viet Nam and China are disputing a series of archipelagos in the South China Sea (of course it is called the "East Sea" by Vietnamese). As I mentioned elsewhere in this forum, since the global withdrawal policy of Mikhail Gorbachyov, Vietnamese have nowhere to turn but the US (although not only the US) to create some kind of new balance against China.

Military cooperation between the US and Viet Nam started a long time ago with very little development although that may change in the future depending on the situation in the South China Sea. There was a military joint exercise between the US and Viet Nam but it was restricted to military medical practice/rescue at sea only. The US still exercising its arms embargo against Viet Nam. However, the two sides have been negotiating to have this embargo lifted soon.

There is still a big distrust among Vietnamese leadership and some Vietnamese people towards the US (i.e. the US will push for a regime change and exercise corporate American interests in Viet Nam), so I don't think there will be some kind of military alliance between the two countries in the near future. I have a feeling that the Vietnamese leadership is trying hard to get Russia back to Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, Russia needs China more than ever since the Ukrainian crisis started.

Nowadays, Vietnamese people have positive views about American people. In fact, most of the people in First World countries like Britain, France, Germany, Japan,... I think that people from industrial countries who reside and work in Vietnam are hard-working and well-mannered, so people have good impression about them.

But USA (as a state) is a different matter. The only people who sing its praises are coming from high and upper-middle classes. The lower classes are still thinking about the USA with disdain. Well, we haven't forgotten the US imperialist war in Vietnam after all.

pangur wrote:

Is the pro American feeling strong enough for military cooperation ?

Normal people cannot decide it. It's job of the State. Well, money or not money, that is the question...

Personal opinion: I think there is a very high chance of US-Vietnam cooperation. We have come "this far", so it is not surprising. And it is not a bad thing (for some people). USA, China or Russia, they are all capitalists anyway.