On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in Hanoi that the United States considers Vietnam "not only important on its own merits, but as part of a strategy aimed at enhancing American engagement in the Asia Pacific, and in particular Southeast Asia." According to Secretary Clinton, all the fundamentals are in place for the United States to take its relations with Vietnam "to the next level of engagement, cooperation, friendship, and partnership." Carlyle A. Thayer charts the evolution of US-Vietnam relations since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1995.

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