Nothing Is Impossible: America's Reconciliation with VietnamToday Vietnam is one of America’s strongest international partners, with a thriving economy and a population that welcomes American visitors. How that relationship was formed is a twenty-year story of daring diplomacy and a careful thawing of tensions between the two countries after a lengthy war that cost nearly 60,000 American and more than two million Vietnamese lives. Ted Osius, former ambassador during the Obama administration, offers a vivid account, starting in the 1990s, of the various forms of diplomacy that made this reconciliation possible. He considers the leaders who put aside past traumas to work on creating a brighter future, including senators John McCain and John Kerry, two Vietnam veterans and ideological opponents who set aside their differences for a greater cause, and Pete Peterson—the former POW who became the first U.S. ambassador to a new Vietnam. Osius also draws upon his own experiences working first-hand with various Vietnamese leaders and traveling the country on bicycle to spotlight the ordinary Vietnamese people who have helped bring about their nation’s extraordinary renaissance. With a foreword by former Secretary of State John Kerry, Nothing Is Impossible tells an inspiring story of how international diplomacy can create a better world. |
Contents
An Improbable Friendship | |
A Time to Heal and a Time to Build | |
The Story of Pete Peterson | |
David and Goliath | |
The Legacies of | |
The Communist Party | |
The Notorious | |
A New Journey | |
A New President | |
Ditches and Tree Roots | |
Reconciliation | |
Acknowledgments | |
Notes | |
Think Unthinkable Thoughts | |
Diplomacy from a Bicycle Seat | |
Châu Khiết and the Students of Vietnam | |
China and the TransPacific Partnership | |
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