One of the world's most war-torn, poverty-ravaged countries is also the most optimistic about its future.
A series of international surveys, the most recent released last month, has found the Vietnamese have a brighter view of their country's economic and quality-of-life prospects than any other.
Three in four Vietnamese say this year will be better than last year, according to an end-of-year Gallup International survey.
It is the third straight year Vietnam has topped the company's annual optimism poll.
'Vietnamese people have lived very hard lives but now our lives have improved a lot,' said Vu Song Tuan, 29, an environmental specialist with a foreign company in Hanoi.
'Life for my family was not good at all 10 years ago, but now we have more things and we can go where we want to go.'