In the annals of reconciliation between two former warring nations, Vietnam today stands out as one of the United States ’ most critical partners in the Asia-Pacific. America is the Southeast Asian country’s largest export market and one of its closest security partners in the face of China’s assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea . Hostilities and distrust remained palpable between Washington and Hanoi when the war ended in 1975, but through yeoman efforts by diplomats, military officers, aid workers, academics, war veterans and businesspeople on both sides the two countries moved inch by inch towards partnership and trust. Former diplomat Ted Osius chronicles this journey of trust-building in his new book, Nothing Is Impossible: America’s Reconciliation with Vietnam . Osius had a ringside seat to a chunk of this progress toward friendship as a US diplomat in Vietnam in the early days after the normalisation of ties in 1995 and then as an ambassador for three years until 2017. Osius’ memoir features oodles of fascinating vignettes about the sometimes complicated behind-the-scenes workings of diplomatic ties between the two countries. While the book is quite sympathetic to Vietnam it has created a bit of flap in Hanoi. Not surprisingly, the book is also being scrutinised by officials in China, Vietnam’s communist ally and frequent nemesis over the millennia, to figure out what future moves Washington and Hanoi may have up their sleeves. Vietnamese officials say they mostly like the book, but they admit privately that some in Hanoi are irritated about the extensive details and quotes Osius provides about his conversations with senior Vietnamese Communist Party officials. Hanoi is particularly peeved about the author’s in-depth description of party chief Nguyen Phu Trong’s 2015 official visit to Washington. Editors and journalists in Vietnam have been instructed not to report too much about Osius’ book in the domestic media, according to reports in Vietnamese diaspora newspapers in the US. Shortly after the book was released, the former ambassador was invited to give a virtual book talk at Fulbright University in Ho Chi Minh City, where Osius worked briefly after completing his tour as ambassador. But the event was cancelled at the last minute without explanation. It is widely assumed that security officials asked that it be aborted. New book explores China’s complex relationship with Asean states The Chinese are intrigued by the depth of Osius’ reporting on his meetings and especially about party chief Trong’s visit to the White House. At least some in Beijing think Washington officially approved Osius’ book to drive a wedge between Vietnam and China, which have troubled relations over disputed maritime claims. If Vietnamese leaders were willing to make such comprehensive agreements with the Americans, some Chinese officials wonder if they should be anxious about what else Hanoi might be plotting. (News flash for Beijing: the US government did not vet Osius’ book). Osius demonstrates a deep understanding of Vietnamese culture and history, including its difficult relations with China. I only have one minor quarrel with the book. The author frequently recounts his conversations with former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung without alluding to the fact that he was ousted from the ruling politburo for alleged corruption and excessive ambition by Vietnam’s collective leadership. I was puzzled to read the author’s description of one other event. When a senior party delegation travelled to China in 1990 to normalise ties after two decades of Sino-Vietnamese hostilities, the Chinese informed the Vietnamese delegation that Nguyen Co Thach had to be ousted from the politburo before tensions could be resolved. Thach, who was the country’s eloquent and strategic thinking foreign minister, was viewed by Beijing as pro-West and anti-China. Thach was removed from all his positions in mid-1991. Osius says that Thach also was put under house arrest in Hanoi for nearly five years. I was based in Hanoi as a journalist the first three years after Thach’s alleged arrest and met him a few times during that time. Alexander Vuving, a Vietnam expert at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, says party conservatives had another reason for keeping Thach under at least partial house arrest. They feared his views on the need for the country to open economically and politically might be used by Hanoi’s opponents supporting “peaceful evolution” in Vietnam. Vietnam and America: foes on paper, friends out of necessity Osius’ book is a compelling road map of the steps and actions Vietnam and the United States took to normalise and deepen their ties. Clearly it took many people in both countries to push to build trust and take the first halting steps. Nothing Is Impossible could serve as a helpful primer for other countries that may seek rapprochement with Washington down the road. Despite the distance the former enemies have come, there are still limits to how far they can go. Some US officials and analysts hope to upgrade Washington’s relations from a comprehensive partnership to a strategic partnership, but Hanoi holds the Americans at arm’s length to avoid antagonising its giant neighbour. Vietnam, whose largest import market is China, would like Washington to play a more active economic part in the region to balance Beijing’s outsize role. But the US administration and Congress fret that negotiating a multilateral trade agreement with countries in the region would be unpalatable to large swathes of the American electorate. Murray Hiebert is the author of ‘ Under Beijing’s Shadow: Southeast Asia’s China Challenge’ and a senior associate at the Southeast Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He earlier worked as a journalist for the Far Eastern Economic Review in Vietnam and several other Southeast Asian countries. Ted Osius’ Nothing Is Impossible: America’s Reconciliation with Vietnam is published by Rutgers University Press