WASHINGTON Fifteen years after a divisive decision to normalise relations with Vietnam, the United States is finding to its surprise that the onetime foe has quickly emerged as one of its growing partners.

Even if the Vietnam War - which claimed 58,000 US and three million Vietnamese lives - remains a contentious topic, as does Vietnam's human rights record, the two nations have steadily boosted cooperation on a range of issues.

“As I look at all the friends in Southeast Asia, I think we have the greatest prospects in the future with Vietnam,” said Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week visits Hanoi for a regional meeting as well as talks on building relations with Vietnam. US officials see scope for growing ties in defence, including military exchanges.

Hanoi triumphed over US-backed South Vietnam in 1975. But Vietnam also has historic tensions and territorial disputes with neighbouring China, a factor US experts see as driving Vietnam's friendliness toward Washington.

When former president Bill Clinton championed normal relations with Vietnam, he faced stiff opposition from a number of lawmakers, mostly from the rival Republican Party, who said Hanoi had not fully accounted for missing US troops.

The former president praised Vietnam's dedication to finding the remains of US servicemen and said he now barely heard criticism of the 1995 normalisation.

“Sometimes I think the only single issue that all Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on is that it's a good thing we're getting along with Vietnam,” he told a reception marking the anniversary.

“In a world where it is very easy to become cynical or despondent, the flowering of our relationship, that goes far beyond commerce, should remind us all that we must not forget our history, but we are not condemned to repeat it,” he said.

Republican Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war but supported the normalisation, said he never imagined Vietnam would become “one of America's most important and most promising partners in the Asia-Pacific region”. “It just goes to show that if you live long enough, anything is possible,” McCain said.

But McCain said he hoped Vietnam would also one day allow “peaceful dissent” and “rule by the consent of the governed”. “Perhaps my greatest hope for the US-Vietnam relationship is this that our current partnership of common interests will ultimately become a partnership of common values as well,” McCain said.

Nineteen members of the House of Representatives wrote to Clinton last week urging her to use Vietnam's eagerness for relations as leverage to press for improvements in human rights.

Vietnamese-Americans, many of whom supported the South, have been among the most outspoken in urging the United States to take a firm line on rights.

Duy Hoang, spokesman for Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group banned by Hanoi, said that even though Vietnam has moved from a centrally planned economy, the communist party “remains insistent on monopolising political power”. “It will be helpful if US policy toward Vietnam is mindful of what's in the long-term interest of both countries - a free and modern Vietnam,” he said.Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body, said Vietnam improved its record only when its “feet were held to the fire”. “But once Vietnam, with US help, joined the World Trade Organisation in 2007, religious freedom and human rights advocates have experienced waves of arrests,” Leo said.

Walter Lohman, director of Asian studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that while the United States had its concerns, Vietnam has at least shown willingness to engage.

Fifteen years after normalisation, China - not the war - is “the centre of our shared vision”, Lohman said.

“As we fought this very long, divisive and bloody conflict, we have a unique connection,” Lohman said. “I think we might actually have a closer relationship due to the shared tragedy.”—AFP