Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

The U.S. government Thursday said it has strongly protested Vietnam's treatment of a U.S. diplomat who was detained and wrestled to the ground while attempting to visit a dissident Roman Catholic priest—a development that could further inflame concerns in the U.S. about the Southeast Asian nation's human rights record.

HANOI — Progress on human rights is essential for the growth of ties between the United States and Vietnam, a senior US official said Monday.

Human rights violations and arrests have recently spiked in Vietnam, with sharp restrictions on Internet freedoms and a crackdown on dissidents who peacefully express their views, the US ambassador said Thursday.

The U.S. and Vietnam have built a lasting relationship since re-opening diplomatic ties 15 years ago that has created wealth, boosted trade and investment and enhanced security, former President Bill Clinton said in Hanoi.

Three weeks ago, an exhibition opened at the Vietnam Military History Museum. On one side of a long hall, the mementos of Vietnam's 25 years of war against the United States and France - letters of surrender, quotations from Ho Chi Minh, hand grenades and AK-47 rifles - lined the walls. Nothing new there.

Dan Cheney headed off to war with freshly-earned pilot's wings and the lieutenant's insignia his mother had pinned on his shoulders.

Cheap facsimiles of $100 bills waft in the tropical breeze, littering HCM City's sidewalks with Benjamin Franklin's face. Elsewhere in Vietnam, US President Richard M. Nixon has become a gritty fashion icon, giving politicised street cred to "urban wear" clothes.

DANANG — Vietnam and the United States will stage a fresh demonstration this week of their military ties at a time of escalating tensions with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is in advanced negotiations to share nuclear fuel and technology with Vietnam in a deal that would allow Hanoi to enrich its own uranium—terms that critics on Capitol Hill say would undercut the more stringent demands the U.S. has been making of its partners in the Middle East.

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

Vietnam must allow free workers' unions if it wants to liberalise trade with the US, a group of American senators said Wednesday during a visit to the communist country.

HANOI — In Le Dan's cinematic vision, a tormented former US army lieutenant returns to Vietnam to personally apologise for organising the wartime massacre at My Lai.

Vietnam on Wednesday criticized the United States' decision to impose heavy tariffs on imported Vietnamese plastic bags.

Vietnam's prime minister promised US businesses Wednesday to work to improve the investment climate, acknowledging concerns about shoddy infrastructure.

HANOI — The United States and Vietnam signed an agreement Tuesday that may pave the way for U.S. firms to help build nuclear plants in the Southeast Asian country as it strives to meet booming energy demand.