The document provides an overview of Vietnam, including its geography, history, culture, economy and relationship with the United States. Some key points: - Vietnam is about the size of New Mexico with a population of 82 million. - Since economic reforms in 1986, Vietnam has experienced strong economic growth of 8% annually and lifted over 20 million people out of poverty. - The country has a one-party communist political system but a growing market economy. - Relations between the US and Vietnam were frozen for 20 years after the war but have gradually normalized since 1995 through trade agreements and diplomatic exchanges.

1. Faces of Vietnam
My name is David
I’m a Fulbright scholar (cultural exchange)
My photo display in November 2006: ‘Faces of Vietnam’
My message: ‘Vietnam is no longer a war;
It’s a country with people’

2. Faces of Vietnam
Where is Vietnam?

3. Faces of Vietnam
Where is Vietnam?

4. Faces of Vietnam
How big is Vietnam?
•About the size of the New Mexico state;
•Population: 82 Mil (a bit less than one third
of the U.S. population)
•S shaped like ‘two rice baskets at the end of a
pole’

5. Faces of Vietnam
What are the most salient features of Vietnam?
Economic reform underway since 1986 with impressive progress:
Economic growth: 8% on average since 1990s.
From famine to world exporter: rice, coffee, pepper…
Over 20 millions of people lifted out of poverty since 1990s.
Income per capital: $600/year or $3400 (PPP).

6. Faces of Vietnam
What are the most salient features of Vietnam?
•Political regime: One party (communist) with a market
economy;
•Religion: majority Buddhist but important catholic
community (No2 biggest in Asia after the Philippines); almost
non-existent Muslim.
•Culture: Confucianism, Taoism, ancestor worship

7. Faces of Vietnam
How ‘normal’ the relationship between Vietnam and the U.S.?
Relationship frozen between 1975 and 1995.
Since 1995: gradual normalization
opening of embassies
bilateral trade agreement. VN products found in
supermarkets: shoes, textiles, clothing, fisheries…
U.S. imports from Vietnam soared from 50 mil in 1994 to
1,900 mil in 2005 or 30 times.

8. Faces of Vietnam
How ‘normal’ the relationship between Vietnam and the U.S.?
•Exchange of state visits
APEC Summit in
Hanoi, November 2006

9. Faces of Vietnam
Anything else?
War related issues:
•Missing in actions (MIA): US troops: 2,000 in Indochina;
Vietnamese: 300,000
•People still get killed or injured by unexploded mine

10. Faces of Vietnam
•Disagreement over human rights and religious freedom.
•Exploration of security relations to cope with China’s
expanding influence in South East Asia.

11. Faces of Vietnam
Where is Vietnam heading?
•Over one thousand years fighting Chinese, Japanese,
Cambodian, French, American: VN finally at peace!
•First generation in 100 years grown up into adulthood
without foreign occupation or the sound of battle.
•Reconcile market economy with ideological orthodoxy;
Will economic reform lead to political reform?

12. Faces of Vietnam

13. Bat Trang village in Hanoi: 1000 years of craftsmanship

14. Bat Trang village in Hanoi: 1000 years of craftsmanship

15. Sales of traditional construction material in Hanoi

16. Curb-side shopping in a bustling Hanoi street

17. The Old Quarter of Hanoi makes room for both the homes
and shops

18. Morning traffic at the Portal of the Citadel of Hanoi

19. Garbage collectors sort through the city's trash to find
recyclables for re-sale

20. Preparing the lunch time rush

21. A motorbike taxi driver kills time between customers

22. Life in Hanoi's old city

23. Small entrepreneurship can be found everywhere!

24. A street barber cleans his client's ears

25. A vegetable market in Hanoi

26. Releasing fish into Giang Vo Lake in Hanoi

27. "La Cathedrale" of Hanoi, one of the oldest French
buildings in the city

28. The tail end of a US
military striker in
Hanoi's Army museum

29. Rush hour in Hanoi

30. Inner peace in the crowded city

31. Inner peace in the crowded city

32. A Buddhist Monk during daily activity just outside of Hanoi

33. Tea time in Chinh Ly village

34. Minh, 13, is the eldest of three girls. She looks after her
younger siblings

35. A family moment

36. Mr Cu, 85 years old and a survivors of both the
Indochina and Vietnam wars

37. Working the rice fields of rural Vietnam

38. Helping with the family's livestock in the Thanh Hoa province

39. A moment of calm on the Nhat Le river

40. Fishing on the Nhat Le River

41. []

42. Waiting for the daily
arrival of fish to take
to the market

43. Catching fish for the family's lunch

44. A Fisherwoman covers her face to protect herself from sun burn

45. Casting the net wide

46. The daily arrival of fish

47. Cleaning the fish before taking it all to the markets

48. Nhat Le river in Quang Binh province

49. Watching the world go by

50. The journey home after fishing in the traditional bamboo boat

51. Dusk on the beach of Quang Binh

52. On the beach in Quang Binh

53. Striking a pose on a beach in Quang Binh

54. Preparing to rock

55. Faces of Vietnam
Thank you!