AFP, HANOI, : Nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War ended with a humiliating exit by the United States, a US warship is expected to dock in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, in mid-November.
A US embassy official said that “planning by Vietnamese and US officials is taking place for a possible visit by a US Navy ship in mid-November” to the former South Vietnamese capital.
He declined to reveal the name of the vessel, the exact date of its arrival, nor the length of its stay.
The announcement came a day after Vietnamese Defence Minister Pham Van Tra told state media that he would make a landmark visit to the United States from November 8-12.
Analysts say that Tra's trip to Washington — the first by the communist nation's top military officer — will mark a significant change in policy within the ranks of Vietnam's conservative military towards its former enemy.
It would also reciprocate a visit by former US defence secretary William Cohen, who made a three-day trip to Vietnam in March 2000 in a bid to develop a military-to-military relationship.
He was the first defence chief to visit the Southeast Asian nation since the the fall of Saigon and the end of Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, during which 58,000 Americans and around three million Vietnamese were killed.
“I will essentially work with three US officials, (National Security Adviser) Condoleezza Rice, (Secretary of State) Colin Powell and (Secretary of Defence) Donald Rumsfeld,” Tra told the online Vietnam Net.
Among the issues likely to be discussed are the ongoing searches for US and Vietnamese missing-in-action (MIAs), and Agent Orange, the defoliant used by US forces during the Vietnam War, he said.
Formal US-Vietnam diplomatic relations were only established in 1995, a year after then-president Bill Clinton lifted a trade embargo on the country.
A bilateral trade agreement that came into force in December 2001 has seen two-way trade soar, but their political relationship remains lukewarm.
Hanoi still remains suspicious of what it considers Washington's imperialist global foreign policy and often reacts angrily to US criticism of its human rights record.
