ABSTRACT
Many veterans of the Vietnam War argued that diplomatic recognition of Vietnam was a prerequisite for the reconciliation between the Americans and Vietnamese that must come after the long war between them. Triet was the first Vietnamese head of state to visit the United States since the Vietnam War. They had fought in the first foreign war that America had ever lost. Although it was not appreciated by most people at the time, Vietnam veterans had much in common with the veterans who had fought in America's earlier twentieth-century wars. Many soldiers who had fought in these previous wars had returned home suffering from serious physical and psychological disorders, and had found it difficult, sometimes impossible, to readjust to civilian life. Older Vietnamese tend to hold the Democratic Party in anathema because they see it as having been less supportive of the Vietnam War.
