Introduction

Abstract

In January 1977, normalisation of relations with Vietnam was considered by the incoming Administration to be a goal of some importance in serving American interests in South-East Asia. In the first six months of that year the Administration undertook a number of initiatives designed to achieve that end as swiftly as possible. After this effort failed to achieve normalisation, the pace of events began to slow. A further set of negotiations in December 1977 brought no progress. Contacts, both formal and informal, continued in 1978 and finally, in September of that year, the two governments agreed terms for the establishment of normal relations. By that time, however, a number of developments had begun to erode the Carter Administration’s initial objectives in South-East Asia and, in December 1978, US-Vietnamese normalisation was postponed indefinitely. Only now, a decade and a half later, has progress towards normalisation begun once again.