Vietnam in the Indo-Pacific: Challenges and opportunities in a new regional landscape

For Australians of my generation, the mention of Vietnam almost always conjures up images of the War and the 1970s. This comes as no surprise, given it was the time of our youth and University education. Attitudes to Vietnam in those days shaped attitudes to foreign policy and domestic politics. In the immediate post-war aftermath, the influx of Vietnamese refugees into Australia and Australia’s development assistance and reconciliation efforts in Vietnam itself, are the stand out memories. Indeed, one word - bridge – stands as the visual image to those assistance efforts..