Vietnam, US find common ground

AS Vietnam and the United States marked the 40th anniversary of the end of their bitter war on April 30, it's surprising how far the two countries have come in normalising relations. To be sure, there are still areas where ties could be deepened, particularly in military-to-military interaction. The United States is held back by concerns about human rights, particularly Hanoi's detention of bloggers, but for Vietnam the worry centres on how giant neighbour China will react.

Vietnam this year seems to have two major priorities in its ties with the United States: Host President Barack Obama in Hanoi and secure a meeting for Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong in the White House. When Washington signalled that Mr Trong would be invited to visit Washington, China sought to pre-empt the Americans by sending him a last-minute invitation to visit Beijing. While Beij…