Vietnam’s Communist Party leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, will meet with President Obama in the Oval Office on July 7. He is an influential behind-the-scenes figure in Vietnam’s one-party leadership structure, analysts say. (Tran Van Minh/AP)
Forty years after the fall of Saigon, President Obama is seeking to reconfigure a historically difficult relationship with Vietnam into a strategic partnership against China.
In a meeting freighted with symbolism, Obama on Tuesday will welcome Vietnam’s Communist Party leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, to the White House two decades after the onetime enemy nations formally normalized relations.
