The US Peace Corps, a fixture in Asia, is in Vietnam at last – a sign Hanoi-Washington ties are on the upswing?

Seen as competing with China’s Confucius Institutes, the decades-old American aid programme is finally launching in Vietnam after 17 years of negotiations

The Peace Corps’ presence in China was axed last summer after 26 years, amid US-China conflict over trade, technology, and civil liberties

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Peace Corps Thailand volunteers pose for a photograph in 2019. The humanitarian group has had a presence in Asean member states for years, but never before Vietnam. Photo: Instagram / peacecorps.thailand

Published: 6:00am, 14 Sep 2021Updated: 10:33pm, 14 Sep 2021

When long-time Vietnam resident Benjamin Herman heard that the Peace Corps was for the first time recruiting English teachers to help run classes in the Southeast Asian nation, he was overjoyed.

Volunteering with the US-government-funded programme is something of a tradition in the 39-year-old American’s family, with no fewer than five of his relatives having served as volunteers in Central and South America, as well as in Europe.

“I love helping people learn and I’m very interested in delving into a cultural world that I haven’t experienced much in my eight years here,” said Herman, who currently works full-time as an English teacher at a factory in the southern manufacturing hub of Binh Duong.

Founded in 1961 by US President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps – an artefact of the Cold War that was meant to spread goodwill towards the West – has never before operated in Vietnam. In contrast, the humanitarian group has had a presence in Asean member states such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand for years – with the Philippines hosting the most US volunteers in all.

North Vietnam was at war with the United States until the withdrawal of American troops in 1973, followed by the reunification of Vietnam two years later. Today, the two former enemies are close trade partners. The US is Vietnam’s biggest export market and both host thousands of each other’s citizens as students or residents. Vietnam was also a top tourism hotspot for hundreds of thousands of Americans every year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

The US Peace Corps, a fixture in Asia, is in Vietnam at last – a sign Hanoi-Washington ties are on the upswing?

Seen as competing with China’s Confucius Institutes, the decades-old American aid programme is finally launching in Vietnam after 17 years of negotiations The Peace Corps’ presence in China was axed last summer after 26 years, amid US-China conflict over trade, technology, and civil liberties

Seen as competing with China’s Confucius Institutes, the decades-old American aid programme is finally launching in Vietnam after 17 years of negotiations

The Peace Corps’ presence in China was axed last summer after 26 years, amid US-China conflict over trade, technology, and civil liberties