Epilogue

This epilogue discusses how the push for Vietnam to be a trade partner with the United States introduces questions and independence that harken back to the failed U.S. project to protect and leave South Vietnam on its own. It analyses a speech by Bill Clinton, where he suggests that the Vietnamese in Vietnam should follow the lead of Vietnamese overseas. The push for a capitalist pro-American socialist regime cannot be divorced from the prior attempts to institute a puppet regime in South Vietnam that had little hopes of achieving its dream of prosperity and progress. Here, the forces of diplomacy echo the demands of empire, and history moves in a confusing circle.