Most accounts of contemporary political and diplomatic history are penned by journalists or academics; the government officials who make and implement foreign policy rarely publish their personal viewpoints until well after the events they describe. Ted Osius, who was US ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, has produced an unusual insider's guide to the rapprochement of two former enemies. His real-time memoir joins a select genre of high-level eyewitness narratives, of which the only parallels concerning Vietnam are Desaix Anderson's An American in Hanoi or possibly Bùi Tín's Following Ho Chi Minh.Footnote 1
Ambassador Osius's book, like its author, is approachable, engaging, and unfailingly optimistic. It includes enough detail of policy debates to interest specialists without boring readers who want to understand the general arc of reconciliation. Osius returns repeatedly to themes of personal relationships and trust building “with an outstretched hand, not a clenched fist” (p. 155), exemplified by his own practice of “diplomacy from a bicycle seat” to interact directly with Vietnamese (p. 108). As signaled by the subtitle, the focus is squarely on America's efforts at reconciliation, at times becoming confused with stories of Americans (such as former prisoner of war John McCain and antiwar veteran John Kerry) reconciling with each other. Readers looking for a Vietnamese perspective on US policies will be less satisfied.
The narrative is strongest when Osius describes his own experiences as a Foreign Service officer and, later, as ambassador. In what he rightly sees as “the most consequential accomplishment of my tenure” (p. 165), Osius used the ambassadorial post as a platform to convince the Barack Obama administration to host General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng in Washington, D.C., in July 2015. At the time, Osius and other US officials saw the visit mainly in terms of influencing Vietnam's accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The value of the message that the United States was not seeking to challenge Vietnam's one-party political system did not become apparent until after the 12th Communist Party Congress in 2016, when Phú Trọng ousted Osius's preferred negotiating partner, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng.
Osius provides a compelling account of progress on remediation of Agent Orange, describing how the United States moved from commitments on cleanup of dioxin hotspots to increased disability assistance. He arguably contributed to LGBTQ rights in Vietnam through his own example as an out gay ambassador, and he makes a convincing case that his intervention helped preserve Son Doong cave in Quảng Bình Province. By contrast, his modest efforts to rehabilitate a former South Vietnamese cemetery in Biên Hòa are unlikely to assuage the overseas Vietnamese whom Osius terms “the key to reconciliation” (p. 103).
Finally, Osius defends his actions after the 2016 US election, when he remained in his post to maintain momentum in US-Vietnamese ties while preparing to resign “if I was asked to implement policies I could not support” (p. 218). As a self-styled “remonstrating official” (p. 258), Osius opposed the incoming administration's practice of deporting Vietnamese immigrants who had been convicted of crimes, contrary to an agreement reached as part of normalization of relations in 1995. Osius's courageous stance slowed down deportations and raised public concern. In a departure from normal diplomatic practice, Nothing Is Impossible is not shy about criticizing the racist jokes and “scent of corruption” (p. 241) attached to the former US president and his coterie.
Yet there is no mention of allegations of corruption in the circle around former Vietnamese prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, whom Osius “liked” (p. 193) and praises as “one of the most influential leaders in Viet Nam's modern history” (p. 164). In recounting the episode of Vietnamese activists and dissidents prevented from meeting with President Obama in May 2016, Osius accepts part of his own naivete about the Vietnamese system, but he remains credulous that the “linkage between Vietnam's TPP ambitions and its human rights record seemed to be working” (p. 172). The belief that “using the leverage that trade provides” can support human rights (p. 263) flies in the face of most evidence. This pro-corporate agenda (Osius worked for Google Asia after leaving the Foreign Service and now leads the US-ASEAN Business Council) sits uneasily with Osius's progressive positions on war legacies, marriage equality, and immigration.
Nothing Is Impossible offers the best available summary to date of the US-Vietnamese trajectory toward becoming “allies and partners” (p. 243). While the two countries are indeed partners in many aspects, they are not yet full allies. Osius's narrative shows the limits and the promise of the relationship. When faced with adversity, Osius recalls John Kerry's admonishment, “Don't burn bridges” (p. 201)—positive advice that this memoir applies in diplomacy and in life.
