From October 26 to November 2, 2025, the American Foreign Policy Council’s (AFPC) fact-finding delegation for senior statesmen traveled to Vietnam. AFPC President Herman Pirchner, Jr., led the nine-person delegation, which was organized and staffed by Vice President for External Relations Annie Swingen. It also included, in alphabetical order, Hon. Ken Blackwell, President, Council for National Policy; Julia Burke, AFPC Board Member; Hon. Dr. Christopher Ford, Former Assistant Secretary and Acting Under Secretary of State and an AFPC Advisory Board Member; Lawrence J. Haas, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, AFPC; Judy Holmes, AFPC Research Consultant; Victoria Ford Pirchner, AFPC Special Programs Coordinator; and Hon. Manisha Singh, Former Assistant Secretary and Acting Under Secretary of State and an AFPC Advisory Board Member.
The delegation met with current and former senior Vietnamese Communist Party and government officials, military leaders, and diplomats; Vietnamese business representatives and executives of leading technology companies; and U.S. officials. A full list is available at the end of this report. The discussions were wide ranging but mostly focused on U.S.-Vietnam relations in general, U.S.-Vietnam trade relations in particular, Vietnam’s economic and other plans for the future, threats to Vietnam and other members of ASEAN from China, and the U.S. presence in the Pacific.
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