Trillionaire Elon Musk, meanwhile, received a Starlink satellite operating license in February to expand Vietnam’s highly censored internet. And Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC last year that for US sales of “Mac and iPad and AirPods and the (Apple) watch, almost all of the country of origin is Vietnam.”
Hanoi’s eager embrace of American capitalism spotlights how vastly US-Vietnam relations have changed since their grueling war ended with a communist victory in 1975. Hanoi favors close ties with Washington to balance its economic vulnerability with China, its giant trading partner across Vietnam’s northern frontier.