The event was attended by many representatives from various US and Vietnamese agencies.

At the seminar, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized that Vietnam and the US has left the past behind and were looking to the future. She said that there are many things both countries could do to strengthen and expand their relationship in the future. She added that she believed that US-Vietnam relations will flourish over the next 15 years.

Former US State of Secretary Henry Kissinger, widely known as a close adviser to the US President during the war in Vietnam, acknowledged that the US failed in the war in Vietnam but said he was delighted at the fine current relationship between the two countries.

Participants in the seminar also discussed the causes of US failure in Vietnam and explained how Vietnamese people won.

Dr Nguyen Manh Ha from the Military History Institute of Vietnam said that the US needs to draw lessons from the seminar to solve issues relating to Afghanistan and Iraq. Dr Kissinger and other participants acknowledged that the US could never have won the war in Vietnam.