Vietnam Looks to the Future

irst-time visitors to Ho Chi Minh City are almost always surprised by the level of activity in Vietnam's commercial hub. Reunified under Hanoi 25 years ago, the former Saigon has nevertheless retained its capitalistic roots. Street markets are vibrant, and the venerable shopping areas of the past teem with Vietnamese and foreign shoppers. Ho Chi Minh City's ties with the United States remain strong as well. Although the U.S. Consulate General was officially opened here with a staff of only seven in October 1997, the consular section in this rapidly growing post is already one of the largest in the world, processing more than 25,000 immigrant visas in 1999 alone. Strictly speaking, the consular district is Ho Chi Minh City only, but the consulate general covers the lower two thirds of Vietnam, from Hue south. GO TO COVER STORY

State Honors Awardees ith fitting pomp and pageantry, an armed forces color guard presented the colors and the U.S. Marine Brass Quintet played the National Anthem to begin the annual Departmental Awards Ceremony for the Year 2000. The event took place in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the Department of State on May 4. Edward W. "Skip" Gnehm Jr., director general of the Foreign Service and director of Personnel, welcomed recipients, their families and invited guests to the event. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas R. Pickering presented Department-wide awards to 46 recipients or their representatives. GO TO FEATURE STORY

New Look Transforms Embassy Athens he white marble columns gracing the American Embassy in Athens now gleam as they did in 1961. The fountains play again and new landscaping means the building looks more like what the renowned architect Walter Gropius intended when he designed it as a modern-day tribute to ancient Athens. The embassy has also commissioned a statue of Secretary of State George C. Marshall, whose historic aid program helped turn the Greek Civil War away from communism and bring prosperity to Greece. Marshall is one of the major figures in the embassy's history project, a privately funded permanent exhibit in the chancery lobby that traces the history of the Greek-American relationship from 1821 to the present. GO TO FEATURE STORY