The head of the Catholic Church in Vietnam has invited Pope Francis to the communist-led Southeast Asian nation as it aims for full diplomatic ties with the Holy See. “We earnestly invite you to come ...

The Church had been seen as a privileged institution under both French colonial rule and the South Vietnamese regime led by a Catholic president, Ngo Dinh Diem, who was assassinated in a 1963 coup.

In Vietnam, the US dropped 4.6 million tons of bombs, including during harsh, indiscriminate carpet-bombing campaigns such as Operation Rolling Thunder (1965–1968) and Operation Linebacker (1972).

Vietnam celebrated the 70th anniversary of the battle of Dien Bien Phu that ended French colonial occupation with a parade in a stadium in Dien Bien Phu, today home to 80,000 people.