Below are four Vietnam-related centers, each with a different emphasis and all part of a state university. 

The Center of Vietnamese Enterprise at the College of Charleston (South Carolina)

The Center of Vietnamese Enterprise (COVE) is located in the Tate Center and is part of the School of Business at the College of Charleston.  COVE’s mission is to actively promote educational, cultural and entrepreneurial exchanges between the U.S. and Vietnam. 

Through its relationship with the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, COVE works to establish programs and encourage educational partnerships with universities in Vietnam. 

Center for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture, and Society at Temple University (Pennsylvania)

The Center for Vietnamese Philosophy, Culture, and Society at Temple University was founded in September, 2004.  As a national center for scholarly research, educational training, and mutual understanding, the Center sponsors a range of programs on Vietnam’s rich heritage of philosophy and culture including conferences, colloquia, classes, a research library, and courses in the Vietnamese language. The Center also coordinates scholarly and educational visits. The Center is currently participating in a multi-year faculty seminar program involving the Departments of Philosophy at Temple University and at the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy in Hanoi. The programs have taken place in Hanoi, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University (focus on what US Americans call the “Vietnam War”)

The mission of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University is to support and encourage research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam experience; promoting a greater understanding of this experience and the peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia. Its functions are threefold: support for the Vietnam Archive and the collection and preservation of pertinent historical source material; promotion of education through exhibits, classroom instruction, educational programs, and publications; and encouragement of related scholarship through organizing and hosting conferences and symposia, academic, educational, and cultural exchanges, and the publishing of scholarly research.

The Vietnam Institute at the University of Missouri

The Vietnam Institute is a special initiative by the faculty and administrators of University of Missouri (MU) to promote closer relations between MU and Vietnam. We do so by developing a strategic plan for research and academic programs in Vietnam. Areas of emphasis are: 1) recruiting students and scholars, 2) developing focused MOUs for academic research and training, 3) co-sponsoring workshops and conferences, and 4) maintaining associations with key agencies and particular project stakeholders. These efforts have led to a large increase in Vietnamese students, the signing of several strategic MOUs, conduct of joint workshops, development of research grant proposals, and enhanced relationships with government agencies in Missouri, the US and Vietnam. The Vietnam Institute coordinates and oversees these activities, serving as the nerve center for all of MU’s Vietnam-related activities.

Most US higher education programs with a Vietnam focus are subsumed under Asian Studies, Southeast Asian and other units.  The following listed are on the Asian Studies Association website.

Vietnamese Language Instruction

According to the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota, Vietnamese is currently offered at 75 colleges, universities and high schools in the US and Canada.