The Fulbright Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 and gives to the presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board the responsibility for establishing program policy guidelines and for making final selection of all Fulbright participants.
The purpose of the Fulbright Program worldwide is "to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange." The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs (ECA) is the principal administrator of the Fulbright Program. Bi-national commissions, composed equally of U.S. and partner-country citizens, coordinate Fulbright Programs in fifty-one of the 140 participating countries. In countries where there are no Fulbright commissions, U.S. Embassy/PAS officers at U.S. Missions abroad are responsible for overseas program administration and coordination.
The Fulbright Program in Vietnam, administered and coordinated by the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, works with appropriate Vietnamese and American educational and governmental organizations to provide opportunities for study and research in the social sciences and humanities to all candidates who qualify through open competition on the basis of academic and professional merit, without regard to race, religion, gender or affiliation.
The Fulbright Program in Vietnam is comprised of four traditional components and an in-country economics teaching program, as follows:
• The U.S. Scholar Program
• The Vietnamese Scholar Program
• The U.S. Student Program
• The Vietnamese Student Program
• Fulbright Economics Teaching Program
• International Fulbright Science and Technology Ph.D. Program