Send in the McDonald’s clown

Four decades after the Vietnam War, the ultimate symbol of American capitalism arrives in the communist nation.

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Thirty-eight years after the last of the US military forces fled ­Saigon, the Americans are well and truly back in Vietnam – and the latest “invasion” is being led by a clown called Ronald. The McDonald’s burger chain has just opened its first franchised restaurant in the former South Vietnam capital, now officially named Ho Chi Minh City.

The franchise holder is Henry Nguyen, a Vietnamese citizen whose family fled to the US at the end of the Vietnam War. He worked as a kitchen hand in McDonald’s as a teenager, but now he’s back in his homeland and married to the daughter of prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

While other chains, including Subway, KFC and Starbucks, already have a presence in the communist nation, it’s the arrival of McDonald’s that’s most emblematic of American capitalism. The company still has some way towards achieving global ubiquity – but it’s getting there. The company website says it operates in 119 of the world’s 196 (or so) ­nations – with, it must be noted, local ownership in most markets.

As far as Vietnam goes, the once-derided American imperialists have a new, more palatable face – one with a large, fixed smile, framed by a mess of bright red hair.