Current president, Barack Obama, plans on making his 10th trip to Asia. His hope is to shift the political focus from the middle east to the far east where there is a lot of opportunities to work with other world powers. He will visit Vietnam and Japan. The trip will conclude with a meeting of 7 leaders of the largest economies of the world. Dubbed “G7” they will discuss how best to propel the world economy back into a positive standing world wide. Obama also plans on visiting Hiroshima, the first time a sitting president has done so since WWII ended. The visit begs the question, will Obama apologize for dropping a weapon of mass destruction on civilian populated areas and not just military installations? The short answer is no.

The White House states that he will give a speech, but the speech will not be an apology. Instead, the speech will focus more broadly on the negative aspects of war. The act of Obama coming to Hiroshima is still meant as a reconciliation act despite no actual apology. Though Obama will also be visiting Vietnam there is no plans on ending the arms embargo. The trip is meant as a sign of peace between the two nations and hopefully quell some of the resentment that comes from the war waged there between 1955 and 1975. Since the war there have been huge strides politically. Even then president Bill Clinton visited the nation which was the first time any president visited since the war ended. Even Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War veteran who spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war, now supports fully ending a U.S. arms embargo on Vietnam.