This paper locates many of the most important strengths and weaknesses in Vietnam’s education system in the politics of education and in features of the country’s education system’s societal embedding. By the politics of education, we mean the relations of power and authority and of domination, contestation, cooperation, and accommodation that shape the functioning of the education system as an institutional field. By the societal embeddedness, we refer to the system’s interdependent relation with its broader social and institutional environment. Understanding these elements of Vietnam’s education system is of vital importance for efforts to improve education systems’ performance in Vietnam and beyond.