The head of Vietnam's Communist Party will make a first-ever visit to the White House next week, meeting President Barack Obama on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war between the two nations.

Nguyen Phu Trong will become the first General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party to visit the United States and the White House, diplomats and officials said.

Obama and Trong will hold talks at the White House Tuesday and discuss ways to improve ties that were normalized 20 years ago between the former foes, the White House said Friday.

It has been 40 years since Viet Cong fighters and the North Vietnamese army won control of South Vietnam, humiliating the world's pre-eminent superpower and ending a war that defined both nations.