International comparative welfare state research has evolved over the last decade. Two frameworks to analyze welfare states continue to dominate the literature: real-typical welfare state theory, and ideal-typical welfare state theory (Ferragina and Seeleib-Kaiser 2011; Powell et al. 2020). These frameworks generate different approaches to understanding the sources of variations across welfare state regimes. The real-typical method focuses on variations in specific features of welfare state institutions across countries. It attributes differences across welfare state systems to these “micro cross-national” variations in institutions. This method is thus most effective for analyzing a limited set of (typically fewer than six) welfare state systems. Meanwhile, the ideal-typical method captures variations at the “macro cross-national” level, highlighting average characteristics of regime clusters in broad strokes, while deemphasizing features deemed to be minor differences (Aspalter 2019a). Ideal-typical method allows for a generalized understanding at the regional or even global scale, which is particularly valuable in comparative research. It thus often works well in comparisons involving six or more nations. It is also more suited for examining whether one or two specific country cases should be categorized as part of an existing ideal-typical welfare regime. This chapter will dissect the Vietnamese welfare state, highlighting its positionality in the context of the East Asian Welfare system, using the framework offered by the ideal-typical welfare state methodology.