The development of the Cold War after WW2 was a focal point for Western unease and resistance to Communist expansion both in Europe and in Asia. That is a fact of life. Despite their propaganda every Communist regime was oppressive and either through crazy economic policies or totalitarian control was responsible for the deaths and suffering of their populations. In the Soviet Union, China and in Cambodia those deaths were measured in millions, in Vietnam no one knows the total but there were hundreds of thousands in the North before the 1954 partition alone. The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe prompted the development of the market economy in China and Vietnam because of the Communist leadership in those countries feared for their own control. They remain only communist in rhetoric but they still maintain their power by being police states if not as totalitarian as they were initially.

Vietnam is still more repressive than the inept and variably corrupt republican governments that existed in the South before 1975. As for corruption, the current Vietnamese prime minister said last October that corruption threatened to bring down the regime. Why is corruption so pervasive? Because there are still no checks and balances, there is no democratic suffrage where alternative ideas can flourish and challenge the dictated orthodoxy, there is no free press that can publicly challenge government over bad policies and so on. (There is no public Opinion websites for instance.) There is no doubt that the standard of living is improving with the freer economic climate and that peoples’ lives are improving, especially in the cities. In time things will change.

I really enjoy Vietnamese culture which has been steadily freeing itself from Marxist strictures. I admire their art, their spirit, the friendly openness of the ordinary person. Despite daily Government TV propaganda about the glorious heroism of the revolutionary struggle, young Vietnamese just want get on with living and enjoy some of the fruits of their labour, the old, the poor and the handicapped Vietnamese if they have no family, are often left to struggle to survive.

Bagsy

Arjay - disagree - the necessity was as real as fighting the Japanese in WWII and the war which should have been fought to prevent the annexation of Tibet by China.

Whilst the French stuffed up Vietnam, with a common border to China and the historic experience of clandestine military transfer and soldiers from China to North Korea during that conflict, Vietnam would not have evolved into a free market economy as you claim anyore than China is evolving into a democracy (regardless of its "free market status").

VIETNAM-''What a waste''

It's a shame that Vietnam in all its turmoil has become a capitalist
country.Communist freedom has been lost to materialist globilization,and to say that ''strict communist lines'' have failed to run and unite the country is true,however can we blame any ''western influence'' or interference in this failure.
Has the resentment torwards American or other cultures of the world been supreesed only becouse of the growing joining to the rest of the nations.in other words,has a accepting of a foriegn idealistic demorcratic society,been placed upon the people and culture of vietnam,against there will and a sell-out of their traditional politics and culture,all for that coca-cola outlet or the local Mcdonalds,all for profit at the expence of the people and land.
if communism has failed then the Vietnam war in its waste and misery could have been avioded,what was the purpose of a communist takeover?,it has been tamend by a capatitilist master.
As it stands however,the United States and her allies have in fact ''won the Vietnam battle'',the war has been lost but the battle has been won.
The fighting war was lost when the nation fell to the north communist rule,resulting in a nation united in a common fellowship.
The battle,however,has now been won as the communist rule is failing and a capitalist society is now emerging.with western or outside influences growing with each decade.
Over the long battle ahead traditions may not be lost fully or replaced by the market system and economic growth will not be solved by capatilism fully,its a nation that can not adapt fully as its traditions will not allow a demorcratic form of rule(simuler to the current middle east transformations)and they will face many challengers as other materialistic global nations.

Vietnam has always been fighting for INDEPENDENCE and its own social values.
A new ideaology has come to Vietnam with their traditional values now becoming a lost generation and with the Soviet Union collapse in 91,she lost her much needed support,thus,Vietnam started to open-up to foriegn commercial penertration,despite all this tranformation however the nation will see only slow growth over the next degades as capitallism extends its deadly virus into another nation,changing its traditional culture and values.
The world mourns as another nation is overcome and communism,along with national socialism(THE 2 GREATEST FORMS OF POLITICAL/SOCIAL GOVERNMENT)dissapears from the world stage,destroyed by the parrasite called democracy and its symptoms-materialism and capitalism.

The war was completey worth it in the method of Forward Defense