Category: Vietnam 2017

Preparing for Vietnam

Okay, ready to go again? We head out to Vietnam for two weeks on Wednesday.

As followers of this blog know, I generally start out with background on the country, stolen shamelessly from several sources. So, if you think you’ve detected some stylistic irregularities, some repetition and maybe even an inconsistency or two in what follows, chances are you’re right. this post may well be more background than you care to read, so brush up on your skimming techniques and, rest assured, it could have been a helluva lot longer. Future posts will be shorter and less dense.

Geography.
Vietnam occupies the eastern and southern part of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia, with the South China Sea along its entire coast. China is to the north and Laos and Cambodia are to the west. Long and narrow on a north-south axis, Vietnam is about twice the size of Arizona. The Mekong River delta lies in the south.
IMG_1235

History.
Vietnam’s history is one of war, colonization and rebellion. Occupied by China no fewer than four times, the Vietnamese managed to fight off the invaders just as often. Even during the periods in history when Vietnam was independent, it was mostly a tributary state to China until the French colonization. Vietnam’s last emperors were the Nguyễn Dynasty, who ruled from their capital at Hue from 1802 to 1945, although France exploited the succession crisis after the fall of Tự Đức to de facto colonize Vietnam after 1884. Both the Chinese occupation and French colonization have left a lasting impact on Vietnamese culture, with Confucianism forming the basis of Vietnamese social etiquette, and the French leaving a lasting imprint on Vietnamese cuisine.

After a brief Japanese occupation in World War IIl, the Communist Viet Minh under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh continued the insurgency against the French, with the last Emperor Bao Dai abdicating in 1945 and a proclamation of independence following soon after. The majority of French had left by 1945, but in 1946 they returned to continue the fight until their decisive defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The Geneva Conference partitioned the country into two at 17th parallel, with a Communist-led North supported by the Soviet Union, and Ngo Dinh Diem establishing a capitalist regime and declaring himself President of the Republic of Vietnam with the support of the United States in the South.

US economic and military aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster the Southern Vietnam government, escalating into the dispatch of 500,000 American troops in 1966 and what became known as the l. What was supposed to be a quick and decisive action soon degenerated into a quagmire, and U.S. armed forces were withdrawn following a cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, on April 30, 1975, a North Vietnamese tank drove into the South’s Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minh City and the war ended. An estimated 3 million Vietnamese and over 55,000 Americans were killed.

The American Vietnamese war was only one of many that the Vietnamese have fought, but it was the most brutal in its history. Over two thirds of the current population was born after 1975. American tourists receive a particularly friendly welcome (we’ll see) in Vietnam, as many young Vietnamese are admirers of American culture.

In the post-1975 period, it was immediately apparent that the effectiveness of Communist Party (CPV) policies did not necessarily extend to the party’s peacetime nation-building plans. Having unified North and South politically, the CPV still had to integrate them socially and economically. In this task, CPV policy makers were confronted with the South’s resistance to communist transformation, as well as traditional animosities arising from cultural and historical differences between North and South. In the aftermath of the war, under Lê Duẩn’s administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the U.S. or the Saigon government, confounding Western fears.

However, up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps, where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor. The New Economic Zones program was implemented by the Vietnamese communist government after the Fall of Saigon. Between 1975 and 1980, more than 1 million northerners migrated to the south and central regions formerly under the Republic of Vietnam. This program, in turn, displaced around 750,000 to over 1 million Southerners from their homes and forcibly relocated them to uninhabited mountainous forested areas.

Compounding economic difficulties were new military challenges. In the late 1970s, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime started harassing and raiding Vietnamese villages at the common border. To neutralize the threat, PAVN invaded Cambodia in 1978 and overran its capital of Phnom Penh, driving out the incumbent Khmer Rouge regime. In response, as an action to support the pro-Beijing Khmer Rouge regime, China increased its pressure on Vietnam, and sent troops into Northern Vietnam in 1979 to “punish” Vietnam. Relations between the two countries had been deteriorating for some time. Territorial disagreements along the border and in the South China Sea that had remained dormant during the Vietnam War were revived at the war’s end, and a postwar campaign engineered by Hanoi against the ethnic Chinese Hoa community elicited a strong protest from Beijing. China was displeased with Vietnam’s alliance with the Soviet Union. During its prolonged military occupation of Cambodia in 1979–89, Vietnam’s international isolation extended to relations with the United States. The United States, in addition to citing Vietnam’s minimal cooperation in accounting for Americans who were missing in action (MIAs) as an obstacle to normal relations, barred normal ties as long as Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia. Washington also continued to enforce the trade embargo imposed on Hanoi at the conclusion of the war in 1975.

The harsh postwar crackdown on remnants of capitalism in the South led to the collapse of the economy during the 1980s. With the economy in shambles, the communist government altered its course and adopted consensus policies that bridged the divergent views of pragmatists and communist traditionalists.

Throughout the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union and conducted most of its trade with the USSR and other Comecon countries. In 1986, Nguyễn Văn Linh, who was elevated to CPV general secretary the following year, launched a campaign for political and economic renewal (Đổi Mới). His policies were characterized by political and economic experimentation that was similar to simultaneous reform agenda undertaken in the Soviet Union.

Reflecting the spirit of political compromise, Vietnam phased out its reeducation effort. The communist government stopped promoting agricultural and industrial cooperatives. Farmers were permitted to till private plots alongside state-owned land, and in 1990 the communist government passed a law encouraging the establishment of private businesses.

The U.S. lifted a Vietnamese trade embargo in Feb. 1994 that had been in place since U.S. involvement in the war. Full diplomatic relations were announced between the two countries in July 1995. In April 1997, a pact was signed with the U.S. concerning repayment of the $146 million wartime debt incurred by the South Vietnamese government, and the following year the nation began a drive to eliminate inefficient bureaucrats and streamline the approval process for direct foreign investment. Efforts of reform-minded officials toward political and economic change have been thwarted by Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party. In April 2001, however, the progressive Nong Duc Manh was appointed general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, succeeding Le Kha Phieu. Even with a reformer at the helm of the party, change has been slow and cautious.

In Nov. 2001, Vietnam’s national assembly approved a trade agreement that opened U.S. markets to Vietnam’s goods and services. Tariffs on Vietnam’s products dropped to about 4% from rates as high as 40%. Vietnam in return opened its state markets to foreign competition. The U.S. is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, buying about $7 billion in Vietnamese goods each year.

Regional tension over claims to islands and resources in the South China Sea flared in 2012. For centuries, China has declared sovereignty over the sea and many of its islands, including the Paracel and Spratly islands, which are rich in oil and gas reserves and fish. However, Vietnam has also laid claim to the Paracel and Spratly island chains, and the Philippines say the Spratly Islands are within their territorial claims. These disputes persist and are a source of tension in the area.

Politics.
Vietnam is a one party authoritarian state, with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam as the supreme leader and president as the head of state, the prime minister as the head of government. The Vietnamese legislature is the unicameral National Assembly, from which the prime minister is selected. In practice, the president’s position is only ceremonial, with the prime minister wielding the most authority in government.

Economy
Economic reconstruction of the reunited country has proven difficult. After the failures of the state-run economy started to become apparent, the country launched a program of đổi mới (renovation), introducing elements of capitalism. The policy has proved highly successful, with Vietnam recording near 10% growth yearly (except for a brief interruption during the Asian economic crisis of 1997). The economy is much stronger than those of neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Like most Communist countries around the world, there is a fine balance between allowing foreign investors and opening up the market.

There used to be extreme restrictions on foreigners owning property or attempting to sell. However, a new property regulation announced on 1 July 2015 now allows foreigners to own and lease apartments in Vietnam. It is very difficult for foreigners to trade without negotiating ‘fees’. Business can be done via local partnerships with all the attendant risks.

Power and services is another issue. There are often rolling blackouts at times when there is not enough electricity. For this reason, many shops have portable generators.

According to government estimates Vietnam sees 7.9 million tourist arrivals each year. Vietnam has a return rate of just 5% compared to Thailand’s whopping 50%.

People
Most people in Vietnam are ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh), though there is a sizable ethnic Chinese community in Ho Chi Minh City, most of whom are descended from migrants from Guangdong province and are hence bilingual in Cantonese or other Chinese dialects and Vietnamese. There are also numerous other ethnic groups who occupy the mountainous parts of the country, such as the Hmong, Muong, and Dao people. There’s also a minority ethnic group in the lowlands near the border with Cambodia known as the Khmer Krom.

Buddhism, mostly of the Mahayana school, is the single largest religion in Vietnam, with over 80% of Vietnamese people identifying themselves as Buddhist and 40% practicing it. Christianity is the second largest religion at 11%, followed by the local Cao Dai religion. Islam, Hinduism and local religions also share small followings throughout the southern and central areas.

Culture
Due to its long history as a tributary state of China, as well as several periods of Chinese occupations, Vietnamese culture is strongly influenced by that of southern China, with Confucianism forming the basis of Vietnamese social etiquette. The Vietnamese language also contains many loan words from Chinese, though the two languages are unrelated. Buddhism remains the single largest religion in Vietnam. As in China, but unlike its Southeast Asian neighbors, the dominant school of Buddhism in Vietnam is the Mahayana School.

Nevertheless, Vietnamese culture remains distinct from Chinese culture as it has also absorbed cultural elements from neighboring Hindu civilizations such as the Champa and the Khmer empires. The French colonization also left a lasting impact on Vietnamese society, perhaps symbolized best by the Vietnamese fondness for baguettes and coffee. Southern and Central Vietnam, especially along the coast, have a much stronger Western influence, as compared to the North.

The division of Vietnam during what is locally called the American War has also resulted in cultural differences between northern and southern Vietnam that can been seen today. To this day, northern Vietnamese have a tendency to be more ideological, while southern Vietnamese tend to be more business-minded.

3 comments to Preparing for Vietnam

  • Fredgordon

    Artie,
    Goin g to VIetnam is a reatway to celebrate a 75th birthday
    ,mind your summary of the situation is excellent.

    Maybe the Cubs will make it to the Series too,

    Have a super trip, we look forward to your words and photos!

  • Paul Woo

    Enjoy Arnie – Can’t wait to see pics!

  • Gil C.

    Thank you! I learned a lot. Have a wonderful birthday trip! Looking fireard to more.

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