Vietnam

[Nanatsu Yoru]

You never really hear much about Vietnam these days. Apparently they are one of the countries still *nominally* following socialist theory, so I thought a little research was warranted. A short time later, it seems to me that they are somewhere between Cuba and China in terms of economic policy. In essence, market socialist (to the extent that that is socialist), allowing small businesses and medium enterprises while the government still keeps a pretty strong grip on the larger scale functions. They defend this with the theory that capitalism must progress to its fullest before they can institute socialism. Like China, they are an increasingly influential economic force despite large amounts of inflation. Also like China they still have large income inequalities, difference in availability of healthcare and sexism in everyday life. The CPV (Communist Party of Vietnam) controls the democratic process and only political parties affiliated with it can legally participate in elections.

My questions are:

1. Are my summaries correct? Did I miss anything?
2. Are there reasons behind Vietnam being so under the radar these days?
3. What are Viet relations with the West like?
4. What's everyday life like for the Viet people?
5. Is there any hope for a socialist Vietnam left?

[Zealot]

My questions are:

1. Are my summaries correct? Did I miss anything?
2. Are there reasons behind Vietnam being so under the radar these days?
3. What are Viet relations with the West like?
4. What's everyday life like for the Viet people?
5. Is there any hope for a socialist Vietnam left?

1. You seem to be largely correct.

2. In what way? Do you mean under the capitalists radar? My theory, they want to side with Vietnam to have an ally in the region. In the latest conflict between China and Vietnam they sided with Vietnam. Probably crossing their fingers like kids hoping a war would break out and then they could invade to take down China

3. Quite good, improving, I think. Although when I visited the War Crimes Museum it seemed to be less of a museum than an American hate club, lol.

4. Pretty bad, the war fucked up their country so much that the effects are still felt over there. Jobs are quite easy to find, even in the current recession, but it's obvious they still don't have the standard of living enjoyed in the west although it doesn't seem to worry them too much.

5. There's hope for socialism in any country. The Hammer and Sickle flag can be seen flying every second building and they seem to be well aware of the threat their reforms pose:

After 7 years of renovation, the mid-term Party Plenum (7th tenure) asserted important achievements regarding political, socio-economic, security, defence and external relation fields. The Plenum also warned of four threats in the coming time, one of which was the deviation from the socialist orientation. The awareness of the threat of derailment from the socialist orientation stems from the process of implementation of the multi-sectoral market economy. Fact shows that such an economy will create a strong driving force, bringing into full play the aggregate strength of all economic sectors, stimulating the creativeness of each individual. However, it also hides in itself the threat of deviation from the socialist orientation if our Party and State have insufficient capability in directing and managing it. Objectively the hostile forces are pushing up the evolution strategy to incorporate our regime into the orbit of capitalism

http://www.cpv.org.vn/cpv/Modules/Ne...7&cn_id=144322

So from what I understand private capitalism over there is still under the watchful eye of the state but it doesn't make it any less revisionist.