Changing Worlds: Vietnam's Transition from Cold War to Globalization

433 Pages·2012·3.128 MB·English

by  David W.P. Elliott

Changing Worlds
A silent struggle was taking place between entrenched conservatism and the fr agile new thinking .
“Hanoi Life under the Subsidy Economy, 1975–1986,” Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi, 2006–7.
Changing Worlds
Vietnam’s Transition From Cold War
to Globalization
David W. P. Elliott

1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elliott, David W. P.
Changing worlds : Vietnam’s transition from the Cold War to globalization / David W.P. Elliott.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-538334-8
1. Vietnam—Politics and government—1975- 2. Vietnam—Foreign relations. 3. Vietnam—Economic policy—1975- 4. National
security—Vietnam. I. Title.
DS559.912.E45 2012
959.704(cid:99)4—dc23 2011052938
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Mai
Who Shared the Journey
With Love
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Contents
Preface ix
1. Introduction 3
2. On the Eve of Doi Moi Reform (1975–1986) 25
3. Th e Year of Living Dangerously (1989) 5 9
4. Changing Partners in a Changing World (1990–1991) 8 7
5. Wary Reconciliation (1992–1995) 1 25
6. Uncertain Transition (1996–1999) 1 57
7. Taking the Plunge (2000–2006) 189
8. A Strategy for the Twenty-First Century 2 31
9. Rhetoric and Reality 2 79
Notes 333
Index 3 91
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Preface
Although I wrote my graduate-school dissertation on the political system of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), which focused largely on the decade
between 1954 and 1964—that is from the division of Vietnam at the end of the First
Indochina War to the escalation into direct US military action in the Second Indochina
War—I would be the fi rst to admit the limits of my understanding of the subject, even
aft er extensive documentary research and interviews with a number of people who had
lived in North Vietnam during this period. So what led to the foolhardy decision to pro-
ceed with a second attempt to understand the notoriously secretive political system of
communist Vietnam?
In part, it was due to a gradual opening up of Vietnam to the outside world and the
fascination of watching what amounted to a Vietnamese version of glasnost, as more and
more veils of secrecy fell to the ground. In addition, as the process unfolded, the expanded
range of public issues, life choices, and diversity of opinion at all levels of society made
the study of Vietnam infi nitely more interesting. Between my fi rst visit to unifi ed Viet-
nam in 1982, and my last substantial research trip, from December 2006 to January 2007,
extraordinary change occurred.
My 1982 visit was to a country still paranoid about foreigners and external threats, and
was marked by several tense encounters with the public security branch and police,
despite my status as an offi cial guest of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs. On the street, I
was routinely addressed as dong chi (comrade) because it was inconceivable to most
Vietnamese at the time that a foreign visitor would not be from a fraternal socialist
country. Even those who suspected that I was something diff erent were at a loss as to the
ix