Vietnam
Vietnam: Rising Dragon
At the end of this month, I will travel to Berlin,
Germany to begin a semester of German language studies. To my slight
discomfort, I am unsure on when I will return to the United States – it could
be June, July, or even August, depending on my course choices and internship
opportunities. Nonetheless, returning during the summer means one thing: I will
not walk across the stage for my graduation during May 2013 to receive my
diploma.
My family has accepted my deprivation of ceremonial
formalities with understanding and support (partly because they are certain
that I will continue my academic studies and provide them with more
opportunities to see me “graduate.”) Another factor in their acceptance is the
fact that, in my family, undergraduate education is an expectation. Both of my
parents have undergraduate degrees. All four of my grandparents attended
college and three of them obtained degrees. When I start going back further generations
in my family’s history, countless of my direct ancestors (including a few
women) received high levels of education.
I mention these anecdotes about education in order to
introduce the country of Vietnam. To be honest, I do not remember a time when I
did not know what or where Vietnam was. I can credit this to my family. One of
my grandmothers went back to college as an adult woman. After obtaining her
degree, she became an English-as-a-Second-Language teacher, working with
Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees who had settled in the area.
Needless to say, the Vietnamese community became an integral part of the
tapestry of our family life. Growing up, I was enthralled by stories of
cultural miscommunications. (One such story is at my grandparents’ 25th
Wedding Anniversary party when the musical band made up of Vietnamese immigrants
played continuously “Your Cheating Heart.” Later, it became known to the family
that they had chosen this song because of its melody and they had no idea the
true meaning of the lyrics.)
After having covered the Vietnam War in one of my
academic courses last semester, I did not want to read a book which discussed
the war. Based on my childhood experiences with the Vietnamese community, I
knew that there was a more diverse and complex story to be told. However, the
country of Vietnam constantly seemed to arise in my studies and interests. For
example, both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City boast opera houses – remnants of
French colonial rule. Moreover, I was surprised a few years ago to Google
myself, only to discover that I was the subject of an article of a popular
Vietnamese magazine. I finally decided upon Bill Hayton’s “Vietnam: Rising Dragon,” a book which discusses Vietnam as a rising power, as well as the
challenges it faces in the upcoming years.

The author discusses past actions, including the
liberalization of the economy, that have allowed the Communist Party to keep
this power. The author also discusses the current situation in Vietnam and how
the Party is hoping to develop to retain power. It is first important to
mention that they are hesitant about full-scale liberalization in Vietnam as
well as the development of a middle class, as this could change the balance of
power. Indeed due to the nature of the liberalization process, “the gap between
the top and the bottom of the pile is wide and getting wider” (page 25.) Interestingly,
the Party has made itself open to more democratic reforms in order to stabilize
its power: “the Party is prepared to allow greater participation in the
management of the state, especially at village level, but it isn’t prepared to
let the people rule” (page 262.)
I knew some about the power of the Communist Party in
Vietnam. I do not often go for manicures/pedicures, but a couple of years ago,
I received a gift certificate. As most of these stores in my area are owned by
Vietnamese, I soon found myself in a lengthy conversation with the manicurist
about her reasons for immigrating to the United States and the current
political state of Vietnam. (I will admit that I highly enjoyed this
conversation, but received a lot of dirty looks from some of the other women in
the shop – sitting in massage chairs with tabloids on their laps.) This book
delved into how power is exercised in Vietnam including:
- The Neighborhood Warden: In order to make sure that citizens comply with government campaigns and laws, the Party has organized a system based on historical social practices of respect of elders. This system is a way to exercise local control. “Each neighborhood in the country, about 60-80 households – a unit Vietnamese call a to dan pho – has a ‘neighborhood warden;” most wardens are retired officials from some part of the Party or state. Their role is to monitor the activities or residents and visitors” (page 69.)
- That Power in Vietnam Has Its Limitations: “It [the Party] can wield enormous coercive power over limited areas or short time spans but it could not sustain rigid discipline across the whole country in the style of North Korea or Burma in any circumstances short of national emergency” (page 73.)
- Restriction of Information: The Party has had a difficult time adjusting the possibilities which are available for communication through modern technology. In the meantime, Vietnam utilizes a firewall to restrict certain information to its citizens. “In other words, the Vietnamese firewall allows youngsters to consume plenty of porn but not Amnesty International reports” (page 77.)
Please feel free to comment on these topics or note
something interesting from the book. I look forward to hearing your
opinions!
Interesting post. It is amazing to see how these officials separate in their policy agenda economic liberalization from political freedom. There was a time were it was widely believed that the former had to be avoided in order to maintain a grip on the latter. Now, with China leading the way, the paradigma seems to have broken: More economic freedom will not lead to increased demand for political freedom. This is far from settled.
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