Word: vietnam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...number of inventions to warfare and repression. The Spaniards bred slavehunting dogs, "Cuban hounds," that were exported to the United States. Spanish generals invented the system of concentrating a rural population in garrisons and declaring anyone outside them a rebel--a tactic that the United States would employ in Vietnam as its "strategic hamlets" policy. Cuban revolutionaries refined the technique of urban terrorism as far back as the Twenties...
...found reconstruction easy. In the first months after liberation, South Vietnam experienced a severe rice shortage, as the last violent months of the war disrupted planting in most of the central provinces. By the time Thieu's government fell, almost 2 per cent of the population in those provinces was dying of starvation each month. During the first three months of the PRG's government, the North Vietnamese sent 70 per cent of their rice stock south to give the new government a breathing space. But entrepeneurs were able to hoard the rice, which the PRG sold at half price...
...South Vietnam still has serious problems. It still has a need for technological and medical aid and knowledge and still has to deal with the war's legacy of drug addicts and prostitutes. But for the past nine months the north has produced more than ever in all sectors of its economy, under the slogan "All for the South," and reunification--scheduled for this summer--will make it easier for the two regions to integrate their needs and resources. The two areas will probably remain culturally distinct from one another for some time, as the effects of the American occupation...
Despite its progress in rebuilding the economy, the problems facing the Vietnamese go far beyond reconstruction. Vietnam will eventually have to build unified programs for development, programs that will embody their socialist aspirations. The real question for the Vietnamese is whether they can modernize without sacrificing the democratic participation that now characterizes their political and economic decision-making. The governments of both North and South Vietnam have already shown concern with this problem, and how well they solve it will determine the ultimate success of their revolution...
Eventually, the U.S. will have to recognize united Vietnam. But the Vietnamese consistently stress their independence of other countries, including the Soviet Union and China. "Without the cold and bleakness of winter," Ho Chi Minh once wrote, "the warmth and splendor of spring could never be. Misfortunes have steeled and tempered me, and further strengthened my resolve...