Word: vietnamization
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...Vietnam's working classes have risen up against authorities before - with results. The most famous farmers' revolt took place in the northern province of Thai Binh in 1997. Burdened by excessive taxation and illegal fees, thousands of villagers challenged local officials over the course of several months. When their demands to be heard were ignored, they stoned Communist Party cadres, attacked their offices and homes, and held officials hostage for days. The national government eventually took charge, disciplining local officials and sending some to jail, along with some of the farmers. The following year, a national law known as Decree...
...anti-police backlash playing out around the country is unusual considering that Vietnam is a relatively efficient authoritarian state where dissent is rarely tolerated. In two recent incidents, motorcycle riders pulled over by police set their own bikes alight rather than let them be impounded. Last month, a car dragged a Hanoi policeman 15 feet before racing off. An angry crowd seeing a cop roughing up a driver in the southern province of Dong Nai used bricks to smash the officer?s motorcycle...
...Corruption in Vietnam is nothing new. Last year, Transparency International ranked Vietnam 121st out of 180 on its Corruption Perception Index. But it was perhaps easier to overlook occasional shakedowns from officials when Vietnam's economy was doing well and incomes were doubling every few years. That's no longer the case. People being squeezed by the economic downturn are increasingly frustrated by the nation's enduring corruption, says Trinh Hoa Binh, head of environment and health at the government-run Institute of Sociology in Hanoi. Officials are maintaining their special privileges while the economic position of ordinary Vietnamese...
...past decade of stunning economic growth in Vietnam helped to ease these frustrations. But 10 years on, with only marginal improvements in transparency and with corruption still rampant, patience is wearing dangerously thin again - a fact that Vietnam's leadership recognizes. "There is corruption and abuse of power in local areas," concedes Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a senior member of Vietnam's National Assembly. Though he does not condone the recent attacks on government property, Thuyet says he understands the anger and agrees that the government must do more to improve transparency...
...Cabinet committee to "stamp out narcotic addiction" in 1954 - the term "War on Drugs" was not widely used until President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 to announce "an all-out global war on the drug menace." While reports of widespread heroin use among soldiers in Vietnam sparked an intense outcry, but by 1975 attention had turned to Colombia's cocaine industry. When Colombian authorities seized 600 kilos of cocaine hidden in everything from shoeboxes to a dog cage containing a live dog, drug traffickers retaliated by killing 40 people in one weekend. Nicknamed the "Medellin Massacre...