Word: viets
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Jubilant and eclectic, yet a little ragged with the tatterdemalion feel of a county fair, Viet Nam's show of national pride captured perfectly, if unwittingly, the country's paradoxical fate: having prevailed over a superpower, Viet Nam has yet to come wholly to grips with itself. The nine aging Politburo members who waved stiffly from a reviewing stand could relish the memory of how they had stripped the American Goliath of $150 billion, 58,022 lives and, for a while, some of its self-confidence. But ten years after its moment of glory, the Socialist Republic of Viet...
Even the staging of last week's festivities suggested that victory was, in some respects, Pyrrhic. To bring its triumph home to the world once again, xenophobic Viet Nam, which allowed all of 252 tourists to enter in 1983, welcomed 400 journalists and technicians from abroad, most of them American (see PRESS). To many observers, the willingness to accommodate the newsmen underlined Hanoi's eagerness to restore relations with Washington. For all its efforts, however, Viet Nam's peace offensive seemed unlikely to gain any ground...
Ambivalence, indeed, seemed to be a keynote of the celebrations. Just before the parade got under way, Nguyen Van Linh, Communist Party secretary for Ho Chi Minh City, rose to celebrate Viet Nam's place "among the vanguard fighters for mankind's lofty ideals" and to extol its success in "overturning the global counterrevolutionary strategy of U.S. imperialism." But even Linh could not overlook the signs of decay around him. In Ho Chi Minh City (pop. 3.5 million) the walls of many houses are cracked, and the electricity supply is a sometime thing. Thousands sleep on the unswept sidewalks...
During the anniversary celebrations, some journalists were entertained at the home of Brigadier General Nguyen Huu Hanh, who was briefly Deputy Chief of Staff of the South Vietnamese army, though rumored to have ties with the Viet Cong Communist insurgents. Under the new regime he enjoys a token position, but no power. Now he ruminated about shortages--food and gasoline and electricity--in a grand old house that was half empty, thick with dust, and stifling under a broken...
Even those who benefit from the new order seem split in their allegiances. Many of the youngest of the new corps of Viet Nam's leaders are steadfast in their defense of the system. Still, something of their restlessness comes through. "I have to live very correctly," explains a young official. "I cannot flirt too much, and I must respect older people. I must be very popular, and I cannot have too many luxuries. If I don't like this driver"-- he motions to the man at the wheel--"I must talk to him anyway. I also must dress properly...