Customer Reviews

VIETNAM UNDER COMMUNISM (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION)

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For most Americans of my generation, Vietnam ended with the image of what was left of our effort scrambling frantically to climb aboard a helicopter on top of the embassy. After that, the only time we thought of Vietnam was at the movies watching Sylvester Stallone, a.k.a. "Johnny Rambo" do single handedly in a couple of hours what 500,000+ troops couldn't in ten years. For us, walking away was easy. For the South Vietnamese, it was impossible.

Author Nguyen Van Canh was a South Vietnamese intellectual who was forced to leave his homeland when the communists took over. By interviewing refugees and clandestine contacts, by reading journalists' articles, and analyzing official reports of the Democratic Government of Vietnam, he has pieced together a graphic picture of life under communism. The picture is not pretty.

He concludes that the former South Vietnam is now nothing more than a conquered province. For all the rhetoric by Ho Chi Minh and Company of "reconciliation" and "brotherhood," the South is now totally dominated by the North. Even former communist cadre members are relegated to second class citizenship because being from the South makes them suspect.

The take-over followed the familiar communist line, only with uniquely Vietnamese terminology. Instead of gulags, Vietnam has re-education centers and new economic zones. Instead of show trials, we have self-criticism sessions. Instead of public executions, suspected persons simply try to leave the country via small, unseaworthy boats. It's the same song, just a different verse.

Canh states the usual process of collectivization of agriculture and industry went on with the usual results. After the burgeoise were liquidated, the only people left to plan a central economy could not plan a daily calendar. As usual, the resulting shortages of goods have impoverished the population. Graft and corruption at all levels are commonplace as people literally lie, cheat and steal to survive.

Canh's book is an important work. It effectively compares what communism promises with what it delivers. Every person who fought the war and every person who opposed it should read Canh and ask, "What could we have done to prevent this tragedy?" More importantly, "What can we do now to insure no other nation has to endure this again?"

Using primary and secondary sources, the author has been able to document the organization set up by the communists in South Vietnam from 1975 to 1982 to coerce the South Vietnamese into following the Marxist theory.

Socialism was brutally introduced to South Vietnam with eradication of private property, commerce and trade, and nationalization of the industry.

The chapter about religious suppression is particularly interesting: priests and monks opposing the new regime landed in jails or were sent to reeducation camps. Buddhists who were treated fairly leniently under the Thieu regime, were forever silenced. Politicians advocating a neutral Vietnam and communists opposing the Hanoi regime were also imprisoned. Basically no dissention was tolerated.

Millions of former military personnel and thousands of southern officials landed in reeducation camps with no set date for release. Millions of civilians were sent to new economic zones to work on virgin lands without tools, fertilizers, or even seeds. Their houses and belongings were confiscated and given to northerners who came in to administrate the conquered South.

This was not only a complete wipe-out of a democratic state, but also an overall socialist restructuring of the society. Alas, the experimentation turned out to be an utter failure and a quarter of a century later, the communists just hung on to power by force.

Although written in 1983, the book remains a classic and an excellent source of information for researchers and students alike.