Video #12 - Visions of a New Vietnam
Monday, January 09, 2006BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Vietnam is located at the eastern and southern part of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. The country is about twice the size of Arizona. It has a population of nearly 80 million people; it is the second-largest country in Southeast Asia, and the 13th largest in the world.
The Vietnamese are descendants of nomadic Mongols from China and migrants from Indonesia. Vietnam's mythological beginnings name Hung Vuong as first ruler and founder in 2879 B.C. The Han dynasty began China's rule of the Nam Viet area from 111 B.C. until the 15th century. After 1471, when Vietnam conquered the Champa Kingdom in what is now central Vietnam, the Vietnamese moved gradually southward, finally reaching the Mekong Delta. While Vietnam's emperors reigned ineffectually, powerful northern and southern families fought civil wars in the 17th and 18th centuries.
France established its influence early in the 19th century and spent eighty years conquering the three regions into which the country was divided - finally unifying Vietnam in 1887. Japan took over French military bases in Vietnam in 1940, although a pro-Vichy French administration remained until 1945. While France's influence weakened, veteran Communist leader Ho Chi Minh organized an independence movement known as the Vietminh. At the end of the war, Ho's followers seized Hanoi and declared a short-lived republic, which ended with the arrival of French forces in 1946.
The French declared Bao Dai as emperor of all Vietnam in 1949. However, Ho and the Vietminh declined to support him. After the revolution in China gave the Vietminh outside help for their war against French and allied Vietnamese troops, the United States, worried about Communist expansion, provided aid to the French side.
The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu on May 5, 1954 resulted in the division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel. In the South, Ngo Dinh Diem, Bao Dai's premier, deposed him in 1955 and made himself president. Even with strong U.S. backing, Diem could not eradicate the Communist Viet Cong from infiltrating from the north.
President Kennedy sent the first U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam in 1961 at President Diem's request. U.S. involvement lasted until 1972. As the result of secret peace negotiations led by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, a settlement known as the Paris Accords was signed on January 27, 1973. Consequently, the south was divided between the South Vietnamese Government and the Viet Cong.
In early 1975, the North Vietnamese military began a major offensive in the south. The communists took Saigon on April 30, 1975. The war that had claimed the lives of 1.3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans was over. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (north) absorbed the former Republic of Vietnam (south) to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.
Border clashes between Vietnam and Cambodia intensified in 1977. The Chinese government accused Vietnam of persecuting Chinese residents. At the onset of 1979, Vietnam was fighting a two-front war: defending the north from Chinese invasion and supporting its army in Cambodia. Hanoi's Marxist policies combined with the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the decades of fighting devastated Vietnam's economy.
The Vietnamese economy began to recuperate in 1986 under doi moi, (new road) a program of economic renovation based on limited privatization. Vietnamese troops began limited withdrawals from Laos and Cambodia in 1988. Subsequently, Vietnam supported the Cambodian peace agreement signed in October of 1991.
Due to these changes in Vietnamese policies, the United States lifted its trade embargo on that nation in February of 1994. Full diplomatic relations were renewed between the two countries in July, 1995. In April 1997, an agreement was signed with the U.S. concerning repayment of the $146 million wartime debt incurred by the South Vietnamese government. As a result, Vietnam began to eliminate inefficient bureaucrats and streamline the approval process for direct foreign investment.
By 1996, after ten years of doi moi, foreign investment had flowed in at around $27 billion. Additionally, the World Bank had given Vietnam a loan for $2 billion earmarked for the agriculture, transportation and tourism sectors. Foreign direct investment (FDI) had reached $8.3 billion a year, accounting for more than a third of Vietnam's GDP.
Unfortunately, overseas investors reported facing mountains of red tape, widespread corruption and what they themselves describe as "an inhospitable business climate" in Vietnam. Maclean's reporter Michael Steinberger reported at the time that:
"Vietnam's ambivalence about pursuing free market reforms is endangering its bid to become an Asian "tiger" economy, alongside South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore."
Internally, reconciliation remained elusive. According to Steinberger, "Returnees often fear appearing too successful; lest they incite old resentments...North-South suspicions have likewise never diminished. The children of those who served the South Vietnamese regime have often suffered limited educational and job opportunities. For others on the winning side, the sight of Westerners again holding court in Ho Chi Minh City's upscale cafes and bars awakens old hatreds. 'It's not good when our people see all this foreign money,' said Dr. Duong Guynh Hoa, who in the late 1970's served as health minister in the provisional revolutionary government."
The Economist reported in January of 2000 that: "The foreigners are now pulling back, almost as quickly as they piled in. Over the past three years new investment has plunged, firms have slashed existing ventures and sent many of their expatriates home. The rhetoric of doi moi turned out to be that-rhetoric. Vietnam is still communist. It is closer to Cuba than today's market-oriented China and it is still one of the poorest countries in Asia, with a GDP per head less than half that of China's and less even than that of most African countries."
That began to change in April of 2001, when reformer Nong Duc Manh was appointed general secretary of the ruling Communist Party. By November, Vietnam's National Assembly approved a trade agreement opening U.S. markets to Vietnam's goods and services. Tariffs on Vietnam's products dropped to about 4% from rates as high as 40%. In return, Vietnam opened its state markets to foreign competition and agreed to meet international standards on copyright and investment issues. For the country's continued economic expansion, it is clear that the next ten years will be crucial.
SOURCES
"Foreign direct investment: Goodnight, Vietnam." Vol. 354, The Economist, January 8, 2000. www.elibrary.com
Steinberger, Michael, "A 'new road' for Asia's latest tiger economy. (Vietnam)." Vol. 109, Maclean's, July 29, 1996, pp 21(22). www.elibrary.com
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, July 2001 www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4130pf.htm
www.angelfire.com/ca3/viet/history.html (A timeline)
www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0108144.html
LESSON PLAN
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 10-12/Economics, International Relations, World History, International Baccalaureate Programs (IB), Current Events
PURPOSE:
To present activities to be used in a variety of classroom situations in order to enhance student understanding of the Asian economy and its significance globally.
OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to:
- Locate Vietnam on a map of Asia.
- Describe the history of Vietnam.
- Analyze how Vietnam's history has affected its present economic situation.
- Evaluate how Vietnam's relationship to China, France and the U.S. has affected its history.
- Evaluate how recent changes in Vietnam's economic policies may affect its future.
MATERIALS:
- Background information provided.
- Resources on China and Taiwan available at your school's Media Center and the Public Library System in your area.
- Background information available through Internet "search engines."
- www.dade.k12.fl.us/ (ONLINE DATABASES)
ACTIVITIES:
May be assigned as group activities or as individual tasks. They may also be designed as preparation for related presentations either by individuals or groups.
- Create historical maps of the geographical area currently identified as Vietnam.
- Develop a timeline illustrating the major historical events which relate to this geographical area.
- Research each of these major historical events and present the information to the class in chronological order. (Free form concept maps may be used to illustrate the presentations.)
- Use graphs and charts to illustrate the effect of doi moi reforms on the Vietnamese economy.
- Analyze economic indicators for Vietnam during the past year to evaluate if the reforms agreed to in December of 2001 have been implemented. The Consultative Group Meeting held in Hanoi on December 7-8, 2001, report is available at www.worldbank.org.vn. The World Bank news release on the meeting may be accessed via: http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf/ 5875b38e6a76b0478525678c005861
EVALUATION:
Individual assignments should be graded by the teacher using established criteria.
Group activities, presentations and projects may be evaluated by teachers and students using the following criteria and scale:
Content Creativity Clarity
1 = Superior (A) 2 = Excellent (B) 3 = Good (C) 4 = Fair (D) 5 = Poor (F)
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