Summary of Vietnam - American war

One can argue all sorts of ways about the American War (as it is called in Vietnam).

The regime in the South was no more democratic than in the North, corrupt and determined to force Roman Catholicism on a Buddhist population. Hence Monk immolations and so on. To most Vietnamese in the South the Communists looked to be an improvement.

Then in come the Americans with their save-the-world, our-system-is-what-everyone-needs attitudes, not appreciated but seen by calculating leaders as someone they can use if they say the right things.

Well once in Saigon the Americans soon realized what a nest of iniquity the Southern government was, and arranged a coup to put more amenable and respectable and honest and less Catholic people in power. This was probably a good thing, but it made it clear that now America was the real ruler, not Vietnamese. Hence patriots who wanted a free Vietnam had to go with the North.

America might have "won" the war anyway, except it began to be too expensive, both in money and in body bags, and hence lost popular support. This is a major weakness of republican governments -- the people as a mass never have the backbone to stick with this sort of commitment as long as is necessary.

So the Democrats made political hay and Nixon, also being both smart and corrupt, decided to cut losses and get out of it, by cowardly stabbing the government they had put in place right square in the back.

So within months everyone knew what was going to happen and looked to their own safety and affairs, and the Americans had the helicopters on the embassy roof.

There ensued about ten to twenty years of serious deprivation, especially in the South, and horrible mis-government, following a Maoist mentality. Ho would have been removed if he hadn't died conveniently, and "New Thinking" ensued. The symbols and rhetoric of the old regime were kept, but put in abeyance, under old Marxist jargon that the country is not yet ready for Communism, nor even socialism, but needs to let individuals do their own businesses and allow foreign companies in and actually make a profit. 

The first thing that happened, once farmers were allowed to sell their own product to whom they wanted at the best price they could get, was that agricultural production exploded and the street markets in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City -- not actually a renaming of Saigon -- Saigon still exists, but the corporate city government is for a larger area -- the city and its suburbs) suddenly exploded with a huge abundance and variety of all sorts of food.

This was not unpopular.

There remain unfortunate aspects of the old regime, especially the corruption and arbitrary power of police and other law enforcement agencies, but things are getting better.