Issues for Vietnam Into the Future:

Can the communist government continue reform in the face of the complications it generates? Most important, can the government develop into a nimble actor in the economy so as to take advantage of the rapid changes in global economic and technological conditions?

Can the government cope with the inevitable economic crises that will come as a result of incorporation into the world economy?

Can the government find ways to ameliorate the growing income gaps across regions and between city and countryside?

Will economic reform help to generate increasing pluralism in Vietnam or will the government effectively control the organization and expression of political interests?

Will other forms of liberalization (access to foreign information; press freedom, etc.) continue even if pluralism does not?

How will the conflicts within the party affect the developments in the economy? Can reformers continue to hold power, especially in the face of economic crises that certainly will happen?

Can Vietnam manage its relations with the Chinese and the United States so as to preserve peace and economic reform?

Can Vietnam accept the consequences of multilateral diplomacy that come with participation in ASEAN? Can Vietnam foreswear the unilateralist impulses of its past?

Suggested Reading

George Herring, America's Longest War : The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975, McGraw Hill, 1996.

Neil Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, University of California Press, 1993.

Stanley Karnow, Vietnam : A History, Penguin, 1997.

D. R. SarDesai, Vietnam: Past and Present, Westview, 1998.