Word: nam
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Justice delayed, insists the legal axiom, is justice denied. Some similar principle must apply to gratitude. When offered too late it turns into something else, a thank-you made soggy by the slop-over of guilt and apology. It was scarcely surprising, then, that many Viet Nam War veterans were somewhat wary when New York City cranked up a welcome-home parade ten years after the end of the conflict...
This spring has been the season of the past, however. It is the anniversary of almost everything. Americans have been pitched back into unstable regions of memory, back into Viet Nam and wartime Europe. Sometimes the experience has been disconcerting. The past only looks dead. Ronald Reagan, quintessential American and oldest President, did not seem entirely to grasp that. He displayed a curious insensitivity about the past, as if he did not know how important it is, or how dangerous it can be. As if he did not know that the past has monsters in it. His eyes accustomed...
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...
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...
...longest-standing and strictest American trade restrictions are those against North Korea, which has been under a U.S. embargo since 1950. Sanctions against Viet Nam go back to 1954, and those against Kampuchea to 1975. These countries and Cuba face an American denial of all trade, travel and finance. Various U.S. economic restrictions have been imposed on other countries, including Libya, Iran, Iraq, South Yemen, Syria and South Africa...