Word: viet
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...advice to his men was to "uphold the spirit of socialist labor, and together with the rest of the people zealously take part in economic reconstruction." The soldiers never got the chance. The promised demobilization of Hanoi's forces has yet to take place. As a result of Viet Nam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia, more than 200,000 troops are tied down in that country. Another 50,000 have become an apparently permanent occupying force in Laos. Those expeditionary forces are merely the most obvious evidence of a pervading reality about Viet Nam today: expansionist adventures...
...Vietnamese clearly believe military strength is a necessity. In their view, Viet Nam is an island of Communist revolution surrounded by suspicion. On three sides are the 248 million people of the non-Communist Southeast Asian nations. To the north are Viet Nam's historic foes-1 billion Chinese. Reason enough, some observers think, for Viet Nam to want to weld together an Indochinese federation with a docile Cambodia and Laos under the leadership of Hanoi. Others believe that Viet Nam is simply Moscow's stand-in in the Southeast Asian geopolitical rivalry with Peking. But a more...
...Viet Nam has recently made a new diplomatic effort to gain full acceptance among its non-Communist neighbors. More particularly, it has sought recognition for its surrogate in Cambodia, the 17-month-old regime of Heng Samrin. Earlier this month, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach launched the latest round of this campaign with a tour of Southeast Asian capitals. The mission produced mixed results. In Malaysia, for example, Prime Minister Datuk Hussein Onn hinted at a willingness to compromise on Cambodia. In Thailand, talks broke down when Thach angrily rejected Bangkok's demand for a neutral Cambodian government...
...Viet Nam's enduring militarism can also serve as a convenient alibi for the country's economic morass. Since reunification in 1975, the rate of inflation in Hanoi has gone up 100%. In Saigon, the annual inflation rate is a staggering 350%; unemployment is 20%. A combination of bad weather and bureaucratic bungling has left Viet Nam with a succession of crop failures and a 2 million-ton annual shortfall of food. Compared with 1976, last year's paper production was down by 16% and textiles...
...party's Central Committee has issued a series of belated reforms designed to add some free-market elements to Viet Nam's stifled economy. According to the new directives, announced last autumn, anyone who can set up a profitable enterprise should be allowed to do so, peasants should not be forced into collectives and initiative should be rewarded even on state cooperatives and in factories...