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Vietnam: On the Threshold of Change?
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16431 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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5 / 1989 |
3,617 Words |
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Eric Crystal
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The most enduring impression of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and Hanoi I gleaned from three weeks in Vietnam in January 1989 is that of a nation struggling to reconcile itself with the changing realities of a geographic region, world economy, and rapidly shifting international order. Confronting explosive population growth, stagnant economic performance, and increasing unease concerning its relationship with the Soviet Union, Vietnam is now experimenting with new and unorthodox approaches to resolving its many development dilemmas. Where once restaurants employing more than a handful of people could only be managed by the state, now private firms compete with government-managed eating establishments. Where once crop selection was mandated by planners from afar (in the South oftentimes by newly arrived northern cadres with little familiarity with local conditions), now farmers may opt out of collective farming situations and sell their grain at free-market prices.
Everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City the irresistible throb of the free-market economy dominates the tenor of everyday life. Food in the city was in most ample supply. New construction of residences and businesses was in clear evidence. Manifestations of a shift from an orientation to Eastern Europe toward integration in the free-market economies of Southeast Asia were everywhere to be observed. Although there were not many automobiles in the city, new Japanese vans and sedans predominated over new Soviet-imported Lada and Volga passenger cars and Latvia mini-vans. Kodak, Phillips, and Sony trademark signs are proudly positioned in front of shops. Russian, French, and English foreign-language advertisements in shops foreigners are likely to frequent can be frequently observed. But English is certainly now predominant over Russain, even to the extent of "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" greetings emblazoned on one shop window.
Changing foreign currency on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City today is as easy and minimally furtive as in the days of the ancient regime. Curio and art stores abound in the vicinity of the several major hotels of this city. Western tourists are on the streets shopping for antiques and art goods and also changing dollars for local dong from morning until nine o'clock in the evening. A vast array of 15- and 20-year-old goods has resurfaced by a sort of capitalist economic osmosis in a host of shop-houses and curio stores in the vicinity of what used to be called Tu Do street. I encountered one shop in which Rolex watches (vintage 1966-1975) were offered for sale to eager visiting tourists, journalists, and resident expatriates.
Even the Russian advisers to the present government seemed to have been co-opted by the surging capitalist spirit of the city. Resident Russians apparently receive a monthly ration of caviar as part of their overseas duty allowance. The Russians dependably sell this caviar to Vietnamese merchants for the preferred currency in Vietnam, U.S. dollars. These days a small jar or Beluga caviar brings six dollars off the street in Saigon. Not only do private entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City largely insist upon payment in dollars, but government-managed hotels similarly insist on such payments. Dollar traveler's checks are accepted, but a 5 percent surcharge is added. No rubles please.
Revolutions often seem to pass through nativistic stages, during which attempts are made to erase any trace of foreign influence. In Vietnam such nativism formerly decreed that all English-language names be expurgated,
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