ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that analyses of contemporary Vietnam should be more attentive to the way enduring dynamics shape the nation’s past, present, and future. As part of this argument, it describes the political economy of colonial Cochinchina in the same terms of “transition” and “development” that commonly frame accounts of contemporary Vietnam, revealing important similarities across the colonial and contemporary periods. It then suggests some dynamics that may help explain these long-term continuities. It argues that much like the Communist Party in 1986, the colonial state faced a similar challenge of fostering competent, politically dependable managers capable of realizing its developmental goals. Furthermore, in both periods this process of state-led economic development unfolded in two important contexts. The first can be expressed variously in terms of a lack of shared ideology or the lack of popular legitimacy. The second is Vietnam’s place in regional and global economic systems. The ultimate goal of the chapter is to help us think differently about periodization, encourage us to adopt longer time frames in our studies, and challenge us to be as attentive to connection as to disjuncture when we think about contemporary Vietnam.
