ABSTRACT
Despite an ideal location in the heart of dynamic East Asia, a long coastline, and hard-working people, Vietnam’s industrialization was signi¼cantly delayed in comparison with its neighbors due to prolonged wars and legacies of planning. Although independence was declared by President Ho Chi Minh in September 1945, it took nearly a decade of ¼ghting to drive out the French colonialists in the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Despite this military victory, Vietnam was split into the communist north and the capitalist south. The north was aided by China and, later, the Soviet Union, and the south was supported by the US which regarded it as a fortress against communist advances. In the 1960s, the Cold War turned hot in Vietnam. In 1960, the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) was formed in the south to initiate a guerrilla war against the southern government. In 1965, the US marines landed in Danang, in the central coast of the country, and the US started bombing northern cities and industries which gradually escalated. The northern government and Viet Cong fought back with surprise attacks and sudden offensives. The US sprayed dioxin-laden “orange agent” extensively to destroy forests in which enemies hid, causing serious health and genetic effects on humans even to this date. This devastating war was in progress while many other East Asian economies were graduating from the initial import substitution phase to the export orientation phase or even trying heavy industrialization. Eventually, the rise of anti-war feeling in the US and the world, withdrawal of US troops following the 1973 Paris Agreement, and the weak and unpopular southern government led to the Fall of Saigon in the face of communist onslaught from the north, in April 1975. In the following year, Vietnam was reunited and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
