ABSTRACT
The 30-year war in Indochina largely defined the 30 years of relative peace which followed in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. But the twin themes of continuity and change which mark the contemporary relationship of these three states have their origins in the more distant past. With the nineteenth-century occupation of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the French government set out to recreate a space in the heart of Southeast Asia. The hyphenated name Indo-Chine, initially applied to the amalgamated territories of Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina and Tonkin, suggested an empty space to be imagined, molded and developed. Over the last two decades, economic reform in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam has gone well beyond so-called socialist renovation or a mere fine-tuning of their previous command economies. Economics and politics are intrinsically related dimensions of a single social reality, and the requirements of a protracted war decisively shaped until 1975 both the economic and political structures of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
