Vietnam: Rising Dragon- Bill Hayton (2010)

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Vietnam is a country that has emerged from the ashes of war and, in the course of thirty years or more, reinvented itself at astounding rates. The ‘timeless’ images of peasant boys riding water buffalo and girls riding bicycles in white ao dai  are now confined to increasingly small fractions of the country. Motorbikes have replaced bicycles, towering buildings now dominate the skylines of the major cities and more and more rural land is giving way to development. The economy is growing, people are getting wealthier and youth culture is emerging. “It is one of the most breath-taking periods of social change anywhere, ever”, writes Bill Hayton, author of Vietnam: Rising Dragon, a 2010 study of Vietnam’s on-going social and economic changes.

The rapid development of the country in recent decades can be accredited to the economic liberalisation that begun in the late 1980s. This was prompted by the collapsing economy and high inflation that followed the conversion to a socialist economy after reunification in 1975. Throughout this transition period the one-party state, led by the Communist Party of Vietnam, has retained power by augmenting itself to adapt to ever-changing conditions. The outcome of the Party’s economic policy has been a remarkably smooth transition to a free-market economy, resulting in “a combination of economic growth, poverty reduction and political stability unmatched by any other developing country”.

Hayton argues, however, that the cost of this has been corruption at all levels of the state’s functioning, one of the world’s highest levels of media censorship and an increasing divide between rich and poor. Indeed, the Party is now only nominally communist. It is primarily interested in securing a hearty middle class, often following policies of ‘sweeping up’ poor communities in the name of ‘beautification’ projects, and of targeting unlicensed street merchants and beggars. The Communist Party is now the place to turn to not for ideology but for business connections.

The reporter has done an excellent job of dissecting the functioning of the Party and the state to explain how economic liberalisation, improving standards of living and growing consumerism have not correlated with democratisation in Vietnam. The methods employed by the Party to maintain power despite significant social and economic change are explained; Hayton describes the Communist Party as maintaining central control but struggling to hold onto the edges, where State Owned Enterprises (SOE) are creating subsidiary companies to benefit from funding from state banks and helping individuals to get rich quick.

But this is only half of the story. Beyond the city boundaries an estimated 70% of the population of Vietnam still live in rural areas and struggle to cling on to an agricultural income. Chapters of the book are dedicated to studying rural-urban migration and the disparity of wealth and political representation between different regions of the country. There are also interesting chapters covering the plight of ethnic minorities, the treatment of political dissidents and the environmental degradation caused by unregulated tourism.

These are not the only costs of Vietnam’s recent growth. Warming US-Vietnam relations have necessitated a tacit policy of ‘forgetting’ the war crimes committed on Vietnamese soil by the US government, Hayton argues. Implications of this could be lost hope for the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange of ever receiving compensation from the American chemical companies that provided dioxin to the US Armed Forces. Vietnam has a very young population, the majority of who were born after 1975, and the country’s recent history is at risk of being accepted and forgotten in the name of today’s progress.

Hayton approaches from several angles and perspectives to deliver a rounded and comprehensive view of modern Vietnam.  With only a year spent in the country, the author has collected an impressive number of stories from farmers, shop-keepers and bureaucrats and weaves these personal experiences into his arguments to great effect, keeping his study grounded and relevant. Some damning criticisms are made of the functioning of the Vietnamese government, and Hayton knows only too well the consequences of upsetting the authorities within the country. After serving as the BBC’s Vietnam correspondent in Hanoi during 2006 and 2007, his visa was removed in response to him making contact with dissidents. In an interview with New Emissary for The Diplomat, he explains, “There are very strict regulations on foreign journalists in Vietnam. These are largely ignored until a journalist writes articles that the government doesn’t like- and then they can be enforced very tightly.” After being asked to leave Vietnam he spent a further two years collecting research for this book.  Following its publication, he was denied entry on a subsequent attempt to enter Vietnam to attend a conference he had been invited to. This example serves to highlight the importance of works such as this in creating international awareness and concern about the limits of free speech within Vietnam.

Hayton has taken great effort to make sense of a country full of contradictions and confusions, one in which, as the author admits himself and to which I can testify, it is possible to live without really understanding how everything works. I found this book incredibly useful for my project research and only wish that I had read it sooner. Moreover, it will be useful and informative to anyone with an interest in Vietnam or who is looking to discover more about the politics, economy and culture of the country. 

Surprisingly little has been written about post-war Vietnam, but this report shines light on the Vietnam of today, offering a comprehensive analysis of a country that is “exciting, fast-moving and colourful”. Vietnam is bound to become more and more internationally significant- it is a burgeoning tourist hotspot and its economy is catching up with those of its Asian Tiger neighbours. Already it is one of the world’s largest exporters of coffee and rice, after joining the World Trade Organisation in 2007, and is an appealing new location for international corporations to establish bases. Vietnam: Rising Dragon is a well-researched, engaging study that will reinvent Vietnam in the minds of those who still associate the country with outdated images of colonialism and war.