On 6/27/07, Julio Huato <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I lost Jim Devine's reply from my latest PEN-L feeds page. I read it earlier this morning, but it's gone now. I'll just note that Vietnam has not not succeeded in imposing its mode of production in the U.S. Yet.
Yes, Vietnam won the battle -- but lost the war, as the US unleashed a shitstorm of financial and other punishments on it. Frankly, however, I don't think the leaders of Vietnam _wanted_ to impose their mode of production on the US. Their goal was not world conquest, contrary to some Cold War propaganda. Rather, the goal was that of old-fashioned nationalism: kick out those damned foreigners (the US) while uniting the country. They were allied with the USSR and (to a lesser extent) China, but this seems to have been more a matter of convenience than principle. It helped them win nationalist goals. (And once the war with the US ended officially, Vietnam came to blows with China.) The CP wanted a chance to develop their own country in their own way, in a way that was consistent with the interests of individual party members (especially the more powerful ones). I don't think having a planned/collectivist (Soviet or Red Chinese-style) economy was that central to them. It was more of a means to national economic development than it was an end in itself. The CP currently seems to think that market forces can be harnessed to achieve economic development. -- Jim Devine / "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
