Viet Nam at the Crossroads: The Role of Science and Technology

By 1990 Vietnam had introduced many radical market reforms before finding itself overtaken and its leadership apparently paralysed by the events in Eastern Europe and the USSR. This examines the serious political and economic issues facing the ageing leaders at the party congress of May 1992.

Vietnam is at a crossroads. It can grow as an export platform for GVCs, specializing in low value-added assembly functions with industrialization occurring in enclaves with little connection to the broader economy or society; or it can leverage the current wave of growth, enabled and accelerated by its successful participation in GVCs, to diversify and move up the chain into higher value-added functions. Success will require Vietnam’s policymakers to view the processes of development differently, and to take new realities of the global economy more fully into account. The purpose of this volume is to support Vietnam’s path to economic prosperity by identifying policies and targeted interventions that will drive development through leveraging GVC participation that take major shifts in trade policy and rapid technological advances in ICT into account. The volume is based on a compilation of studies completed by World Bank staff and external consultants in 2015 supporting the “Enabling Economic Modernization and Private Sector Development†? chapter of the Vietnam 2035 report. The objective of these studies was to diagnose Vietnam’s current participation in GVCs, visualize where Vietnam could be by 2035 in the context of a changing global environment, and identify the policy actions needed to get there. The studies also supported topics related more broadly to export competitiveness, including firm-level productivity, services, and connectivity. It then identifies targeted strategies and policy interventions that will help overcome challenges, minimize risks, and maximize opportunities. Readers will gain a strong understanding of Vietnam’s current and potential engagement with GVCs—and will learn about strategic GVC policy tools that can help developing countries achieve economic prosperity in the context of compressed development.

"Seymour Topping, reaching deep into his long reportorial career in Asia, has given us a masterful treatment of history as novel in this gripping story of the leaders and their people who lived the Vietnam tragedy." Walter Cronkite

"Pulsating with energy and steeped in dreams." Vietnam stands at a crossroads. Located in the geographical center of Southeast Asia, Vietnam is a complex mixture of the ancient and the modern. A Soviet-style legacy contrasts with an emerging Western-style market economy. Vietnam is faced with pressing political, social and economic challenges, and yet it is full of hope and potential. Here is a first look at Vietnam in the twenty-first century, a nation undergoing rapid change and opening up to the world. Dr. Mark Ashwill paints a broad picture of Vietnam, past and present, and explores today's defining issues. Readers come to understand how a two-thousand-year history of foreign invasion, occupation and war has deeply influenced the Vietnamese character. The Chinese, French and U.S. Americans have all left their imprint. Yet the struggle against oppression has infused the Vietnamese with a fierce spirit of nationalism and caution in their dealings with foreigners. Building relationships and trust as a prelude to doing business are critical to the Vietnamese, whether at home or abroad. Vietnam Today reveals the most prominent characteristics of the Vietnamese: their energy and drive, the dominance of group over individual and the paramount importance of maintaining harmony. In doing so, Ashwill and his Vietnamese contributor shed light on many sources of misunderstanding between Vietnamese and Western professionals. But for those who are prepared to take the time to get to know the people, to move at their pace, and to learn about their culture and history, Vietnam can be a land of promise and opportunity.

Vietnam is remembered as the war that divided a nation and scarred a generation. While the vast majority of American personnel in Vietnam served honorably, a few highly publicized atrocities tarnished the reputation of the military. In At the Crossroads of Justice: My Lai and Son ThangAmerican Atrocities in Vietnam, author Paul J. Noto analyzes two of those incidentsMy Lai and Son Thangagainst the backdrop of a flawed military justice system and an arrogant and inept civilian and military leadership that failed to articulate a coherent military strategy to win the war. Noto shows that failure of leadership contributed to problems of command discipline, racial tension, drug abuse, and general disregard for military protocol. His study examines these issues and describes how ordinary American boys became cold-blooded killers seemingly overnight, what combination of factors led to these tragic events, and how the military can prevent them from happening in future conflicts. By studying these crimes and the judicial process that followed, Noto provides an insightful analysis of the related issues and how they have impacted military training to the present day.