Segment 10: Vietnam Today

Written by Mark Ashwill
Produced by Tom D'Agostino
Directed by Doug Reilly and Gwynne Decker

Vietnam is a country in a state of transition. It has experienced profound change over the past two decades, spurred on by the implementation of far-reaching economic reforms in the latter half of the 1980s and the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo in 1994. In this segment, Mark Ashwill, author of Vietnam Today: A Guide to a Nation at a Crossroads, describes the extent of this change and depicts Vietnam as a country of contrasts. It is predominantly rural, yet is experiencing rapid urbanization; it retains its ancient culture and traditional ways in the face of intense modernization and westernization; and it remains a communist state despite an increasingly capitalist economy. As a result of the tumultuous change the country has experienced, Vietnam begins the 21st century confronted by a host of problems and some serious questions: What does it mean to have a “market economy with socialist orientation”? Will the government’s decision to allow economic reform without meaningful political reform prove untenable in the long-term?