Bluejake

Despite the explosion in free-market commerce since 1986, Vietnam is still a Communist state. It makes for a strange and conflicted atmosphere-- you see Communist billboards everywhere, and the state-run newspaper is filled with propaganda stories ("Ideological Sector Tasked with Rallying the Public"), but there are also tons of ads for imported electronics, and everyone is zooming around on motorbikes which cost $1000+. What to make of a country where they still keep the embalmed corpse of General Ho Chi Min on display in Hanoi, but also hawk tours of the Viet Cong tunnels to tourists for $20 a head? This certainly isn't the oppressive, totalitarian Communism we were all taught to fear in back in elementary school-- but it's not Swedish socialism, either-- the closest analogue is probably what's going on in China-- a mix of open markets, tightly controlled political climate, and heavily socialized public policy. Puzzling stuff.