Hacker News Reader

I'm puzzled by your citation of Vietnam given that after the war America enacted a trade embargo for ~20 years and tried to hamstring their economy through agencies like the IMF. Outside of maybe Cuba you couldn't have chosen a better example to prove GP's point.

Vietnam's reforms are to create the materialist basis for Communism. They're pretty up front about this, how there's no "one size fits all" socialism, etc.

View on HN

> America enacted a trade embargo for ~20 years and tried to hamstring their economy through agencies like the IMF

Maybe you're right, I'm definitely not an expert on the history. How impactful was that?

The impression I got from conversations I had when I visited Vietnam years ago is that it was a domestic-led reform, in response to the centrally-planned, non-ownership, non-market economy not working out.

> Vietnam's reforms are to create the materialist basis for Communism

That's the hype, but what does that really mean if in practice you've changed to a market economy?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com