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Communism, War, and Trade

© Carey Goodman

Three decades ago American soldiers tramped and fought through dense Southeast Asian jungles to defend then-South Vietnam against the Communist supported Vietcong. When most Americans think of the Vietnam war, they think of college campus protests, "flower power", bell bottom pants, platform shoes, and Peter, Paul and Mary/Pete Seiger style folk music. But the origins of the conflict extend much deeper than that. The intervention actually began in 1953 after President Eisenhower took office. Vietnam then was a French colony known as IndoChina. A group of rebels influenced by Communist doctrine began guerilla activities against French authorities. These events coincided with rebellions in Algeria and other French holdings in Africa. The French Fourth Republic showed signs of instability. As the guarantor of security in Europe, the US considered itself obligated to do all it could to ensure that fragile power structure did not crumble. Believing the Soviet Union wanted war with the US and using the best of intentions, President Eisenhower sent a few military advisers to IndoChina to help end the insurrection before it spread too quickly. The role and number of these advisers expanded as France left the region and de facto gave the US the Vietnam problem to solve as it thought best.

During the 1960s the situation became strategically dangerous. President Kennedy sent the first divisions of American armed forces into the conflict. President Johnson later escalated troop deployment. More deployments coincided with more casualties. By 1967 the once-politically influential Johnson was openly taunted by members of his party and the opposition with the chant: "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?". In the 1968 Presidential election former vice-President Nixon campaigned on a "law and order" agenda, cast himself as the candidate of the "silent majority", and said he had a "secret plan to win the Vietnam war". President Nixon did not win the Vietnam war, but after six more years of fierce jungle warfare, he withdrew the remaining American forces.

During the next two decades Vietnam languished in isolation under Communist rule. After withdrawal of American soldiers and aid, affairs in southeast Asia were in shambles. Communists controlled Vietnam, Cambodia (now Kampuchea), Laos, and North Korea. Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), and Malaysia all succumbed to dictatorial or military regimes. Despite this bleak political situation, something else happened beneath the surface of events. These authoritarian administrations forced their states through a rigorous process of economic advancement based on the Japanese model. Their logic was that if they grew their economies enough, the world would acknowledge their governments to profit from the benefits of investing there.

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