>John Pilger
I've got a piece in the LBO going to press today on Vietnam, but an American journalist based there (who must remain anonymous). I faxed her the excerpt from Pilger's latest book that ran in the latest Covert Action Quarterly (speaking of which, the owners, Lou Wolf, Bill Schaap, and Ellen Ray, fired the whole editorial staff about 10 days ago; anyone interested in the staff's side of the story, email me, and I'll send you their memo on the topic). Pilger's story is of a country transformed into a giant export processing zone under the whip of foreign capital. The LBO correspondent says this is woefully exaggerated; in fact, there's little foreign capital in VN, and the government is begging for more. I'm not all that familiar with Pilger's stuff, but he's got a good reputation. But his stuff on Vietnam suggests that he's morphed into a parachute journalist, at least according to the testimony of someone who's lived there for a couple of years. Any other thoughts?
Doug