> We can agree that had Ho Chi Minh decided not to support
> the NLF but to focus on building socialism in the Red River Delta
> that South Vietnam would in all likelihood be better off than it is
> now--somewhere between Thailand, the Philippines, and Taiwan,
> depending how lucky they turned out to be.
The hell we can. HCM was an honest revolutionary who was told to go screw himself by the Americans, who after Lexington should've known better. Thailand (40% of whose banking system is still in the tank, mind you) and the Philippines have no developmental states worthy of the name; but Taiwan took advantage of the Communist bogeyman to practice a sneaky state socialism and institute a land reform worthy of Mao Zedong. South Korea and Taiwan, remember, both had lots of industry from their colonial era; Singapore and Hong Kong were wealthy entrepots. But Vietnam was a mostly rural country with no industry at all. American military Keynesianism was wonderful for certain semi-peripheries, but hell on the global peripheries.
-- Dennis