Kolko, btw, according to an appendix to the, unfortunately way out of print, "SDS, " by Kirkpatrick Sale (Random House/Vintage, 1973, blurbed by Thomas Pynchon!) was in the predecessor to SDS, the SLID (Student League for Industrial Democracy) along with folks like Bertell Ollman (I'm getting that from Ron Radosh, "Commies.") and the early 70's fraud meister, Bernie Cornfeld. Michael Pugliese P.S. Duiker, has a newish big bio of Ho Chi Minh.
Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace Gabriel Kolko
02 MAY 1997 Type:Paperback Book
...the book is complex in argument, more complex than its over-heated rhetoric would at first suggest, and indefatigably researched. Challenging and advancing the discussion of "renovation"... The Journal of Asian Studies In the book under review here, [Kolko] tackles the fate of the country since the fall of Saigon in 1975, when Communist leaders turned their attention to building a prosperous and humane socialist society... For those hoping for a provocative approach to the question, the author does not disappoint |o William J. Duiker, Pennsylvania State University, Pacific Affairs the author does not disappoint. ...the book is complex in argument, more complex than its over-heated rhetoric would at first suggest, and indefatigably researched. Challenging and advancing the discussion of "renovation"...The Journal of Asian Studies Because Kolko gives such serious consideration to the question of social equity, anyone who dismisses him out of hand is probably saying more about themselves than about this book. Unsparing and brilliant, Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace should be read by anyone who ever cared about Vietnam |o The Nation |d 11/97 Gabriel Kolko, an academic and an activist involved in the `60s anti-war movement, wrestles in the most eloquent passages of his new book with historical ironies|o Word Quarterly This is an important, if depressing, book |o The Globe and Mail |d 8/97 [A] fine book by one of the wisest independent chroniclers of the century |o The Guardian [An] excellent analysis of Vietnam's post-war economic strategy |o Z Magazine |d 5/98 An insightful portrait of Vietnam's Communist Party and its far-from-finished campaign to replicate its wartime success in peacetime. Kolko cuts through the Party's rhetoric to reveal the painful divisions emerging as Vietnam struggles to catch up with its prosperous neighbors |o Adam Schwarz, Far Eastern Economic Review In the book under review here, [Kolko] tackles the fate of the country since the fall of Saigon in 1975, when Communist leaders turned their attention to building a prosperous and humane socialist society... For those hoping for a provocative approach to the question, the author does not disappoint |o William J. Duiker, Pennsylvania State University, Pacific Affairs
Vietnam has experienced huge political and economic development since the war. Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace argues that victory in 1975 caught the Communists wholly unprepared to cope with the reconstruction of the war-torn nation. After 1986, confused and vulnerable to promises of aid, the Communists began to accept International Monetary Fund guidance and embarked on market reforms. The IMF achieved what American military power could not, and the Communists began irresistibly to abandon their social ideology. Gabriel Kolko looks at the main economic phases the Communists have embarked upon since 1986 and describes the loosening of socialist ideology and outlines the transition to nascent capitalism.
Based on extensive research and over 30 years first hand experience, Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace is a vivid portrait of Vietnam today and a timely examination of developing economies in Asia. Market reforms are producing serious social and economic difficulties in Vietnam; inequality has created a divided class society and industrial workers are among the most exploited in the world. In light of these problems, Kolko outlines how Communists are coping with the contradictions between daily realities and their original idealistic aims.
Kolko argues that neither an intentional socialist nor a market strategy have determined recent Vietnamese history and that the Communist has little control over development during peace time. After successfully confronting both France and the United States in war, the Communists are now close to losing the cause for which they fought.
Routledge London • New York