>No. No victory (save over Hitler, or over Imperial Japan) is worth 3
>million dead.
>
>But the Vietnamese Communist Party does not rank among the economic
>(and, I hope, soon political) miracle regimes of East Asia, no? Much
>better outcomes in South Korea and Malaysia and Thailand, no?
SK derived considerable stimulus from procurement for the war in Vietnam. In the early 1960s, SK was regarded as a basket case by the development establishment, and South Vietnam as a potential miracle. We don't really have great explanations for why some countries did well, and others (e.g. Indonesia) didn't. So, there was no way of knowing who'd do well and who wouldn't 40 years ago.
And China has grown profusely under a Communist Party. Who'd have guessed that?
Doug