Vietnamese development strategy

[Bradford DeLong]

>I'd add to this that one of the most "disastrous" economic moves made by
>the Communist Party of Vietnam after taking over was to close down one of
>the country's most important industries and its single largest foreign
>exchange earner; the export and domestic consumption of heroin.

How did they close down the domestic trade? By shooting all the 
addicts they could find (as, IIRC, Mao's people did after 1949)?

OK. That was a cheap shot.

But the Vietnamese suppression of the heroin trade is the source of 
yet another unpaid debt of America to Vietnam...

Brad DeLong