<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P>But Europe and Japan had been previously highly industrialized countries and received help from the U.S. (Marshall and Dodge Plans).  Vietnam and Korea were and remain undeveloped states run by Stalinist bureaucrats and  largely isolated from outside aid.  If the same resources as the Marshall and Dodge plans had been given to Vietnam and Korea, they would have possibly developed more quickly.  Vietnam and Korea remain in the sphere of pre-capitalist peasant based economies, rather than one of the capitalist triads.  But both are being given overtures by the U.S.  (Encirclement of China?)</P></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>But Japan and West Germany--with what appeared to be a much larger <DIV></DIV>>share of their social capital destroyed by bombing--grew very, very <DIV></DIV>>rapidly indeed after the end of World War II. Blaming post-1975 <DIV></DIV>>Vietnamese poverty on the U.S. Air Force rather than on really <DIV></DIV>>existing socialism seems, to me at least, a *real* stretch... <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Brad DeLong <DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href='http://g.msn.com/1HM505401/13'>http://explorer.msn.com</a>.<br></html>