As recently as 1990, Vietnam was the poorest country in the world, poorer even than the poorest countries in Africa. During the war, 14 to 15 million tons of bombs and explosives fell on Vietnam – 10 times as many as had been dropped on Germany during the course of the Second World War. The communist north won the war and the new government introduced a planned economy throughout the country, leading to even more poverty. What the war had not destroyed, the planned economy did.

With a GDP of 98 US dollars per capita, Vietnam was poorer than Somalia. The country had to import rice because its own system of collectivized agriculture was unable to meet its own population’s basic needs. Since monthly salaries covered no more than a week’s living expenses, almost every household was forced to find extra sources of income to make up the shortfall. It became common in Hanoi for families to use one room of their apartment house units to raise pigs. Pig-farming was the best source of extra income and most families turned one room of a three-room apartment over to pigs, hardening themselves against the noise, odor and poor hygienic conditions.

Nowadays, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world and a major........

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