The New Asian Tiger

This article and slide show on the “roaring” Vietnamese economy in today’s New York Times brought back a flood of memories. In 1991 I was one of the first Americans to visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. In the early 1990’s Vietnam was a desperately poor country hobbled by a legacy of Soviet- style socialism. (See Chapter 3 in your text.) In the years since Vietnam has gone from Soviet-style socialism to its own version of capitalism, it has begun to grow rapidly. Vietnam now has Asia’s second-fastest-growing economy, after China. The growth of Vietnamese exports to the United States is growing even faster than from China. Vietnam is on the verge of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). You should know about the WTO for your midterm. I’d love to go back to Vietnam to see the changes.

Extra Credit: Why would Vietnam want to join the WTO? If you are the first student to send me an e-mail (kwoodward@saddleback.edu) with the answer, you will be rewarded with two extra credit Discussion Board points. Only two points extra credit per student can be earned in any given week from the blog questions.