How does Vietnam work?

This video is a summary of the history, political system and economy of the people's republic of Vietnam. I go over the period of colonialism, ww2 and the vietnam war as well as the modern economic development. Along the way I explain the parliarment, government and ministers along with the way Vietnam's partially socialist economy is structured

Sources: (Stop complaining about my sources ;-;)

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:46 History
9:32 Government
16:00 Economy
20:33 Outro

Transcript:
Hello everybody. As decided by whoever takes part in the community tab posts we are talking about Vietnam today. This is another episode in the “How X works” series. Because these are popular and informative. To use a capitalist framework, there is demand and I am willing to supply.
I am sure you are aware that Vietnam is one of the few self-proclaimed socialist nations left on earth, as such it is an interesting country to talk about from a leftist perspective. We’ll see how the economy and government are set up to facilitate socialist ideas and in what ways Vietnam is doing well and what it could be better at. That way we all hopefully learn something new.
As you know Vietnam is here, but why is it here? Time for history!

Vietnam has a lot of history and most of it doesn’t matter for our purposes, so we start in the Victorian Era. As you are know Europe developed guns and imperialism and began to pillage the entire planet between 1500 and …. Still actually.
Because of this France invaded and occupied this area between India and China. Which they called Indochina, later French Indochina. This included Vietnam as well as what would become Laos and Cambodia. Both of which are future candidates for this series.
Shockingly the people in this area were not happy being occupied and exploited by foreign imperialists. “Don’t worry we got this! We are liberating Asia” japan said, starting world war two and occupying the region. Naturally switching from a European colonial power to an Asian colonial power didn’t measurably change things so the people started revolting during the war.
The main resistance faction was called Viet Minh. Which means independence league. They were led by this man, Ho chi min. At first they were fighting the Japanese occupation and when the Japanese slowly lost the war and the French wanted their colony back, the Viet Minh where fighting them. They were called independence league of course they weren’t happy to be a colony again.
That goes on for 9 years and kills 190 thousand people and eventually the French admit they lost. This conflict was later called the first Indochina war. To determine Indochina’s future they turned towards the international community at the 1954 Geneva Conference.
At this time Ho chi min was holding the north. And he was a communist, while in the south there was a government backed by capitalist nations. This was in the middle of the cold war so the international community was split between communists and capitalists. Both of which wanted Indochina to be controlled by their ideology.

[zyanego]

Fun fact: Sweden supported the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War

[artirony]

I remember taking a class on the Vietnam War in college and read in one of my books that at least 70% of the people of South Vietnam supported the North which is what fueled so much of the guerilla warfare since the vast majority of South Vietnamese didn't even want the US there

[johngillon]

I am a Vietnam veteran. for quite a while i felt guilty for taking part in the farce that was the vietnam war. i don't believe many of us felt good being there. we were just out of highschool and all our families were so proud of us, and we didn't have a clue. i had to go to the library and find out where vietnam was after i got there. I feel good watching vietnamese chanells on you tube. they seem to be doing well and are so polite to each other. I loved the culture when i was there. they it seems they work very hard to get along with every one around them and they seem to work to support their communities. The Vietnamese folks who came over as refugees are remarkably successful and it think it is because they consider them selves to be a community, and help each other out rather than compete with all the other vietnamese. Also we could learn a bunch about how to build stronger family relations, as they all seem to have large extended families. thanks for this video, you re enforced all my feelings on the matter.

[hasyh]

Can you make a video on the German Democratic Republic?

[thuggernaut]

Fun fact! The US offered the French a *nuke* to drop on the vietnamese when it appeared the French were losing the war for independence!

There are multiple written accounts of this from french diplomats in memoirs and a diary.

[MrJolaf]

for all my Comrades who want to know more about Vietnam, i recommend our Comrade LunaOi, she is from Vietnam an makes communist videos.

great video, btw Vicki

[Sahtoovi]

How about a video about the Nordic countries and the social democratic system? Some people still don't seem to comprehend that social doesn't mean socialist. Also it'd be interesting to hear your take on the problems of social democracy

[callump]

I have heard a few times that Viet Cong wasn't actually a term the vietnamese used themselves and was a term made up by the south/USA to try and separate them from the Viet Minh

[kingsley.]

Trust me, as a Vietnamese living in Vietnam for my whole life, knowing the language won't help with the confusions about our bureaucracy.

[havardkjeldseth]

I think Luna oi made a video on the trade agreement. Either way, it’s nice to have a socialist view on Vietnam from a Vietnamese so I’d recommend watching her. Either way, great and interesting video!!!

[thatgoodstuff]

I love how on the map there's capitalist communist(?) And then just North Korea

[asquishyjellyfish]

"trying it best to survive"
Never thought that a phrase of word could sums it history up perfectly.

[mammothmk]

Btw, about the Vietnam invaded Cambodia thingy. The short version is this:

The Cambodian Gorvernment at that time, were head by the Khmer Rouge, and also support by China, US and it's ally.

With those support, they begin to harrass our border ( And yes, harrass is very lightly). First with small scale raid and ie keep escalating, until Cambodia begin a full scale invasion.

Vietnam, obviously not happy ( We tried to negotiate with them, but to no avail), launch a counter strike, and later invaded Cambodia. And after that staying in there for a while to help the new gorvernment consolidate their power. ( All the while suffer from sanction and harrass from nation who support the Khmer Rouge)

[huyo]

We don’t have price control but we do have a toned down version of it called price stabilization for a wide range of stuffs from gas to rice.

[qiae]

Thank you for doing this series, and keep up the great work.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

[nghiemduonghung]

A bit correction, Vietcong officially known as the National Liberation Front of Southern Vietnam, they're all southern communist. The North army is called People's army of Vietnam.

Vietnam attack Cambodia to oust Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge, it's a retaliation for their attack to the Southern part of Vietnam. And in the North, China attack Vietnam in hope of saving Khmer Rouge. That's why Vietnam have to maintain a massive amount of military personnel, then they have to support new Cambodia's government in medical, food aid, even education, then US placed embargo on Vietnam. All of this problem leading to their economy collapse, their previous 5 years plans weren't that terrible.

[comradefriendship]

9:30
17:05
Man I love seeing what creators put in their captions

[alicesenz]

I already liked Vietnam but I didn't know they were that based.

[PatriotMapper]

"As you know, Vietnam is here. Why is it here?"
Scientists: Well actually, *continental drift*

[avo]

Hey long time viewer here, I love your videos and am excited whenever you release a new one, keep up the good work