Vietnam under new name

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 16

Vietnam under new name

From the "Economist,” London On July 2. 14 months after the fall of Saigo.a, Vietnam’s newly elected National Assembly performed on cue its first assigned task and declared the country unified. Its name is now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The assembly adopted an emblem and a flag—red with a five-pointed gold star in the centre —and. to nobody’s surprise. designated Hanoi as the capital. Saigon was formally renamed Ho Chi Minb City. Jf most of this sounds like last year’s news, that is because most of it is. North Vietnam’s leaders have never made- any bones about their intention to rule the two countries as one, and have increasingly done so. Nevelheiess. the approval of the whole thing by a national assembly — never mind that it was elected on a one-party ticket—gives it the necessary' covering of legality. Jt should, for one thing, be the end of the nonsense about the two seats in the United Nations tiiat Vietnam was demanding ’ast year.

It will kit countries that have had relations with both Vietnams settle the problem of transferring the assets (and debts) of the former southern embassies to the new united ontts. And it may. in the curictis way of diplomacy, actually make it possible for some countries which would have hesitated to recognise the old (north-

ern) Democratic Republic of Vietnam to come to terms with the new State with a new name.

But such formalisations, originally seen by some Vietnamese as the end of the reunification process, are clearly not much more than the beginning. Although the same currency is now used throughout the country, the economy of the south continues to be run basically on capitalist lines that make it hard to mesh in with the Communist system of the north.

Inflation and unemployment are major problems in the south, and large numbers of people are still being sent from Ho Chi Minh City to live and, if they are lucky, work in the country-side. And the south is bv no means entirely pacified. The South Vietnamese have a long tradition of resisting central authority and of disliking northerners, and this is still much in evidence. News from the south is rare now that all foreign journalists and diplomats have been thrown out (except

the staff of a French consulate), but stories of violence continue to come to light. In February a group of rebels were shot out of their stronghold in An Giang province near the Cambodian border after a virtual seige.

In March there were several bomb explosions in Saigon, one near the presidential palace, and other bombs were reported in My Tho in the Mekong delta, an area long opposed to the Communists. Saigon radio regularly reports the arrest of armed “capitalist thugs” and “remnants of enemy troops”.

The new Government will go on having trouble with the south. The old northern faces are still at the top of the tree. Mr Tong Due Thang is the figurehead president of one-country Vietnam, Mr Pham Van Dong the Prime Minister, General Giap, the Minister of Defence. The relatively few southerners include Mrs Nguyen Thi Binh (ex-Foreign Minister of the Vietcong) as Minister of Education: one of the two Vice-Presidents; and the Minister of Culture.