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Sorry, Veterans, Vietnam Is Profitable Now

American companies move to Hanoi, reap benefits of communism

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 9, 2008 1:44 PM CDT

(Newser) – More expensive Chinese labor has American enterprises heading to Vietnam, moving Harold Meyerson to wonder, in the Washington Post, why 58,000 US soldiers died trying to defend democracy there. "American business, backed by the American government, has realized that the problem with communism wasn't that it was undemocratic but that it was anti-capitalist," Meyerson writes.

"Absent free speech and free elections, no radical shifts in the government's economic policies are likely to be sprung upon unsuspecting American businesses," Meyerson says, before concluding: "I guess a note from the American establishment to those … with their names on the Wall would be in order. Something like: 'Say, guys—sorry 'bout that!'"

Joe Knierien of the International Trade Expo gives Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung a Stetson cowboy hat during the Discover Vietnam US & Vietnam Business Forum luncheon on June 26, 2008.
Joe Knierien of the International Trade Expo gives Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung a Stetson cowboy hat during the Discover Vietnam US & Vietnam Business Forum luncheon on June 26, 2008.   (AP Photo)
Sorry, guys. Turns out communism wasn't so bad after all.
Sorry, guys. Turns out communism wasn't so bad after all.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
It turns out the real problem with communism was just that it wasn't yet a benefit to the global capitalist economy.
It turns out the real problem with communism was just that it wasn't yet a benefit to the global capitalist economy.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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