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
Sorry, Veterans, Vietnam Is Profitable Now
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)

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!'" (More Vietnam stories.)

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