The Forever War: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War

Abstract

The year 2020 will mark the 45th anniversary since a North Vietnamese T-54 battle tank crashed through the security walls of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace in Saigon. The ensuing (re)unification of Vietnam under the yellow star of the communist banner ended the Vietnam War. Much has changed since 30 April 1975 in Southeast Asia, where the conflict is to this day remembered as the ‘American War’. After the death of Le Duan, formative General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, diplomatic and ideological tensions between the former parties have lessened. In fact, the unified ‘Socialist Republic of Vietnam’ has become a major Western trading partner and a pillar of local stability in Southeast Asia. Unlike other communist states originating from the Cold War, Vietnam embarked on an economic modernization project under the Communist Party, although the country remains a repressive society without free speech. Initiated in 1986, economic and social reforms known as ‘renovation’ or ‘Doi Moi’, led to the revocation of American sanctions and to Vietnam’s acceptance in the international world.