For 49 million people, a thirty years war is now over. But as one Vietnamese official has stated, “Peace is harder to organize for than war.”
In effect, two wars have ravaged Vietnam, leaving a vastly different aftermath in the North and the South of a country now politically reunited.
The last decade of war for the North saw American bombs attempt to destroy the infrastructure of society. Walt Rostow and Henry A. Kissinger plotted a savage campaign, historically unprecedented in its fury, designed to obliterate both the material strength and the spirit of the Vietnamese, who were persevering in the revolutions begun by Ho Chi Minh.
The toll of the war in the South has more graphic human dimensions. The fighting there, particularly the U.S. bombing and “free-fire zones,” drove people from the countryside into the cities, swelling their population and creating urban destitution. Saigon grew in this manner from about 2 million people to almost 4 million by the end of the war. Da Nang expanded from 250,000 to 600,000, and this pattern repeated in cities throughout the region.
The influx of $700 million of U.S. assistance each year created an artificial, externally-dependent economy. American money provided the primary hope of livelihood for the urban immigrants. But now most find themselves among the ranks of the 3 to 3.5 million unemployed. This figure does not include their families, former members of Thieu’s army, and other displaced people and refugees. Altogether, there are an estimated 8 million people -- one fourth of the South’s population -- who are either displaced or unemployed.
The war caused about 2.5 million acres of cultivated land to be abandoned -- between 20 and 25% of all the arable land throughout Vietnam.
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