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Introduction: Winds of Change Hit Indochina
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16413 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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5 / 1989 |
482 Words |
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"And here is the latest Southeast Asia 'weather' report: Subtle diplomatic breezes are giving way to increasing political gusts, to be followed by brisk economic winds. Immediately affected are Vietnam and Cambodia. Caution: Weather in this region is erratic."
In this issue, THE WORLD & I presents "Winds of Change Hit Indochina," an in-depth examination of the many strategic, economic, and political shifts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
"On the surface," writes Harvard University scholar Stephen Morris, "an end to the 10-year war in Cambodia would seem to be in sight." The chief stumbling block is whether the Vietnamese and Cambodian communists will compromise "on their [seemingly] incompatible political objectives." The clear desire of the Soviets, Chinese, and Americans to settle the Cambodian conflict offers some hope for an end to the Cambodian nightmare.
When rumors of Vietnam's perestroika reached the West, Eric Crystal of the University of California traveled to Vietnam with an Asian Studies group to verify the reforms for himself. His most enduring impression of the country was "that of a nation struggling to reconcile itself with the changing realities of a geographic region, world economy, and rapidly shifting international order."
While the United States adjusts to the "new" Vietnam, the Soviet Union is faced with its own adjustment to its defeat in Afghanistan. Like Americans, will the Soviets struggle with an "Afghanistan syndrome" in their foreign policy in the years to come? Stephen Garrett, professor at Monterey Institute of International Relations, answers that while it is too soon to tell, early indicators point to such a syndrome. He quotes a writer in the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia, who wrote that the Soviets "clearly overestimated our possibilities and underestimated what could be called the resistance of the environment."
One result of the Vietnam War was the mass exodus of some two million Indochinese refugees. Although many have successfully started new lives in the United States and other countries, many others struggle to survive in refugee camps throughout Asia. Author Al Santoli examines several families and their challenges in America. Many refugees left relatives behind and now worry that if true political reform does not come to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, they may be forced to return to a life without
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