Viet 'Reds' in the black

By Anthony C. LoBaido
© 2000, WorldNetDaily.com

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The People's Liberation Army of Vietnam is a formidable group. Since World War II it has defeated the French Foreign Legion, the United States, Communist China and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge in a string of wars.

In recent months, the communist government of Vietnam has continued to crack down on Christians within the country, as well as to issue proclamations that Vietnam "will never change its current political system."

Assisting the entrenchment of a mutated brand of communism that is so prevalent in the post-Cold War era, the armed forces of Vietnam have tapped into the ideals of primitive global capitalism, as advanced by Western multinational corporations, the U.S. State Department, United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"In Vietnam, it's impossible to tell where the government ends and the military begins. They are really the same entity," said one Western Bangkok-based military attache.

"Where the Communist Party has found a great erosion in support from the Vietnamese masses -- mainly due to the growth of Biblical, evangelical Christianity amongst the Hmong hill tribes -- the armed forces have stepped up their control of the economy to cement their Communist political model on the country for the 21st century," he said

Seeking to increase its prestige, the Vietnamese military has successfully integrated top generals into the government, including the diplomatic corps and economic development cabinet posts.

The ambitious plans of the Vietnamese Armed Forces include the setting up of 13 special economic free trade zones near Vietnam's borders with the communist countries of China, Laos and Cambodia. By the year 2013, the Army will have transferred over 85,000 specially trained troops to these three regions. This colonization is only the first step in establishing the framework for hundreds of thousands of private citizens who will follow in their footsteps.

By controlling the free trade zones, the military will free itself from dependence on government largesse. Much in the same manner as the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia remain in the bush, getting rich off of gems, timber, mining, gun running, organ tissue smuggling and drug dealings, the Vietnamese army seeks to set up its own set of military fiefdoms.

Speaking in the Vietnam Economic Times, Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van China stated, "We're not getting involved in the economy just to make money."

Free to act independently from the state treasury, the Vietnamese army will then use its newfound economic independence to acquire weapons and consolidate national control over the citizenry.

The methods of control are sure to change as the military begins to flex its new economic muscle. Augmenting the power of the Vietnamese army was something U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the State Department failed to mention when America opened up a new consulate in Vietnam last year and normalized trade relations with the regime.

In December, the Vietnamese government executed a large number of drug dealers. Unlike the free wheeling drug economies of neighboring Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, the Vietamese prefer to use old-style control methods over the masses.

"Drugs are a means of control, no different than midnight visits from the KGB," added the Western military attache, who requested anonymity.

"Look at England, Thailand and America. Look at what drugs do to the youth. Drugs make people docile and dysfunctional," he said. "They become drones. They will not challenge the government. It is a means of control that goes back to the Opium Wars between the UK and China. The recent Vietnamese crackdown means the government won't seek to control the masses with MTV, drugs and diversions of pleasure. This is a terrible sign for Western liberals who thought the communist government would soften up, change and adopt Western values."

So successful has been the foray of the Vietnamese military's venture into capitalism, it has now set up a special economic division within the armed forces.

According to government documents analyzed by WorldNetDaily, the People's Liberation Army last year reported profits of 600 million U.S. dollars. Additional government contracts and joint ventures with Western multinational corporations will no doubt raise that figure to over one billion U.S. dollars in the year 2000.

"America will trade with anyone -- North Korea and Communist China come to mind," said Mayanne Yoshii, an investment analyst based in Bangkok who works for the Bank of Japan.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see more and more investors pouring money into Vietnam. The control the military will exert over the economy and society at large will mean greater stability. The only thing investors like better than profits is political stability."

As the business community, military and government combine to form a pseudo-fascist entity, hopes of genuine political reform in Vietnam may be hopelessly far off for the next generation and beyond.

Meanwhile, the American people will have to come to terms with the fact that U.S. multinationals are trading and building up an enemy that killed over 50,000 American soldiers in Vietnam and tortured U.S. POWs. Worse still, the Vietnamese communists have enacted a vicious pogrom against Christians, which includes puncturing the eardrums of those who preach and listen to the Christian Gospel. This amazingly brutal campaign is documented by Voice of the Martyrs, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

The military leaders of the Vietnamese army will no doubt grow personally richer in the coming years. Arms purchases will continue to grow and increase as the military retools itself into a modern fighting force. The Communist Party will grow stronger than ever, and persecution of the Christian Hmong tribes, Catholics and other political dissidents will continue and increase.

But in the game of global Monopoly, it is a price the West apparently is willing to pay in order to benefit from the economic development of one more enemy state.

Anthony C. LoBaido is a roving international correspondent for WorldNetDaily.com and WorldNet Magazine.