Children sell all types of items to make a living. Women are poorly treated, especially in the rural northern part of the country where wives are expected to work in the fields and care for the children. Mosch says he was told it's easy to find a wife, especially in North Vietnam, because women want to marry an American or a European and leave the country. To try to deal with the economic problems, the government limits families to no more than two children, and there are penalties for more. The government also emphasizes education.
College students are highly motivated.
This situation might be changing, however, because Brown University and Texas Tech are involved in student exchanges, and foundations might make more exchanges possible, Mosch says. Again, though, hostilities left over from the war impact progress. There is hostility from their point of view. They don't want exchanges. Vietnam's economic development hinges on investment from other countries.