They wanted their country free of any foreign oppression. Isolation Today, a quarter of a century after that epic triumph, Ho Chi Minh's tomb in Hanoi remains the hallowed ground of unified Vietnam. But the fruits of peace have proved elusive. Vietnam's isolation has been intensified by the Soviet Union's disappearance. Vietnam remains stuck in the grip of communist interference and bureaucracy.
New hotels stand empty, and most foreign investors have pulled out.
For a reporter returning to Vietnam 25 years on there's much to admire. The steely sense of self sufficiency, real progress in health care and education. But the military boldness shown by the north when it swallowed up the south has never been matched by any political audacity. Even today, the one party state, and its old style communist custodians, is afraid of new ideas. Beneath the veneer of unified Vietnam the north and south remain two very different places.