To the strains of martial music, construction workers spun in pirouettes and traditionally clad ethnic minority women sang hymns praising the glory of Ho Chi Minh, the party's founder and Vietnam's treasured revolutionary icon. Many waved the hammer and sickle flag under the watchful gaze of Marx and Lenin. To the nation's political and military elite who filled the Ba Dinh Meeting Hall, many of whom are genuine battlefield heroes, it may have been a commemoration of personal sacrifice and accomplishment, of battling the evils of imperialism and emerging independent and sovereign. Many of the foreign envoys listening in on headsets registered similar disbelief. General Phieu dwelt on the revolutionary accomplishments of the 20th century, but regularly barked out warnings for the future.
Socialist orientation is still our main measure.
No one is arguing the point these days. Vietnam continues to prop up its lumbering state-owned enterprises, to the detriment of a fledgling private sector chomping at the bit. The all-powerful Politburo has balked at signing a landmark trade agreement with Washington just as China has inked its own deal with the US for WTO accession.