For many Americans, the Vietnam War is remembered as a costly lesson in the limits of global power. In contrast, most Vietnamese see the end of the war as a definitive finale to more than a century of colonial occupation. For the first time since the middle of the 19th century, Vietnam was on its own again and responsible for defining its own destiny. Despite the domino theory that incorrectly predicted an eventual Chinese Communist or Soviet takeover of Southeast Asia, Vietnam has jealously guarded its independence, and it is emerging today as a dynamically independent force in Southeast Asia and a potential ally of the United States. After an admittedly rocky start, the country has largely abandoned the more impractical notions of Marxism-Leninism, and adopted a largely free market approach to the global economy, albeit with socialist restrictions.
In this issue of ZEKE, five adventurous photographers take a look at Vietnam as it appears now. Catherine Karnow bears witness to the terrible legacy of Agent Orange. Monia Lippi looks at the inventive fashions of Vietnam’s myriad scooter drivers desperate to maintain a light complexion despite a merciless sun. Mick Stetson offers us a “Portrait of the Enemy,” former fighters who have returned to ordinary lives. Sascha Richter shows us the colorful indigenous tribes and the harsh but beautiful landscapes of Vietnam’s northwest mountains, and Astrid Schulz introduces us to Vietnam’s newly emerging middle class, caught between tradition and modernity.
Far from dwelling on the past, an increasingly forward-looking Vietnam, today, has focused its energy on a future in which anything seems possible.
—William Thatcher Dowell
More than 45 million Vietnamese now use the Internet and at least 30 million have smart phones.
The Vietnam War ended 42 years ago, indelibly marking one of the most divisive periods in American history. Several recent books and documentaries, including an 18-hour PBS epic by Ken Burns, which premieres this fall, have tried to explain what happened. But, for the most part, the focus remains resolutely fixed on the impact the war had on Americans, with relatively little effort to see Vietnam as it exists today. The oversight is not hard to understand. The war left more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in action. More than 1.1 million Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops died, as did an estimated two million civilians. The most lasting damage from the war resulted from 12 million gallons of Agent Orange that introduced poisonous dioxin into the Vietnamese food chain, causing cancer and hideous birth defects affecting multiple generations.
It would be natural to expect the Vietnamese to be bitter, but it is surprisingly difficult to see any resentment in Vietnam now. More than half of Vietnam’s population today was born after the war ended. The population has ballooned from 32 million to more than 90 million people. The dominant impression is of an energetic, upbeat new generation. The Russian-influenced flirtation with Stalinism that characterized the mid-1980s is long gone. Although Saigon is officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City, most people still use its old name in ordinary conversation. It remains the pulsing go-for-broke business center of the country.
The effects of the change are visible everywhere. High rise buildings increasingly dominate downtown Saigon, Hanoi, and Danang. Construction is nearing completion for Saigon’s first subway. McDonald’s and Starbucks proliferate in all three cities. Uber is active in Hanoi and Saigon. Women can even use a mobile phone app to summon a motor scooter with a female driver.
Vietnam’s current economic approach, known as Đổi Mới (renewal), can best be summed up as a “free market economy with social values.”
Vietnam also has an ‘anything goes’ attitude towards social media. Google, YouTube and Facebook are all accessible. More than 45 million Vietnamese now use the Internet and at least 30 million have smart phones. 3G telephone cards costs as little as $3. That’s not to say that free speech isn’t still risky. A 37-year-old popular blogger, Mother Mushroom, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for criticizing the government. Her alleged crime —speaking a bit too sharply concerning the government’s land confiscation, police brutality, and recent crackdowns limiting free speech. The trial was widely reported, but instead of silencing newspapers, government-friendly news media simply hyped a competing scandal, which effectively diverted attention.
No one denies that Vietnam has plenty of problems, but that does not prevent it from being an extremely interesting place to visit. Jason Lusk, who runs a marketing communications company in Hanoi, notes that while tourism is booming across Southeast Asia at a growth rate of around 5% a year, Vietnam’s tourist industry is accelerating at nearly twice that rate. Lusk expects the industry to be worth $20 billion by 2020. The attraction: some of the world’s best beaches combined with excellent cuisine and a marvelously relaxed atmosphere.
A growing number of American and European companies are also discovering that Vietnam has advantages when it comes to quality offshore manufacturing. Thomas Bo Pedersen, a Danish citizen who runs three factories producing high-end industrial clothing, rates the Vietnamese work ethic and the readiness of employees to learn new techniques as the country’s biggest assets, although he admits that doing business in Vietnam still has marked differences from Europe or the US.
The Most Charming Police State in the World
“Make no mistake,” says Pedersen. “This is still a communist state.
But it’s the most charming police state in the world.” Nevertheless, as long as you avoid provoking the system, Bo Pedersen says, the country is full of possibilities. Yet to a surprising extent, Vietnam has escaped the brain drain common in most developing countries. Returning overseas Vietnamese are particularly valued for language and management skills. More than 21,000 Vietnamese students are currently enrolled overseas at American universities and colleges. Hau Ly, a 26-year-old Vietnamese who did her graduate studies in Michigan and Japan, says that most are anxious to return. “The older generation values stability,” she says, “The younger generation sees Vietnam as full of new opportunities.” That includes a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit. Starting salaries range from $250 to $300 a month. “You don’t have much to lose,” Ly says, “if you want to take a chance and start your own business.” Despite low starting salaries, a top Vietnamese manager can earn $6,000 a month.
None of that is to say that Vietnam doesn’t have its share of growing pains. Inadequate city planning and damage to the environment has long been a serious problem. A major driving force behind the current Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City subway project is the urgent need to relieve the pressure from the millions of motor scooters and cars clogging the city’s streets. Growing inequality between the booming cities and the rural regions is a constant concern. “Once you are out of the cities,” says Jason Lusk, “much of the countryside is pretty much the way it has always been.”
“I could talk for hours about the problems,” Bo Pedersen says. “But the bottom line is that in the end, it all works out fine.”
Hau Ly puts it more succinctly. “I see young people making a difference,” she says. “It is an amazing time to be in Vietnam.
ZEKE is published by Social Documentary Network (SDN), an organization promoting visual storytelling about global themes. Started as a website in 2008, today SDN works with thousands of photographers around the world to tell important stories through the visual medium of photography and multimedia. Since 2008, SDN has featured more than 2,800 exhibits on its website and has had gallery exhibitions in major cities around the world. All the work featured in ZEKE first appeared on the SDN website,www.socialdocumentary.net.
Fall 2017 Vol. 3/No. 2
Executive Editor: Glenn Ruga
Editor: Barbara Ayotte
Social Documentary Network Advisory Committee
Barbara Ayotte, Medford, MA
Senior Director of Strategic
Management Sciences for Health
Lori Grinker, New York, NY
Independent Photographer and Educator
Catherine Karnow, San Francisco, CA
Independent Photographer and Educator
Ed Kashi, Montclair, NJ
Member of VII photo agency
Photographer, Filmmaker, Educator
Reza, Paris, France
Photographer and Humanist
Molly Roberts, Washington, DC
Senior Photography Editor, National Geographic
Jeffrey D. Smith, New York NY
Director, Contact Press Images
Jamey Stillings, Sante Fe, NM
Steve Walker, Danbury, CT
Consultant and Educator
Frank Ward, Williamsburg, MA
Photographer and Educator
Amy Yenkin, New York, NY
Independent Producer and Editor
ZEKE is published twice a year by Social Documentary Network
Copyright © 2017
Social Documentary Network
Print ISSN 2381-1390
Digital ISSN: Forthcoming
ZEKE does not accept unsolicited submissions. To be considered for publication in ZEKE, submit your work to the SDN website either as a standard exhibit or a submission to a Call for Entries. Contributing photographers can choose to pay a fee for their work to be exhibited on SDN for a year or they can choose a free trial. Free trials have the same opportunity to be published in ZEKE as paid exhibits.
Photographers and writers featured in this issue of ZEKE
Barbara Ayotte, U.S.
Emma Brown, U.S.
Caterina Clerici, U.S. and Italy
Catherine Karnow, U.S.
Monia Lippi, U.S.
Younes Mohammad, Iraq
John Rae, U.S.
Sascha Richter, Germany
Gabriel Romero, U.S.
Anne Sahler, Germany and Japan
Astrid Schulz, England
Mick Stetson, Japan
William Thatcher Dowell, U.S.
Quan Tran, U.S.
Frank Ward, U.S.
Cover photo by Gabriel Romero from Liberation and Longing: The Battle for Mosul. A Peshmerga soldier in the Yazidi town of Bashiqa, Iraq.