Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam by Zachary Abuza

Review by: Lucian W. Pye

Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2001), pp. 192-193
Published by: Council on Foreign Relations
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 Recent Books
Chinas Leaders: The New Generation, by extended
prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
cheng Li. Lanham: Rowman & a hand toMao, the bor
helping through
Littlefield, 2001,304 pp. $75.00 (paper, der conflicts, and on to the complexities

$22.95). after the Cold War. Garver shows how

Li takes a quantitative approach
to assess India grossly overestimated the value of
the next generation of Chinese leaders, its initial help to China, to the point that
finding that theywill be solid technocrats, Nehru ignore the territorial
felt he could
if not theworld's best scientifically trade-offs
that might have resolved border
trained elite. More than 90 percent of problems. India never fully recovered
the Politburo, Central Committee, state from the shock of the Chinese victory
ministers, and provincial leaders are college in the 1962 border clash; its diplomatic
of these, nearly 75 percent are fortunes then sank as it lost status
graduates; steadily
trained in engineering and the natural within the developing world for its timid
sciences. Li also underscores the dramatic status quo and its increasing
positions
shift in from the liberal-arts reliance on Moscow. In contrast, Beijing
leadership
of Peking University to the was seen as both a of radical
graduates champion
scientists and engineers from Tsinghua change and a truly independent power.
University, often called "China's mit," Garver documents how the Chinese
who include in their ranks Prime Minister outmaneuvered the Indians in South
Zhu Rongji. This finding leads to amore Asia by forging tieswith Pakistan, Burma,
general study of the role of informal and the Himalayan states. Now, the con
networks of both political principals testwill be resolved only if India accepts
and their staffs. Li believes that the fourth Chinese hegemony in South Asia or if
of the to leave the subcontinent
generation is also the generation China pulls back
Cultural Revolution. That terrible ex for India to dominate. Garver suspects
perience may have hardened them, he that the former is more likely.
writes, but it also gave them "grassroots
consciousness." He concludes optimisti Politics in
Renovating Contemporary
that an effective
leadership will take Vietnam, by zachary abuza.
cally
over and a better international Boulder:
give China Lynne Rienner, 2001,
not able to dismiss
image. But he is 271 pp. $52.00.
entirely the suspicion that technocrats When Hanoi introduced economic reform
can work for all kinds of in 1986, there were that Viet
regimes, including high hopes
repressive
ones. nam might follow China in opening up
and achieving spectacular economic
Protracted in in 1997 its economy
Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry growth. But stalled,
the Twentieth by john w. and the country went back into isolation.
Century,
garver. Seattle: University of Abuza traces in detail the shifts in Viet

Washington Press, 2001,450 pp. $50.00. nam's foreign and economic policies,
India and China have long had a contested seeking
to
explain why it remains so poor

relationship. This thoughtful

account
despite abundant natural resources and
from the early rates. The
dissects that connection high literacy problem, he argues,
when its comes down to culture. The
days of India's independence, political

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume80No. 6

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Recent Books
Communist remains a select elite Africa's ethnic alone would not
Party pluralism
that fanatically monopolizes make its societies combustible. But as
political
the growth of civil to outflank their opponents
power and prevents despots struggle
or their
society. Any hope for change will thus keep regimes afloat without Cold
have to come from dissidents within the War patronage, they find it
expedient
to

party. The author then traces the efforts stoke ethnic rivalriesand spawn anarchic
of various party dissidents from the 1950s conditions. That way, they absolve them
to the present. The
postcolonial debates selves of responsibility for the dying and
about democracy
were followed by plundering that facilitates their political
attempts by former members of the survival. "Tribalism" is thus no less or
National Liberation Front in South chestrated in Africa than in Serbia or
to establish a more
Vietnam liberal other places where dictators have played

society after unification in 1975. But at the ethnic card. In a persuasive chapter
each turn, the communists' fear of on U.S. in African conflicts,
complicity
instability made them repress dissent; Berkeley targets former assistant Secretary
the resulting para of State Chester Crocker as someone
political stagnation
economic The Vietnamese who most the arrogance of
lyzed growth. "personified
leadership, without the experience of a unaccountable power." He was less awar

demoralizing Cultural Revolution, still criminal than "the kind of figure many
insists on absolute war criminals on: an articulate front
conformity. depend
man, capable of an intellectual
putting gloss
on otherwise crude power politics."

Africa From to Petro

Angola Afro-Stalinism
GAIL M. GERHART by tony
hodges.
DiamondCapitalism,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, 2001, 223 pp. $49.95 (paper, $19.95).
and Power in theHeart
ofAfrica,
by It is tempting to imagineAngola emerging
bill Berkeley. New York: Basic some as an African success
day story?if
Books, 2001, 309 pp. $27.50. it could only settle its interminable civil
First-rate informed by good war. Its vast natural resources could finance
reporting
social science makes a level of that would be
Berkeley's analysis development
of post-Cold War conflicts in Africa a the envy of the rest of the continent.
introduction for readers trying But the sad truth, to the
clarifying according pic
to understand the continent's ture is different. Even if
apparent painted here,
chaos. Drawing out fundamental similar the destructive forces of the rebel leader
ities in the conflicts that have wracked Jonas Savimbi were to vanish tomorrow,
Liberia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic the venal elites who rule in Luanda lack the
of the Congo, South Africa, and Rwanda, habits and values to create a
required
the author builds an argument that blames better future.Having lived for so long in
leaders for violence. a rentier state financed revenues and
despotic large-scale by oil
Without the ruthless machinations of (more recently) diamond fields retaken

tyrants in pursuit of power and loot, from Savimbi, the country's leading

FOREIGN AFFAIRS- November/December 2001

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