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The communist victory over the Republic of Vietnam at the end of April 1975 propelled the communist Provisional Revolutionary Government into power. The PRG proceeded to blot out all reminders of the defunct ROV. The name of Saigon was even changed in Ho Chi Minh City. Masses of South Vietnamese people were taken to centres of re education to extinguish their last thoughts of democracy. The formal union of North and South Vietnam took place in July 1976 when the politburo of Hanoi released a new constitution. The government established the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), Hanoi became the new capital and the communist party became the only legitime party in the whole country. The tasks facing the SRV in helping a decimated population to recover and to rebuild a war ravaged land were formidable. Perhaps two million Vietnamese had died in consequence of the war and another two million people were sick. Yet Vietnam\'s population rebounded surprisingly rapidly from the wartime losses. Last year the SRV claimed a population in excess of sixty million people. In contrast the economic recovery was much slower, a condition mainly due to immense war damage, the lack of extensive foreign aid, excessive ideological management of the economy and the US governments refusal to help pay for the damage. The 3 billion dollar credits from the USSR could not help the SRV too. Still, as the years passed by and a new generation of leaders came to power in the SRV. The new governments were more liberal and a new economic policy was adopted in 1986 which allowed more foreign enterprises to launch profit making ventures in Vietnam. The relations to the United States were also improved. The SRV finally dropped its demand for war reparations and allowed more recovery teams to enter the country to look after the MIA. In 1989 the government in Hanoi withdrew the troops from Cambodia and stopped the aggression. In 1994 the Democratic administration of President William J. Clinton (Bill Clinton) dropped the embargo on American trade with the SRV. Finally, in May 1997 the United States established full diplomatic relations with Hanoi and Vietnam won acceptance by the non-communist countries and joined the ASEAN community in the same year. Although Vietnam has one of the lowest per capita income in Asia the culture is high developed, the degree of literacy is very good and the country is in the possession of rich resources. If the political authoritarianism of the SRV gives way to greater political democracy, in the future Vietnam will turn to be a far happier place than the Vietnam of the last two centuries.
In the United States everybody was very disappointed about the loss of the war in Indochina. The veterans are unique among all American war veterans because they are associated with the only war the United States have ever lost. In addition many veterans blamed their post war physical ailments on exposure of Agent ORANGE, a herbicide which was widely used in Vietnam to destroy the jungle for better orientation). Adopted to their wartime service veterans were also stressed and mentally ill in many cases. Despite these problems the most veterans took up productive lives after the war and the vast majority is still proud on having served a service for their country. The United States also honoured them by including them into the victory parades after the Gulf War in 1991. For the American nation was a whole the period after 1973 was a time for healing and reconciliation. A searching for the circa one thousand remaining soldiers missed in action began. Nobody has ever found them, but there have been rumours of imprisoned soldiers. The Department of Defence concluded that such Americans did not exist at the time. Until now only one person has appeared alive and this man said he had not been held against his will.
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