[Viet-Khsv: 5931] FWD:[avsl-l] [vnforum] The Americanization of Vietnam; Commercial,

[vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp (Vu Thanh Ca)]

 Mesg from "Thuyen Nguyen" <thuyen@spacelab.net>

Sunday - May 11, 1997

The Americanization of Vietnam; Commercial, Cultural Links Grow With Return
of U.S. Investors, Emigres

Mai Hoang
The Washington Post

HANOI -- When Vietnamese-born David Diep Thai, from Seattle, opened a
coffee kiosk on the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake last year, he never imagined
that one day he would be serving espresso to the United States' first
ambassador to Hanoi.

Yet this afternoon, with "As Time Goes By" playing in the background, Thai
chatted with Ambassador Douglas "Pete" Peterson about the major changes
underway in Vietnam.

The occasion was all the more remarkable because of the personal histories
of the two. Peterson is a former prisoner of war, and Thai was a South
Vietnamese who left the country on one of the last American helicopters to
fly out of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, in April 1975. More than two
decades later, both men have been welcomed back warmly by a country that
once shunned and condemned them.

Although separated by a generation, Peterson, 61, and Thai, 24, are part of
a new American presence in postwar Vietnam, where "VC" is now more likely
to mean venture capitalist than Viet Cong.

Once measured in U.S. troop strength, the American presence in Vietnam is
now gauged by the number of corporate foot soldiers and franchises
descending on one of the world's last communist countries.

Peterson, who arrived in Hanoi on Friday, strolled about the city today.
Across the street from Thai's Au Lac kiosk is Connecticut-based Carvel ice
cream. Baskin-Robbins is here and expanding. TGI Friday and Kentucky Fried
Chicken are scheduled to open their first outlets in Ho Chi Minh City next
year. And McDonald's is reportedly on the way. Thai will soon be selling
fried chicken at a place he plans to open called Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Although the United States ranks ninth on Vietnam's list of top investors,
the American influence here is dramatic, at least on the surface.

Thai, who plans to market his fried chicken primarily to the Vietnamese
market rather than to expatriates, predicted success, in part because the
food will be served fast and "the price will fit their pocketbooks."

Susan Gajete, manager of the American Club, an expatriate hangout on the
site of the former U.S. consulate here, disagrees that Vietnamese tastes as
so malleable. "You give Vietnamese kids cheeseburgers but they still want
pho," a popular noodle soup, she said. "You give them hot dogs, but they
still want rice."

However, Thai said he is confident because he has had a hand in shaping the
market's tastes. Thai is a Viet Kieu, or one of the 2 million Vietnamese
who fled overseas after the war. About 1 million settled in the United
States, where they adopted American tastes that they then introduced to
Vietnam.

"A cultural osmosis takes place in Vietnam when Viet Kieu come back,
because they are always talking about America this or America that," said
Thai, whose family used to send packages back to Vietnam containing items
from shoes to music videos.

Deac J. Jones, who imports American goods to Ho Chi Minh City, said the
Viet Kieu have been more influential in shaping local tastes than the
infusion of young Americans during the war years. "Some people remember
American icons like Campbell's soup from before the war," he said, "but
half the population is under 20, so it doesn't matter with them."

"Everyone loves Cindy Crawford," said Hoang Thi Thu, 21, a Revlon
salesclerk who sells as much as $300 worth of cosmetics a day at the
Superbowl, a Ho Chi Minh City shopping mall -- not bad business in a
country where the per capita income is just $300 a year.

Ice skating until 4 a.m. has become the newest sensation in Ho Chi Minh
City, and dance clubs are full of young people wearing American
designer-label clothes. The American allure extends to unauthorized,
copycat versions of well-known restaurants such as Spago, Planet Hollywood
(called Planet Saigon) and the Hard Rock Cafe.

And here in Hanoi, a Vietnamese university class on American culture uses
films such as "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Pulp Fiction" as teaching aids.

With so much of Vietnam's youth focused on American-style flash and
consumerism, the old guard has begun complaining about the loss of
traditional values. Newspaper and television editorials criticize the
corrupting influences of Western consumerism, loose morals and the rising
use of heroin and other drugs among students.

"The government is moving along very cautiously because they fear social
evils from the West," said a U.S. diplomat who requested anonymity. Other
observers say the Vietnamese leadership fears the possible destabilizing
effects of Western ideas and rapid social change.

"It's like the U.S. going from the 1930s to the 1980s in 10 years," said a
lawyer from California who has lived in Vietnam for six years. "That's the
kind of change we're talking about. The generation gap is exacerbated."

Pham Hoang Son, 25, manager of the popular Apocalypse Now bar here, said
the very young are losing part of their heritage. "If you ask them about
Vietnam's revolutionary heroes, 90 percent couldn't tell you," he said. But
he added that nearly everyone remembers Ho Chi Minh because he's "worth
remembering."

Even if the postwar generation -- children who grew up in peacetime and
during the country's economic reforms -- are unaware of the historical
details, most retain a strong national identity forged by centuries of
Chinese and French colonialism, historians and other analysts say.

The government hopes that sense of identity will draw more overseas
Vietnamese back to invest, despite lingering fears that anti-communist
organizers might try to undermine the system. The Viet Kieus' skills, if
not their capital, will help the country modernize, the thinking goes. Even
their Americanization is considered an asset.

Thai, for example, uses corporate-speak like "synergy" to explain his
success managing three businesses. He runs "smiling" workshops and
customer-service role-playing for his staff. And he credits his success to
a "can-do" American attitude.

"When my family first moved to the U.S., I grew up poor," said Thai, who as
a child sold candy bars after school. "But America told me that I could
create my own destiny if I worked hard enough."

He is working with a U.S. consulting firm to bring American and Vietnamese
businesses together and dreams of creating a nonprofit academy to teach
math and English to local street children.

"I'm glad I had the chance to tell the ambassador where I think Vietnam is
headed," Thai said.

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