Tom Hayden visits Vietnam and is disappointed to find consumerism trumping the virtues of what was supposed to be a worker’s paradise.

 The fancy Diamond department store next to Independence Palace was filled with shoppers, gawkers and Santas wandering the aisles of Lego, Calvin Klein, Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Converse, Estée Lauder, Ferragamo and Bally. The nearby Saigon Centre bore a billboard proclaiming, More Shops, More Life.

Far be it from me to question the desire of Vietnamese to share our globalized consumer culture like everyone else, or to reject their aspiration to be the next Asian Tiger, or freeze them in memory as icons of selfless revolutionaries.

Far be it from him to question, but question Haydeb does. Or, rather, he sniffs:

Gentrification and consumerism, after all, have destroyed the character of my favorite American haunts, like North Beach, Berkeley, Venice and Aspen. It seems the way of the world. As I walked through the busy Christmas streets, however, I was gripped by the question of why the Vietnam War was necessary in the first place. Why kill, maim and uproot millions of Vietnamese if the outcome was a consumer wonderland approved by the country’s still-undefeated Communist Party?

I suppose it never occurred to Mr. Hayden that a consumer wonderland is what the people of Vietnam aspire to…shame on them. One question does nag at him, though [e.a.]

 is it possible that Marxism and nationalism won the war but capitalism and nationalism have won the peace?

Oh horrors!

What ever will happen next? Will someone be coming forward to denounce Fidel Castro? Mr. Hayden will be deeply disappointed, I’m sure.