Editing Lê Duẩn (section)

=== Economy ===
[[File:Inflation Vietnam 1976-1986 (Retail price).png|thumbnail|Inflation in retail prices in Vietnam since unification until the [[6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam|6th National Congress]] in 1986]]

{{See also|Economic history of Vietnam#Subsidy phase: 1976-1986}}

Vietnam developed little during the war years; industry was nearly non-existent in both North and South and both countries were dependent on foreign donor countries. Worse, the country's critical agricultural infrastructure had been badly damaged.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=2}} The South had roughly 20,000 bomb craters, 10 million refugees, 362,000 war invalids, 1,000,000 widows, 880,000 orphans, 250,000 drug addicts, 300,000 prostitutes and 3 million unemployed.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=3}}

Having won the war and defeated Republic of Vietnam, Lê Duẩn's mood in April 1975 was optimistic. As one Central Committee member put it, ''"Now nothing more can happen. The problems we face now are trifles compared to those in the past."''{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=1}} Lê Duẩn promised the Vietnamese people in 1976 that each family would own a radio set, refrigerator and TV within ten years; he seemed to believe he could easily integrate the South Vietnamese consumer society with agrarian North Vietnam.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|pp=1–2}} In 1976 the 4th National Congress declared Vietnam would complete its socialist transformation within twenty years. This optimism proved unfounded; instead Vietnam staggered from one economic crisis to another.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=2}}

After the war, per-capita income stood at US$101; it decreased to $91 in 1980 and then increased to $99 by 1982, according to United Nations figures. Phạm Văn Đồng admitted that per-capita income "had not increased compared to what it was ten years ago".{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=88}} Physical health declined and malnutrition increased under Lê Duẩn, according to the [[Ministry of Health (Vietnam)|Ministry of Health]].{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=88}} According to the ''[[International New York Times|International Herald Tribune]]'', an estimated 6,000,000 Vietnamese were suffering from malnutrition, leading the government to request aid from the [[United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization]].{{sfn|Van|Cooper|1983|p=62}} Lê Duẩn's policies and the war against [[Pol Pot]] (1976-1979) and China (1979) led to an abrupt decline in the standard of living; monthly per capita income in the North declined from $82 in 1976 to $58 in 1980.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=82}}

The main goals of the [[Second Five-Year Plan (Vietnam)|Second Five-Year Plan]] (1976–80), which was initiated at the 4th National Congress, were as follows;{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=78}}

# "Concentrate the forces of the whole country to achieve a leap forward in agriculture; vigorously develop light industry".
# "[T]urn to full account existing heavy industry capacity and build many new industrial installations, especially in the machine industry, so as to support primary agriculture and light industry".
# "[V]irtually complete socialist transformation in the South".

The Vietnamese leadership expected to reach these targets with economic aid from the [[Comecon|Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]] (COMECON) and loans from international agencies of the capitalist world. The 4th National Congress made it clear that agriculture would be socialised; however, during the Second Five-Year Plan the socialisation measures went so badly that [[Võ Chí Công]], a Politburo member and Chairman of the Committee for the Socialist Transformation of Agriculture, claimed it would be impossible to meet the targets set by the plan by 1980. An estimated 10,000 out of 13,246 socialist cooperatives, established during the plan, had collapsed in the South by 1980. Politburo member [[Lê Thanh Nghị]] attacked lower-level cadres for the failure of the socialist agriculture transformation. The collectivisation process led to an abrupt drop in food production in 1977 and 1978, leading the 6th Plenum of the Central Committee to completely overhaul the Party's agricultural policies.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|pp=79–80}}

[[File:Vietnam real national income growth 1976-1985.png|thumbnail|Real [[national income]] growth in Vietnam from 1976 until 1985]]

With regard to [[heavy industry]], the leadership's position was muddled. In his ''Fourth Political Report'' Lê Duẩn stated that during the transition to socialism, priority would be given to heavy industry "on the basis of developing agriculture and [[light industry]]". In another section of the report, Lê Duẩn stated that light industry would be prioritised ahead of heavy industry. The position of Phạm Văn Đồng, the [[Prime Minister of Vietnam|Chairman]] of the [[Council of Ministers (Vietnam)|Council of Ministers]] (the head of government), was just as confused as Lê Duẩn's.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=80}} In practice Lê Duẩn prioritised heavy industry: 21.4% of state investment was in heavy industry in the Second Five-Year Plan and 29.7 percent in the Third Five-Year Plan (1981–85). Light industry only received 10.5 and 11.5, respectively.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=81, 87}} From 1976 to 1978 industry grew, but from 1979 to 1980 industrial production fell substantially. During the Second Five-Year Plan industry grew just 0.1 percent. The 6th Plenum of the Central Committee criticised the policy that the state had to own everything.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=81}}

Before the 5th Central Committee Plenum, Lê Duẩn believed that Vietnam was in a perilous position, although no talk of reforms followed.{{sfn|Võ|1990|p=81}} Beginning in 1979, Lê Duẩn acknowledged that economic policy mistakes had been made by the national Party and State leadership.{{sfn|St. John|2006|p=45}}

Until the 6th plenum, the planners prevailed. That plenum condemned the old ways and promised that from then on the economy would be governed by "objective laws".{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=5}} The roles of the plan and the market were openly discussed for the first time and the roles of the family and the private economy were enhanced and certain [[market price]]s were officially supported by the Party.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=5}} Lê Duẩn endorsed the reforms at the 1982 5th National Congress. Lê Duẩn talked about the need to strengthen both the central planned economy and the local economy at once.{{sfn|St. John|2006|p=48}} In his report Lê Duẩn admitted that the Second Five-Year Plan had been a failure economically.{{sfn|Võ|1990|p=107}}

At the beginning these changes had little practical effect, possibly due to opposition by the planners and confusion or fear among cadres. From 1981 to 1984 agricultural production grew substantially, but the government did not use this opportunity to increase production of such crucial farm inputs as fertilizer, pesticide and fuel, nor of consumer goods. By the end of Lê Duẩn's rule, in 1985–1986, inflation had reached over 100% annually, complicating economic policy-making.{{sfn|JCSA|SSRC|1988|p=5}}