BF2S Forums Vietnam: is it really communist?

You seem to define communism in a way that there should be censorship. I'd have to disagree. The ideology lives on in Vietnam, the only difference between communism there and "Communism" e.g. in former USSR, is that a) there is no censorship b) The system is adjusted to fit the countrys needs.

Actually, the Soviet Union ceased to be communist soon after the revolution. Censorship, cultural oppression, restricting people from moving freely etc. are fascist features, not communist/socialist. The communist ideology actually promotes equality of culture, religion etc. The Soviets just got it totally wrong. I'd imagine that Lenin would have been appauled by the way the country was lead by Stalin.

Vietnam adjusts it's politics, just like capitalist countries adjust theirs. I'd continue calling Vietnam communist. I'd just call it functioning communism. It helps when there aren't any western nations placing embargos, too..

My point was that vietnam is not "communist" in the conventional sense, that it has become more like Thailand or Indonesia or Malaysia.

No Vietnam is not communist. Guevara would be rolling in his grave. Even back in the 60s he spoke out against the USSR, going as far as to call them imperialists just like the capitalists. Here is a general diatribe he gave that was basically the final nail in his coffin in terms of soviet support:

"The development of those countries now entering the path of liberation must be paid for by the Socialist countries....We must not talk any more of a mutually advantageous trade based on prices which the law of value...imposes on backward countries. What is the meaning of "mutual advantage" when [some countries] sell at world prices the raw materials that cost backward countries infinite sweat and suffering, while they buy at world market prices the machines produced in large, mechanized factories...? If we establish this sort of relations between the two groups of nations, we must agree that the Socialist countries are, to a certain extent, accomplices of imperial exploitation...and of the immoral nature of this exchange. The Socialist countries have a moral duty to cease their tacit complicity with the exploiting countries of the West."

TeamZephyr wrote:

The irony about "modern" communism that was created by Lenin and Trotsky in the early 20th century was that it was actually capitalism.

I think you mean War Communism, which was supposedly a temporary measure.  Whether Lenin/Trotsky actually intended it to be we will never know.