Vietnam has been condemned for its current crackdown on cheeky, outspoken dudes who tell it like it is in print. The U.S. Human Rights Watch Group for Asia on December 18^th damned Big Brother for a new crackdown a day after Hanoi rejected an ailing intellectual's appeal against imprisonment.

From Washington, the Human Rights firebrands described Big Brother's arrests of a high-ranking party member and a leading academic as "deeply troubling," words that actually fuel Vietnamese dissidents to keep it up because it emboldens them to know that the rest of the world is watching. The reformers pointed out that Vietnam jailed two other leading dissidents in November - an action that breaks International Law because Hanoi signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1982. Charges like that heighten the pucker factor for the Hanoi brass, who are behaving like they are under siege anyway.

This strong denunciation of Hanoi's horrid human rights record comes at a tense time for the aging leadership, whose sand-clocks have been running from 70 to 80 years. The Old Brothers have circled their wagons for their last stand against freedom and democracy. They're scared they might get shoved aside by Younger Brothers, who sniff money to be made and threaten a shake-up at the June Party Congress, in much the same way that Newt Gingrich and the GOP Freshmen Class swept into Washington last year.

Cigar-waving and aging Cuban President Fidel Castro, still wearing his raunchy fatigues, was warmly welcomed by Vietnam's top leaders in mid-December. Billed as a trip "to demonstrate communist solidarity," the real reason is money.

Castro, by the way, got his rocks off on his last visit to Vietnam in 1973 when he was whisked down the Ho Chi Minh Trail under heavy guard to visit a "liberated zone" in South Vietnam. He played "guerrilla" one more time, sniffing the cordite in the air, and, no doubt, enjoying intrusive thoughts of his own 1959 revolution.

During his current visit Castro investigated Vietnam's economic liberalization. Cuba, like Vietnam, was flushed down the economic tubes while slavishly adhering to the old Stalinist model of state ownership and control of everything down to fly swatters. Since 1991, the flies have won the economic game in Cuba. The few cars you see on the streets are 1950s-vintage Fords and Chevvies. In the last few years, Castro has reluctantly allowed small-scale Mom & Pop enterprise and foreign investment to crank up the economy a bit, but it obviously gives him heartburn to do so. He pretends there's no black market, but I'll bet the swabbies and jarheads at Gitmo get top dollar for a carton of Marlboros.

Cuba's economy grew only 2% in 1995, and Vietnam's gushed an estimated 9.5%. Cuba's economy has been ravaged by the 33-year-old U.S. Trade Embargo. In February 1994, the U.S. lifted the 19-year-old embargo it slam-dunked on Vietnam in 1975.

The Vietnamese new Party Line argues that it is possible to "uphold completely the principles and goals of socialism" while using a market economy to achieve its objectives. Castro obviously wants to learn this trick, but he doesn't have Japanese, Chinese, and Korean auto and electronics makers as neighbors, so the outlook in old Havana is more of the same stagnation.

Big Brother schmoozed the bean-counters at the World Bank to the tune of $2.3 billion for 1996 during an international aid donors conference organized in Hanoi during December.

Japan - a.k.a Santa Claus - tops the aid donors list with an $800 million handout last year. Of course, Japan is the third largest investor in Vietnam, so it's freebie, you can bet, is carefully calculated to reap many times the amount sown in the give-away. Taiwan and Hong Kong are the leading investors - bewitched by last year's 9.5% growth rate and increasing privatization.

The River Pirates along the Mekong are rubbing their hands with glee and counting their booty. The Mekong River Commission - a.k.a. River Pirates - is trying to cut up the aid projects pie to develop the 2,500 mile waterway. An amazing 94 propositions are now on the table. Aid suppliers promised to cough up $73.9 million in 1996 of a targeted $125.7 million.

Vietnam acquired two dredges worth $12 million from the U.S. This purchase seals the first capital deal between the two countries since ties were normalized last August. The deal was stalled because the U.S. Export-Import Bank had not yet approved export credits to Vietnam.

Next on the U.S.-Vietnam trade talks agenda is discussion of establishing an air service agreement whereby U.S. airlines can fly direct to Vietnam and Vietnamese airlines can do the same to the States. Wonder if they'll serve Ba Muoi Ba?

The ever patriotic American big name car makers - Ford and Chrysler - are tripping over each other to cash in on Vietnam's cheap labor while they downsize here in the States. Ford and Chrysler from the U.S. and Japan's Toyota and Isuzu plunged more than $400 million into joint venture assembly plants. The auto-makers will begin assembling cars in Vietnam from imported parts. But, they have all agreed to a 30% local content target within ten years, sealing U.S. workers' fate.

Wonder how long it will be before "The Donald" Trump will ignore the real estate "BOOM" in Vietnam. Wildcat speculators are spiking real estate prices in Vietnam, reminiscent of the 1980s realty "Boom" in the States. The average price of a square meter of land in Hanoi and Saigon is now $2,000 and climbing rapidly. This compares to $680 in Bangkok. Realtors see a killing to be made to meet expected housing needs.

Humor:

Tet of 1996 will usher in the year of the mouse, an awesome spectacle for Vietnamese who don't make a move until they scan their horoscope. While the mouse is known to be one of the most clever and resourceful of all creatures, powerful stellar and planetary forces are plotting to create a year of trouble for mice - one that will unhinge the minds of those born under this sign in 1960,1972,1984, and 1996.

I can't help but chuckle as I recall CIA's valiant efforts in the early and mid-1960s to persuade our "counterparts" to do our bidding on the basis of cleverly contrived astrology charts for major political and military leaders in South Vietnam. It actually worked in many cases.

Mice are predicted to face a rising tide of bad luck in 1996. Mice are known to be instinctive gamblers, so they're advised to stay away from Vegas and Atlantic City. Their cynical side, too, will show its stuff in 1996, and trusting others will be a major issue for mice in the coming months. Romantically, mice are advised to pair off with other mice to soothe each other's high stress year.

It's an easy leap from the mice to the men who run Vietnam today. These old timers are all running scared, trying to tighten their own grip on power as the sands of time run out under their aged feet.

The Vietnamese Communist Party, the real power in Vietnam, faces an 8^th Party Congress this coming June, and reports suggest there must be a lot of mice in command because they are acting like old men suffering from a terminal case of diarrhea daily.

The various cliques within the Party leadership are scrambling to grab all the power they can lay their hands upon. Each is consolidating and increasing their power bases. This political posturing is all part of an intense power struggle within the party.

The law has been laid down by the General - now President - Le Duc Anh. He wants to strengthen the vital role his army plays in the power structure. He's been screaming about the need for "social stability," a phrase that smacks of martial law or worse, intended to send an electric jolt of fear through younger party hacks with ambitions to change the old ways. He's also apoplectic about "leaks of national security," a crime that carries long prison terms or death. A siege mentality, similar to the one in Nixon's White House, has them all by the short hairs, it seems.

All the mice are scrambling for cover. The current Party secretary-general, Do Muoi, recently split to China - their adversary-turned ally - to "consult" with the Chinese Communist Party's leadership. Could he be thinking of a reenactment of the Tien An Men Square Massacre in Hanoi to maintain the status quo?

Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet is not resting either. In true Kissinger fashion, he has hand-fashioned "Super-Ministries" to centralize his power and hold it closer to the President's office. MR. Kiet now controls the weak-willed, timid National Assembly - just like Newt Gingrich does here - with the help of Speaker Nong Duc Manh.

The Party's Congressional mice have also created a strong political undercurrent which is very troubling for the old guys at the top. They've inaugurated a spontaneous and spiraling provocative series of "open letters" demanding the Party Old Brothers democratize and loosen their death grip on the people. Fat chance of that happening. Well-known figures inside and outside the Party ranks have written about the failures of the Vietnamese Communist Party and demand changes.

In response, the Party is imitating the Chinese model of jailing its dissidents. Late last year, two outspoken critics of the Party were jailed. Hoang Minh Chinh, 76, a loyal communist since age 14 in 1934, was thrown in the slammer for 12 months for calling for political and economic reform.

Another, Do Trung Hieu was taken out of circulation for 15 months in prison for writing a pamphlet calling for reconciliation with Vietnamese abroad. The official charges are of "abusing the rights of freedom and democracy to damage national security." Translated, their crimes are to have the audacity to question the policies of Big Brother.

Amnesty International characterizes them as prisoners of conscience. It seems that their trial and sentencing are simply designed to scare the pants off the party hacks (mice) to ensure that calls for reform do not surface in the run-up to June's Party Congress.

The 76-year-old Hoang Minh Chinh suffers from heart, respiratory, and blood pressure problems. One of his arms is paralyzed. The 57-year-old Do Trung Hieu has had heart problems for years, and his family reports that his health has declined sharply in prison. Seven other intellectuals are in jail for four years to 15 years.

Now, I did not provide this report just for the reading and filing it away in the useless information section of your brains. I write it to stimulate you to action.

Surfing the Internet has suddenly become a very dangerous pursuit in Vietnam. Hanoi's afraid that a little too much free speech is winging back and forth from Vietnam to the world in e-mail messages.

Given their penchant to control everything, the old mice have appointed a Big-Brother, who I call "Mighty Mouse," named Nghiem Xuan Tinh, to peep into your e-mail to Vietnam. Mighty Mouse has created a new agency, headed by himself to monitor all e-mail messages of the 200 companies who have paid for e-mail access to Vietnam. Mighty Mouse seized control of the two gateways from the Institute of Information Technology. "National Security" was the reason cited for his action.

Now here's where you can take action. I propose that some of we Vietnam veterans out there in Cyberspace do the research needed to compile a list of the e-mail addresses in Vietnam that the "Mighty Mail Mouse" is monitoring. Once armed with that juicy info, we can all take part in lobbing e-mail mortar rounds on the "Mighty Mail Mouse" just to drive him nuts and test his system. It provides a wonderful opportunity to ventilate long simmering resentments some of us still carry about with us every day.