TNAG-0940-FCO40-1159-Visits-by-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Ministers-and-officials-t-1980 — Page 10

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by delapidated but speeding trucks and buses.

Unfortunately,

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for any who might like to believe that the Chinese economic squeeze' approach might result in popular discontent and pressure on the regime to alter its foreign or domestic policies, I left Vietnam satisfied that at least in the most populous

area of North Vietnam, there is still a long way to go before any crisis point is reached', That impression was underlined by the

generally low profile of security and the virtual invis- ibility of the regime. Uncle Ho is clearly still revered, but I did not see a single picture of or slogan about any of his successors. Next year will', however, not be easy, and the most recent estimates available in Hanoi showed a projected net def-

icit of 3 million tonnes of rice (paddy equivalent).

And my visit did come at the lushest time of year, with the main rice harvest coming in. Although I drove through areas affected by the first of this season's typhoons, there was little evidence

of lasting damage: bamboo frame shacks were being built, perhaps to replace ones damaged, and some paddy seemed to have been laid by a storm, while there were also various 'jury rigged”.

power lines.

3.

In the course of the visit I met a wide range of other

diplomatic representatives and several local business represent-

atives, and made a low-level courtesy call on Europe II Division, MFA. The level of discussions was not very high: all western

missions were effectively isolated from direct contact with the

regime or its citizens by the device of channelling all requests

through the MFA-supplied senior LE interpreter'. The Swedes

(with the only large remaining western aid programme and thus

some access), and the UNDP representatives were not available.

4.

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Given the very limited opportunities for observation of

developments, and the absence of any chance of influencing

public or official opinion other than by formal démarches, I

found myself wondering whether the product justified asking 6

/UK-based

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