If there is a common impression of the Vietnam war, it is that the United States entered a quagmire from which it was able to extricate itself only with considerable awkwardness. It has been said that the military won all the battles it fought, but lost the war to the political process. If there is a common view on the economy of wartime South Vietnam, it is the one promoted by the popular media that the economy was built around the black market, prostitution, and corruption. If there is a common view on foreign aid to Vietnam, it is that aid was a failure. There may be elements of truth in all of these impressions, but whereas the views and analyses pertaining to military and political affairs have been presented abundantly in books and journals, there is no good source dealing with the economic events that contributed to the final outcome. This book is a modest attempt to inject economic matters into the general analysis of the failed experiment that we refer to as the Vietnam experience.

The experiment to transform a very poor and insecure country into a democratic nation able to stand alone in a relatively short period of time was ambitious. Military, political, and economic activities had to be well orchestrated for the effort to have any chance of succeeding, and rapid economic development was just as important to long-run success as battlefield victories and the general acceptance of democratic political institutions.