For those of my generation, Vietnam always appears in indelible images, some of them so harsh and cruel that they tear at our very memories. Others, of such courage and dedication, that they elevate the soul and spirit, and still others, which still today bring us joy to see the stampede of U.S. marines fleeing from the scene where that army, the most powerful in the world, suffered its most humiliating defeat.
I’ve always thought that, while it’s true that we helped the Vietnamese a lot in their struggle for liberation and unification, they helped us even more with that tremendous example of stoicism, resistance and inventiveness that allowed them to achieve victory.
In these modern times, many years after that feat, Vietnam appears before us repeatedly, continuing to demonstrate that their victory back then was not an isolated, one-off event, but a permanent exercise in their capacity to learn, their discipline, their disposition and their ability to change and transform their present and future. Their unwavering determination not to forget their past yet at the same time not to be complacent or drown in it, always looking to the future, always with new dreams, but with their feet firmly on the ground.
I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam. Everything impressed me, from that indecipherable, almost permanent smile on the people’s lips to the war museum in Ho Chi Minh City. There, two maps gave me a more accurate idea of the magnitude of what they had accomplished. One marked with black dots the areas bombed by U.S. aircraft — and it was almost entirely black — and the other identified in orange the areas that had been sprayed with Agent Orange, also responsible for teratogenic deformities in newborns. Even many years later, on that map, the predominance of orange in some areas was evident.
Vietnam has once again conquered the popular imagination of Cubans, even among the younger generations who hadn’t been born during its last heroic war.
The Vietnamese, whom we taught to grow coffee, are now among the world’s leading exporters and, by the way, their coffee is sold in a “currency” store in Vedado. They, whom we taught to spawn a variety of claria-like fish, make millions exporting their meat to countries like Canada and France. Now they are teaching us how to grow rice and obtain high yields; and I believe I’ve heard of their interest in sugar production. They also have factories in Mariel that operate and produce, despite the hardships.
Fredesman, who served as Cuba’s ambassador to Vietnam on more than one occasion, told us about the odyssey of a donation of fertile eggs that, during the war, traveled from Havana and crossed several countries until they were delivered to the Vietnamese, so they could begin to become self-sufficient.
He told us that decades later, the fish farm was still there and producing. Perhaps the children or grandchildren of the workers on that farm could also come to Cuba to help us recover our national production.
In the current Cuban popular imagination, nothing is unattainable for the Vietnamese, just as it was not for those of us who knew about their war odyssey. In fact, some believe they are even capable of successfully accomplishing that “impossible mission” of getting our economy off the ground.
Their economic, social and political success has been such that Cuba has sent dozens of delegations at all levels, from all sectors, from almost all organizations, to that friendly country.
Hundreds of leaders have gone to learn from these experiences. Tens of thousands of pages have been filled with reports on these experiences, recommendations from these visits and suggestions based on what they saw and heard in Vietnam.
There has been no shortage of seminars in our country: with Vietnamese academics, visits from senior Vietnamese leaders and keynote lectures on their experience of reform and transformation have been held in Cuba, attended by senior leaders of the State, the government and the Party.
At this point, I don’t know if some eyes have read the reports and some ears have listened to the lectures. Reality, always stubborn, insists on showing me that there are apparently some switches that block sound and light.
The truth is that, when the Vietnamese were beginning their Doi Moi, still under pressure from the United States blockade, just a few years later we were beginning our own reform, the same one that still today remains incomplete, disjointed, zigzagging and which far from leading us to our vision for the country, has distanced us from it. So much so that today, more than socialism, our independence and sovereignty are at stake.
No comparison is entirely good, none captures all the richness of different realities, but the results speak for themselves.
While the Vietnamese reform has lifted millions of Vietnamese out of misery and poverty and created a powerful middle-income sector that has become an engine of economic growth, ours has fueled the growth of poverty and inequality.
By 2025, the Vietnamese economy will grow by 6.7%; ours will decrease by at least 1.5%, adding another year of decline.
While Vietnam’s trade balance shows a positive surplus of $2.27 billion, ours continues to show a negative balance that repeats itself year after year.
In the first seven months of 2025, Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of $10.18 billion, with exports and imports increasing by 14.8% and 17.9%. Today, its trade balance with the United States is in surplus, another battle won.
Rice production increased from 16.4 million tons in 1987 to 50.4 million tons in 2015, and average per capita food consumption doubled from 275 kg/person (1985) to 550 kg/person (2015).
Exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in 2017 reached $36.7 billion, an increase of 14.05% compared to 2016.
The main causes of this strong growth were the economic transition of two main business sectors in agriculture, namely state farms and agricultural cooperatives, toward a more diversified economic activity; and the shift from a centralized economy to a market economy. The most impressive leap came after Politburo Resolution 10-NQ/TW in 1988. This freed farmers from their restrictions, allowing for the emergence of a market economy.
I reiterate that no comparison is good enough, but it can at least help us understand why Vietnamese citizens today can raise funds to help Cuba.
It’s true, we are not Vietnamese; we are Cubans with our idiosyncrasies, our culture and our own way of interpreting concepts, but it is possible to learn.
Should we improve our eyes and ears or do we need new eyes and ears?
