November 18, 2006 4:35PM 

# The Cause That Dare Not Speak Its Name 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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The New York Times [writes](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/world/asia/18saigon.html) that Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is beginning to develop after being “held back by a half-century of war and privation.”

A slightly more accurate statement would be that economic development in Vietnam has been held back by “a half-century of war and socialism.” The privation was a result of the socialism, not a cause.

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