Jun 28, 2012 | Writing
In April 2011, a Vietnamese dissident explained to me why he gave up blogging critically about the government. “We have jobs, motorbikes, nice coffee shops, and big luxury buildings,” he said, pointing to the then-recently opened Bitexco Financial Tower,...
Jan 1, 2012 | Writing
How an idealistic spy in Asia challenged the American way of war, and what his tragedy teaches us about finding allies today. Hours after World War II officially ended on September 2, 1945, the Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh referenced an unlikely...
Oct 19, 2011 | Writing
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Four years ago, the future looked bright for Vietnam. Investors and economists proclaimed that this emerging market of 86 million people would grow into an “Asian tiger,” the next country to reach middle-income status by attracting foreign...
Jul 1, 2011 | Writing
What the first systematic survey of North Korean refugees tells us about life inside the Hermit Kingdom, and about whether the regime might be ready to fall. Ever since the founding father of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, unexpectedly died of a heart attack in...
May 19, 2011 | Writing
If schools are a reflection of society, then they show Cambodia to be a limp and defeated nation. On the first day of class, Cambodian children learn they must bribe their teachers to get good grades, a practice that continues for the 3% of them who make it to...
Mar 26, 2011 | Writing
PHAN THIET and PHU QUOC, Vietnam — In 1910, a little-known nationalist named Nguyen Sinh Cung taught elementary school in Phan Thiet, a coastal town in southeastern Vietnam. The school was combined with a fish sauce factory that educated workers in modern commercial...
