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Spoke to source in Hanoi last evening, and she reported the Communist 10th Party Congress tyros of Vietnam are most excited that Bill Gates arrives this weekend for a fete with the leadership. The sons of the NVA are looking to America and especially to IT to lead them out of backwardness and corruption. The theme of the 10th Congress is that every official in Vietnam is for sale at least once a day and that nothing is trustworthy.

At the same time, another commercial source tells me that Vietnam is most attractive compared to mainland China. The factories are clean, the workers are quick and eager, the management is well-spoken, English-skilled, and convincingly pro-American.

Too many ironies to count in all this, though I am compelled to mention that it will not take thirty years for Iraq to shake off the label of righteous victim of American aggression and beg for Gates to fly in to start IT plants and so forth. I mention that there is no presence at the 10th Party Congress in Hanoi of either Jane Fonda or the Sheehan fan club: they've moved on to fresh fairy tales.

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Iraq