The essay represents the first effort by a Vietnamese historian to publish an account of the Communist regime's politics and their effects, without being committed to either the Communist Party line or the anti-Communist viewpoint of the Saigon regime.

It recounts the basic decisions made by the Hanoi leadership regarding land reforms, the collectivization of agriculture, and the effort to build an industrial sector in part through the sacrifice of peasant consumption and income. Although the tone of the essay is dry and dispassionate, it does not hide the author's respect for the accomplishments of North Vietnam.

Father Can does not deny the economic hardships endured by the North Vietnamese nor the existence of widespread dissatisfaction with the lack of essential goods. But he concludes the path followed by Hanoi was a necessary one.

"The problem is to choose between today and tomorrow," he writes in summing up the results of the Vietnamese revolution. "The ordinary people see only the needs of today. Those needs are worthy of respect, but they must also be reconciled with the demands of tomorrow."

The Vietnamese press office says the content of the articles and of Don Dien generally have the character of "promoting Communist North Vietnam and creating the illusion that only communism is good."

(Copyright Dispatch News Service International)