Political unity and economic separation - the colonial period; economy of the Republic of Vietnam, 1955-75; southern agriculture; household and collective in Vietnamese agriculture; the Vietnamese industrialisation debate; socialist commodity production.

This study explains the economic upheavals experienced by Vietnam since the end of the War in terms of historical developments, especially the legacy of separation of North and South from 1954 to the 1975 Communist victory and traces aspects of the divided economies which have been of significance.