Reform in Viet Nam is a protracted process. Beginning in 1979, it experienced both advances and reversals until 1986, a sudden acceleration in 1989-91, then gradualism hampered by a deepening entrenchment of interests in positions both for and against further liberalisation. A stop-go cycle has developed in which the new incentives and opportunities resulting from reform are sufficient to block broad reversion to earlier phases, but comprehensive advances would seem to depend on the occurrence of deeply unfavourable shocks. When crisis has seriously undermined performance, leaders have embraced reform to shore up legitimacy, while in good times they have tended to disagree over the long-term risks of reform and how to deal with those risks ...