US embassy cable - 03HANOI2042

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 002042 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL, AND DRL/PHD 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, VM 
SUBJECT: WHAT'S (NOT) AVAILABLE AT HANOI'S BOOKSTORES 
 
 
1.  (U) Summary: Government controls continue to ensure that 
both imported and locally printed books stay within 
acceptable bounds.  Fictional works increasingly are the 
most popular offerings in Hanoi's bookstores, instead of 
previous foci on ideological or political titles.  Some 
political publications persist -- still heavy on Ho Chi Minh 
Thought and Marxism -- but offerings on controversial 
political and economic issues appear non-existent.  Market 
forces appear to be winning out over ideology.  End Summary. 
 
BIG BROTHER LIVES 
----------------- 
 
2.  (U) On July 15, the Ministry of Culture and Information 
(MOCI) suspended operations of a weekly student magazine 
(Sinh Vien Vietnam) for, inter alia, lampooning Vietnamese 
currency by showing a banknote flushing down a toilet, as 
well as for publishing cover pictures of naked male and 
female statues from Vietnam's ancient Cham relics.  In May, 
the Committee to Protect Journalists (based in New York) 
listed Vietnam as one of the 10 worst places in the world to 
be a journalist. 
 
3.  (U) MOCI's Publishing Department has the responsibility 
for monitoring and approving all publications officially 
brought into or published in Vietnam.  Procedurally, for non- 
political and social works, importers must only inform the 
Publishing Department of their imports; for political 
publications, however, the procedures are much stricter.  A 
senior official from the state-run Vietnam General 
Corporation on Import-Export of Books and Periodicals (aka 
"Xunhasaba") explained that publishers must submit samples 
of all proposed imports for approval to MOCI, including 
summaries of the contents.  Xunhasaba reports to the MOCI's 
Publishing Department, which has responsibility for 
reviewing the contents of all publications in Vietnam. 
 
4.  (U) Importers may only proceed with written permission 
from MOCI.  These procedures apply even for state offices, 
government agencies, think tanks, and libraries.  Publishing 
houses must also follow similar procedures before printing 
individual publications.  In practice, however, many 
publishers increasingly neglect seeking permission for non- 
sensitive themes.  One Xunhasaba official commented, 
however, that "even bold publishers exercise caution and 
follow the requirements when it comes to political-social 
books." 
 
5.  (U) One professor from the Institute of Historical 
Science opined that censorship with respect to printed 
publications has encouraged more people to access the 
Internet for news and current issues, rather than reading 
"well-edited," out-of-date publications.  He noted that 
firewalls do not appear to be a significant barrier. 
 
WHO'S SELLING WHAT 
------------------ 
 
6. (U) Hanoi has six major state-run bookstores downtown, 
along with numerous smaller, privately run bookstores in 
different neighborhoods.  Three of the four largest and most 
comprehensive bookstores are affiliates of the Hanoi Books 
Distribution Corporation, and are located in the central 
business district.  Two other bookstores are Xunhasaba 
showrooms.  There is a small English-language bookshop run 
by a foreigner, as well as ubiquitous street stalls run by 
Vietnamese entrepreneurs, who usually specialize in 
periodicals, soft-back publications, and foreign languages 
textbooks.  Publications at these outlets are usually sold 
at much cheaper prices -- 15 to 30 pct lower -- compared 
with those at state-run bookstores, because they are often 
illegally produced and not copyright-compliant. 
 
7. (U) Entryways at Hanoi's major bookstores usually 
showcase literary works, with short stories and fiction 
translated from foreign languages predominant.  Pearl Buck, 
Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, George Simenon, Conan 
Doyle, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon, Ernest Hemingway, 
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Jack London are favorites. 
Vietnamese fiction is also widely available.  In early 2003, 
Vietnamese readers rushed to buy new book of ghost stories, 
which authorities later banned.  One of the reasons cited 
unofficially for the ban was that its co-author is a well- 
known overseas Vietnamese speaker now living in Canada. 
Early in 2001, a book of fiction revolving around the lives 
of homosexuals was popular; apparently, it was the first 
time a gay theme was published and openly available in 
Vietnam. 
 
8.  (U) Vietnamese readers are usually denied the latest 
overseas literary works, perhaps attributable to substantial 
royalties required.  Ho Chi Minh City-based Tre Publishing's 
director claimed in an interview that he had passed up JRR 
Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy because HarperCollins 
asked for "too much money."  Nonetheless, Tre Publishing 
subsequently contracted to translate and publish the Harry 
Porter series, after agreeing to ten percent retail price as 
royalties.  In early July, local newspapers reported that 
ninety per cent of the initial 30,000 copies of the latest 
Harry Porter title "Order of the Phoenix" sold out on July 
21, the day of release in Vietnam.  Local media claimed that 
Vietnam was the first country in the world to put out an 
authorized translation. 
 
LITTLE POLITICAL OR ECONOMIC FARE 
--------------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) Among political publications, collections of 
Vietnam's laws and regulations, the Constitution, criminal 
and labor codes, college textbooks on Ho Chi Minh's thought, 
and Marxist philosophy dominate.  Less than ten per cent of 
political publications are biographical; of those, "The 
Complete Book of US Presidents," Winston Churchill's 
memoirs, biographies of Deng Xiaoping, Zhu Rongji, Hu 
Jintao, Mao Tse-tung, Bill Gates, Lee Kuan Yew, Fidel 
Castro, Che Guevara, Yasser Arafat, Vladimir Putin, and 
Yevgeni Primakov stand out, along with even separate 
biographies of Presidents Bush and Clinton. 
 
10.  (U) Surprisingly, few publications focus on Vietnam's 
most well known Communist figures; apart from Ho Chi Minh, 
General Vo Nguyen Giap, Le Duan (described as having 
actually led the Vietnam War), and former Prime Minister 
Pham Van Dong, few other revolutionaries or politicians are 
featured in biographies.  Few of the existing biographies 
are very popular nowadays, according to shop assistants. 
According to one bookstore official, about 15 per cent of 
revenue nonetheless comes from political publications. 
There are scant titles on the Vietnam War, or war in 
general, although a recently published memoir of a former 
soldier and "Why Vietnam?" by Archimedes L. A. Patti are 
available. 
 
11.  (U) Historical publications are limited not only in 
quantity, but also type.  Many of the books do not focus on 
any particular historical era but rather span decades or 
centuries in encyclopedic fashion.  When Americans are 
depicted, it is sometimes still as savage killers, 
brandishing guns or military equipment with captions such 
as, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"  On the Vietnamese side, there are 
usually many pictures displaying dead bodies.  But the 
crowded aisles of management and economics books often 
feature American authors and examples. 
 
12.  (U) Books on religion are also scarce.  The majority of 
such publications are about Buddhism, with a lesser 
collection on Confucianism.  It is rare to find a book on 
Christianity, Islam, or other religions -- much less Bibles 
or a Koran -- other than in a reference-type book.  In one 
large bookstore, there was a book with Jesus Christ on the 
cover.  But the content focused on the life of Jesus rather 
than on Christianity itself. 
 
13.  (U) Publications about controversial subjects such as 
political pluralism or economic privatization are fare or 
non-existent in major bookshops.  Apart from a handful of 
publications on the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, 
there are few other publications on such topics or even 
about the major economies in the region, such as Japan and 
Korea.  Nor are there books readily available about China's 
economic reforms or the writings of Deng Xiaoping, despite 
the clear similarity to Vietnam's ongoing efforts.  Widely 
available, however, are economic textbooks, which refer to 
general, macro-principles, rather than to specific economic 
issues and problems. 
 
14.  (U) Shelves hold only a smattering of book titles on 
other current international issues.  Before and during Iraq 
hostilities this year, two Vietnam News Agency-affiliated 
publishing houses produced two widely read publications 
addressing the operations and international opposition. 
Books about Osama bin Laden, 9/11, and international 
terrorism from 2001 remain available, although their 
popularity has peaked.  Readers can also find books by 
Vietnamese scholars on "The US-Russia: Counterparts and 
Rivals," "Relations between the US and Big Nations in the 
Asia-Pacific Region," "Contemporary Capitalism: Inner 
Contradictions - Trends - Prospects," "Sino-Vietnamese 
Relations: Events during the 1991-2000 Period," "Japan: 
Major Political Changes during the 1990s and Prospects," and 
"Development as Freedom" by 1998 Nobel Prize winner Amartya 
Sen. 
 
LITE LITERATURE 
--------------- 
 
15.  (U) Up to half the physical space at most major 
bookstores -- even at the main Political and Legal Bookshop 
-- in Hanoi is reserved for dictionaries, foreign language 
textbooks (most in English), children's books, and books on 
travel, cooking, and interior decoration.  Book distributors 
declined to comment about revenue shares, but officials from 
Xunhasaba admitted that they have been importing large 
quantities of publications of this nature upon requests from 
their distributors.  An even larger volume of publications 
of this nature is printed locally, and in Vietnamese. 
 
16.  (U) Comment: Vietnam's Doi Moi economic renovation 
process has created more opportunities for development and 
prosperity, enabling average people to seek out books on 
general knowledge and education, as well as entertainment. 
Even the state-owned sector is responding to these market 
demands and providing what the public wants -- rather than 
what it "should know."   It is another sign of the decline 
of ideology in the lives of average Vietnamese, and a 
welcome sign of additional individual choice -- within 
carefully maintained bounds. 
PORTER