Little organised opposition to the government and its free market policies has emerged in Vietnam. The most serious pressure has come from war veterans.

In 1987, the Club of Former Resistance Fighters was formed in Ho Chi Minh City. Led by former generals, the movement sought greater democracy in the Party.

It has been suppressed, but it remains a potential focus for opposition. As ideological communism has withered, there has been a widespread return to religion.

There are six million Catholics, 10 million Buddhists and 20 million ancestor worshippers in Vietnam and the official line is that freedom of religion is guaranteed under the constitution.

However, religious groups may not oppose government policies and religious appointments have to be approved by the government.

The state is very aware that organised religion could become a focus for opposition and keeps it under tight control.

Leaders and monks of the banned Unified Buddhist Church, which opposes the government-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church, have been imprisoned.

The injustice of free market socialism is a burden that many everyday Vietnamese are willing to shoulder.

Ostensibly they are free, unaware that the United States, defeated in war, have found an alternative way to wrest control of their country. And perversely, they appear to bear no animosity towards Americans.

For although the war was devastating, American involvement was relatively brief, lasting little more than a decade, and ended in defeat.

In this century, the Vietnamese have also had to fight France, Japan, Cambodia and China. There is far more animosity directed towards the Chinese, an enemy throughout history, and the Japanese, who are seen as a contemporary economic threat.

American investment acts as a counterweight to these powerful neighbours. American popular culture and American consumer goods are coveted by the young, who have little interest in or memory of a war which already belongs to the history books.

The only censorship that John Pilger encountered making 'The Last Battle' was official concern that the interviews with survivors of the war might offend the Americans and endanger relations with the World Bank.

Sociologist Nguyen Thi Oanh revealed why the Vietnamese people are able to forget:

"It is because we didn't lose. We won. We lost materially speaking, but spiritually we have won. We're losing a little bit now, but we will win again."