Economy of Vietnam after the embargoWhen the last US forces left South Vietnam on March 29, 1973 aboard packed helicopters and crowded aircraft carriers, it was supposed to be the closing of a book whose chapters lasted up to four presidencies. When North Vietnam successfully invaded South Vietnam and captured Saigon on April 30, 1975, the embargo originally imposed on the North by the United States was extended to the entire new Republic of Vietnam. The embargo, ordered by President Richard M. Nixon, remained in place until President Bill Clinton lifted it on February 3, 1994. President Clinton stated on numerous occasions that the only reason he had improved relations was that What America had with Vietnam was solely in the context of obtaining the fullest account possible for Americans held as prisoners of war (POW) or missing persons (MIA) during the Vietnam War. Furthermore, many things could prove that President Clinton's explanation was not only about missing persons and prisoners of war, but was the result of the influence of the center of power on the decision-making process. The history between the United States and Vietnam as well as Vietnam's relations with the Soviet Union, China and Japan are aspects that can prove the truth of this thesis. The end of Vietnam's economic embargo in 1994 opened a new landscape for international marketing. A new market with high potential was available to companies, with more than 70 million people: the next great frontier. As soon as the embargo was lifted, many companies from all over the world started their business activities in Vietnam. But for now the Vietnam market is having difficulty taking off. Why? Because a "high potential" market, more than ten years after the removal of the embargo, is unable to grow in... half of the paper... (2004 estimate) Net migration rate: -0.45 migrants/1,000 inhabitants (2004 est.) Life expectancy at birth: 70.35 years Total fertility rate: 2.22 children born/woman (2004 est.) Ethnic groups: Vietnamese 85%-90%, Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, Cham , mountainous groups Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese and Khmer Literacy: aged 15 and over can read and write (90.3%) GDP per capita: purchasing power parity $2,500 (2003 est.) Population below poverty line: 37% (1998 est.) Labor force by occupation: agriculture 63%, industry and services 37% (2000 est.) Major trading partners: States United States, China, Japan. Internet users: 3.5 million (2003)(Source: CIA - World Factbook 2005)