Why did Vietnam fail to develop like South Korea and Japan despite having similar resources as these two countries?

Even the most ignorant person can see that the Vietnamese people have only had 45 years of development since the last war against China and the Khmer Rouge. They started from scratch and have now surpassed or nearly caught up with some other Southeast Asian countries that did not have to go through the war and even got rich from the Vietnam War

South Korea is a country that got rich from the Vietnam War. They received a lot of aid from the US by sending their army to invade Vietnam. Thanks to that, they have a large amount of money to rebuild the country. Of course, their hard work and correct development policies cannot be denied. Without reasonable policies and hardworking people, South Korea will be like the Philippines, after the Vietnam War ended, its people will have to eat pagpag instead of rice.

Japan is another matter. Japan industrialized before China, Korea and Vietnam. While totalitarian feudalism and colonialism were pressing on to restrain the development of other countries, Japan opened up the world and industrialized. This is due to the wisdom of Japan's rulers since the Feudal period. If you compare Vietnam with Japan, you can blame the Nguyen dynasty, the French colonialists or America's Free South Vietnam for slowing down Vietnam's development.

Photo of King Bao Dai and his French colonial allies.