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Overview: <br />The government in 2010 continued a serious crackdown on dissent <br />that carried over from previous years, but showed much more <br />hostility toward criticism on the internet. Despite concerns about its <br />human rights record, Vietnam dramatically upgraded its relationship <br />with the United States during the year, launching joint naval <br />exercises amid an ongoing maritime territorial dispute with China. <br />Vietnam won full independence from France in 1954, but it was divided into <br />a Western- backed state in the south and a Communist -ruled state in the <br />north. Open warfare between the two sides erupted in the mid- 1960s. A <br />1973 peace treaty officially ended the war, but fighting did not cease until <br />1975, when the north completed its conquest of the south. Vietnam was <br />formally united in 1976. <br />War and poor economic policies mired Vietnam in deep poverty, but <br />economic reforms that began in 1986 drastically transformed the country <br />over the next two decades. Tourism became a major source of revenue, as <br />did the export of foodstuffs and manufactured products. However, the ruling <br />Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) rejected any parallel political reforms <br />that would threaten the one -party system. Criticism of the government <br />continued to be harshly suppressed, and official corruption remained <br />1 <br />