Nguyen Xuan Oanh, 82; Worked to Improve Vietnam’s Economy
Nguyen Xuan Oanh, 82, a Harvard-educated economist who tried to improve communist Vietnam’s economy and its relations with the United States, died Friday in Ho Chi Minh City of undisclosed causes.
Born in 1921 in Bac Giang province north of Hanoi, Oanh graduated from Harvard in 1954 and worked for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the 1960s before returning to his homeland.
He served as a deputy prime minister of the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government and spent a year in jail after Saigon -- now Ho Chi Minh City -- fell to the communists in 1975.
Oanh later became an advisor to the Vietnamese government. In 1986 he helped create an economic reform package allowing more private enterprise and loosening state control over the economy.
In the late 1980s, he traveled to the United States to meet with members of Congress and businessmen to rebuild economic relations between the former enemies.
He was economic advisor to the late former Communist Pary leader Nguyen Van Linh and former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, and was a member of the National Assembly.
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