<P> That year, a general purge of the party ranks began to weed out elderly and inefficient cadres and replace them with younger men . Võ Văn Kiệt, aged 59, was promoted to head of the State Planning Commission, and 62 - year - old Foreign Minister Nguyễn Cơ Thạch was elevated to Politburo membership . More surprising was the removal of General Võ Nguyên Giáp, considered a national hero, from the Politburo (it was later speculated that he was removed by political rivals) This rejuvenation campaign was nonetheless diminished by the fact that the country's three most powerful individuals, Lê Duẩn, Phạm Văn Đồng, and President Trường Chinh, showed no sign of stepping down any time soon despite their combined age of 226 and clearly failing health (all of them visited Moscow for medical treatment during 1982). Although they saw the need for reforms and fighting corruption, such change was beyond their ability by this point . </P> <P> The Second Five Year Plan was adopted for 1981 and showed a clear move towards more market reforms and away from the rigid central planning of the 1976--80 scheme . Real change would not begin until the second half of the decade when Lê Duẩn died in July 1986, succeeded as General Secretary by Trường Chinh . However, Trường was expelled only five months later and replaced by Nguyễn Văn Linh, eight years his junior . Phạm Văn Đồng retired as Premier in 1987 . Upon their accession, the country's new leadership denounced their geriatric predecessors for "utterly failing to improve the people's living standards, check corruption, or instill a more flexible, non-dogmatic outlook on life ." </P> <P> During the late 80s, Vietnam began tentative market reforms along the model then being adopted by China . The basis for these experiments were in the south which had a stronger tradition of trade and commerce . The perestroika policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were also a source of motivation . Although communist governments in Eastern Europe were collapsing in 1989, Vietnam was kept comparatively isolated from these events due to its poverty and geographical distance and a few small pro-democracy protests in Hanoi were quickly suppressed . The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused a thaw in the long hostile Sino - Vietnamese relations as the two nations embraced each other as some of the only surviving communist states . </P> <P> Soon after the Paris Agreement on Cambodia resolved the conflict in October 1991, however, Vietnam established or reestablished diplomatic and economic relations with most of Western Europe, and several Asian countries . In February 1994, the United States lifted its economic embargo against Vietnam, and in June 1995, the United States and Vietnam normalized relations . In June 2005, a high - level Vietnamese delegation, led by Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải, visited the United States and met with their U.S. counterparts, including President George W. Bush . This was the first such visit in 30 years . Although the visit mostly went well, a few embarrassing events occurred such as the White House's official website (www.whitehouse.gov) accidentally depicting the flag of South Vietnam in its official announcement of the visit . This provoked dismay and hostile comments from the Vietnamese government until the White House officially apologized and corrected the webpage . In addition, a crowd of hostile protesters gathered outside the White House during Phan's meeting with President Bush denouncing the Vietnamese Communist Party and waving South Vietnamese flags . </P>

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