Since North Vietnam conquered the South in 1975 the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam has remained virtually closed to outsiders. Yet today the strict new Marxist regime is not only coping with the formidable legacy of 30 years of war, but finds itself fighting again, this time with its communist neighbour Kampuchea (formerly Cambodia). And there is increasing tension with China as Vietnam's Chinese population flees to the border.

Tom Mangold, the first BBC reporter to return to Vietnam, reports from war-hardened Hanoi, from the new-look Saigon and from the former battlefields from which he reported during the war.