In contrast to much of the developed world, Vietnam’s economy grows at seven percent a year. But those numbers weren’t cause for celebration at the Communist Party’s five-year Congress, when the nation’s one-party system chose its new leaders. On the contrary, the leadership apologized for “failing to meet the expectations” of the public and members of the Communist party.  Edmund Malesky, a political scientist at the University of California-San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, tells us why Vietnam is at a political and economic crossroads.