South East Asia became a key geo-polotical theater in the Cold-War right around that time. Hence two different East/West wars (Korea, Vietnam). US strategicall

South East Asia became a key geo-polotical theater in the Cold-War right around that time. Hence two different East/West wars (Korea, Vietnam). US strategically became strong ally/supporter of S Korea and enormous growth in US/Korea trade policy, particularly textiles, dramatically grew S Korean economy. 1800s is a long time ago, but it's consequences continued long after. Debts were still being paid until almost 1950. It's easy to underestimate debt impact. US Debt to GD ratio, is about 100% and there is a lot of concern on long term US economic health. Venezuela is essentially a failing economy and is at 350%. France came and instituted a debt of 300% debt to GDP as reparations for slaveowners. That's essentially Venezuela territory. What happened to Haiti between 1950s to 2010 was the Duvalier family who came to power on a movement that grew out of the US occupation of Haiti in the first half of the 1900s. Not the same, but similar to Castro coming to Cuba post US actions there, and Iran post US propping up the Shah of Iran, US occupation created a groundswell against. It took a bit more time, but it eventually enabled the Duvalier family dynasty. And they were horribly corrupt, but they rode the wave. Haiti finally got rid of them and things started to look better. So why has it diverged from Vietnam since 2010? An enormous earthquake hit in 2010 and devastated the country. 3% of the population was killed. 15% of the population had their homes destroyed.