Apparently people in Vietnam were using gold as a secure store of wealth and an alternate form of payment or some such thing. The government has cracked down on this immoral activity with new laws.
http://www.goldmoney.com/gold-research/vietnam-to-ban-gold-as-legal-tender.html
Australian Libertarian Society (old site) 
This ties in with the article on war winners really being losers! The communists ‘won’, but the vietnamese are the real losers, and the communists are stuck in a stagnant economy. Maybe what they need is a good war to kick-start their economy? Anyone up for a border dispute?