However, realising he had to support a large family with eight children, Tuyen chose to venture south, arriving in the town of Buon Ma Thuot seeking new opportunities.

“I came here to start my own career,” he said.

Working initially as a labourer, Tuyen managed to save money and in 1993 bought a seven-hectare plot of land for 50,000,000 Vietnamese dong (US$4700), planting short-term crops such as corn and aubergine. In 1994, he turned to coffee. Not having the capital, he did everything himself.

“I had to do the planting on my own. I also raised cattle to get manure for fertiliser,” he said. “There were also hot, dry months. Coffee farms have to be irrigated continuously – that is the main chore and cost. In the past, there was no plumbing system: I had to irrigate all night, from 7pm until 5–6am.”

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After three years, his first harvest came in, marking the beginning of his successful coffee plantation business.

Tuyen makes about 31,500,000–36,000,000 dong per hectare. During the hottest months, he spends 300,000 dong on irrigation, which is the main expense and about 200,000 dong per worker per day during the harvest season.

However, times have not always been easy. Coffee prices can be volatile. Tuyen remembers having to plead with buyers, often to no avail. Indeed, there have been times when he was tempted to just chop down all his coffee plants.

His children kept him going. He wanted to make sure he could send them to school. He began to do other jobs on the side.

“I just tried my best, worked hard and did many jobs,” Tuyen said.

Tuyen eventually did chop down some of his trees to make way for other cash crops, such as pumpkins, beans and corn, for his wife to sell at the local market. He also started fishing at the lake behind his house. His catch would also later be sold.

He remains proud of the tactics drivers like him employed to evade US detection and bombing while transporting supplies from Hanoi to Hai Phong.

Indeed, Vietnamese farmers have needed to be independent. They are mainly smallholders and there is not much support from the government.

While the authorities do provide aid in-kind to their farmers, in reality, it has had little impact.

“The implementation is not done well,” Tuyen said.

He feels that rather than just provide them with low-quality pesticides and fertilisers, it would be better if the state simply gave them cash or training.

Coffee-growing, then combined with hard work and a strong dose of ingenuity, has enabled the couple to raise and educate their eight children, all of whom have grown up and started their own lives.

“Coffee has raised my whole family, I must thank it. [Now all] my children are grown up, it’s just me and my wife – thus I have a lot of money,” he said.

His only regret is that none of them wish to take over the family business. Indeed, his children have very different aspirations.

The Vietnamese traditional veneration for education means that farming has little attraction to them. Some have become teachers, while others have joined the military or are in business.

In their own way, Tuyen’s children’s determination to make something of themselves mirrors their father’s fight to keep the family farm going. So, in a sense, the same dogged spirit has continued across generations, albeit in a different form.

When people wonder how and why the Vietnamese are doing so well economically, it is important to bear in mind the extent to which a society scarred by decades of war has emerged with a hunger for work, peace and prosperity.

While many point to Vietnamese achievements in manufacturing and industry; the same spirit and irrepressible drive for success is undoubtedly also present in farms and towns across the country.