Hanoi

AS a graduate from one of Vietnam's most prestigious schools, 22-year-old Cao would seem to have a bright future ahead of him - if only the past would get out of the way. He's found his career prospects hemmed in by the lingering legacy of a war that ended nearly two decades before he was born.

Two of his uncles served in the defeated South Vietnam military that was allied with the United States during what's known locally as the "anti-American war". After the country was unified under the Communist Party of Vietnam, his mother was denied admission to a university because of her brothers' ties to the southern regime. Even as Vietnam relaxes old regulations that punished those associated with the former Republic of Vietnam, many in the south believe the system still favours those with Communist ties.