Changes

# Other standard reference works that cover Vietnam also remove the diacritics: ''Britannica'', ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''Lonely Planet Vietnam''. ''Britannica'' is edited by University of Chicago Press copy editors trained in Chicago style, which is the most widely admired editing style.<ref>''Britannica'' created its current diacritics style for its 1974 edition. Merriam Webster and other publishers adopted the same style a few years later. Pre-1974, the standard style was to use only Western European (Latin-1) diacritics. This is still a common style in non-academic writing.</ref>

# Other standard reference works that cover Vietnam also remove the diacritics: ''Britannica'', ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''Lonely Planet Vietnam''. ''Britannica'' is edited by University of Chicago Press copy editors trained in Chicago style, which is the most widely admired editing style.<ref>''Britannica'' created its current diacritics style for its 1974 edition. Merriam Webster and other publishers adopted the same style a few years later. Pre-1974, the standard style was to use only Western European (Latin-1) diacritics. This is still a common style in non-academic writing.</ref>

# Go on Amazon and search for "Vietnam" books. I guarantee that no book that comes up in the top twenty will use Vietnamese diacritics in the running text.

# Go on Amazon and search for "Vietnam" books. I guarantee that no book that comes up in the top twenty will use Vietnamese diacritics in the running text.

# They're "distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic''.<ref>[http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/A/accent-marks National Geographic Style Manual]. "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted."</ref> The idea of style is that readers should focus on the content of an article rather than the style it is written in.

# They're "distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic''.<ref>[http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/A/accent-marks National Geographic Style Manual]. "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted."</ref> Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.

# ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, also drops the diacritics.

# ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, drops the diacritics.

# English-language news sites based in Vietnam, including [http://english.vov.vn/ Voice of Vietnam], generally drop the diacritics.<ref>These sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> The content of these sites represent news translated from Vietnamese, so there is no technical barrier that would prevent them from using diacritics.

# English-language news sites based in Vietnam, including [http://english.vov.vn/ Voice of Vietnam], generally drop the diacritics.<ref>These sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> The content of these sites represent news translated from Vietnamese, so there is no technical barrier that would prevent them from using diacritics.

# Who puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Besides Wikipedia,<ref>Vietnam-related titles were moved to diacritic forms ''en masse'' soon after I was banned.</ref> there's Thế Giới Publishers in Hanoi. This company publishes old-style war propaganda. Tourists can buy these antiques and show the goofy writing to their friends back home. If a Vietnamese publisher expects English-speakers to actually read a book or periodical, the diacritics are dropped.

# Who puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Besides Wikipedia,<ref>Vietnam-related titles were moved to diacritic forms ''en masse'' soon after I was banned.</ref> there's Thế Giới Publishers in Hanoi. This company publishes old-style war propaganda. Tourists can buy these antiques and show the goofy writing to their friends back home. If a Vietnamese publisher expects English-speakers to actually read a book or periodical, the diacritics are dropped.