Could the USSR have done a Dengist-style reform?
I see conflicting arguments about the matter.
It's about at least every quarter-year or so that I ask some kind of question about how the USSR could have gone differently in some way.
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The problem was that the USSR on the US hitlist, while both China and Vietnam could mislead the US into believing they were sorta aligned to it.
Vietnam
They had a chance? Weren't they aligned with USSR, especially during the Sino-Soviet split? They would've treated the damn nation like MPLA Angola, at best (fund any economic, military, and media measures of sabatoging, if not destroying any post-reconstruction efforts)
And they've already done worse so, as we've seen before, post-first war of independence, up to the end of the Soviet Union (sanctions, direct intervention via troops et mass bombing, anti-govt propaganda)
True, true, but they could later make a similar move leading to the doi moi reforms.
But during the USSR's existence? No.