OK, here's my situation.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Even before we all met Xinh, the Viet Kieu wife was predisposed to find SOMETHING. That much I'm sure about. When I asked about it further, her tone was extremely dismissive. And when I asked how she could tell Xinh's family was communist--she said it was her accent and body language. I'm inclined to discount the whole thing.

The central Vietnam dialect is unique. It's not like either the northern or southern dialects. Most words are pronounced more like the southern dialect; e.g., "D" (not "Đ") is usually pronounced with an English "Y" sound, rather than an English "Z" sound. However, even though many of the words are pronounced the same way as they would be further south, the accent is still noticeably different.

My comprehension of Vietnamese is extremely poor. I can listen to an entire conversation and actually understand only a dozen or so words. Even so, I've listened to people from Hue talking to people from HCMC, and I've noticed a subtle difference in the way some words are spoken.

Sounds like your friend's wife was just determined that any girl other than her niece was going to be unacceptable, and the whole communist thing was a red herring.