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America on the World Stage TAH Workshop, LCPS July 11, 2012. Containment: Vietnam at Home & Abroad. Meredith H. Lair George Mason University. Introduction. I. To understand a historical moment, it is necessary to examine it from multiple perspectives. Introduction.
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America on the World Stage TAH Workshop, LCPS July 11, 2012 Containment: Vietnam at Home & Abroad Meredith H. Lair George Mason University
Introduction I. To understand a historical moment, it is necessary to examine it from multiple perspectives.
Introduction II. To appreciate multiple perspectives, it is necessary to divest oneself of Manichean assumptions about “good” and “evil” and “us” and “them.”
Introduction III. The American war in Vietnam began in the 1940s.
Introduction IV. US policy towards Vietnam was the product of multiple consecutive presidential administrations.
Introduction V. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson failed to question the fundamental assumptions undergirding American containment policy.
Three American Assumptions about Communism 1. It is monolithic. “Communist Party”
Three American Assumptions about Communism 2. It is inherently expansionistic. From the Catholic News-Weekly, July 21, 1954
Three American Assumptions about Communism 3. It is such an awful system, no one could ever choose to live that way. Comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society, 1947
Document #1:The US State Department Recommends Military Aid to the French, 1950 Assumes that: • the Associated State of Vietnam is a real country, and not a French construct. • the Red Chinese, the Soviets, and Vietnamese nationalists are all in it together. • preserving French control of Vietnam is essential to US objectives in Europe.
Document #2:Eisenhower on the Domino Theory, April 7, 1954 Assumes that: • the fall of one country to communism will inevitably lead to the fall of its neighbors.
Document #3:Kennedy on the Domino Theory, Sept. 9, 1963 Assumes that: • the fall of Vietnam to communism would lead to the fall of other countries in Southeast Asia. • Vietnamese nationalists would be content to let Chinese forces pass through on their way to invading Malaysia.
Document #4:NSAM 273: South Vietnam, Nov. 26, 1963 Assumes that: • Vietnam is two countries, not one. • the communist “threat” to South Vietnam is coming from outside that country’s borders, ie North Vietnam and/or China.
Document #5:Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Sept. 2, 1945 Challenges the idea that: • Vietnamese nationalists were hostile to the US. • the French regime in Vietnam was benevolent and legitimate. • Vietnam was two countries, not one.
Document #6:Telegram from DRV President Ho Chi Minh to US President Harry Truman, Feb. 28, 1946 Challenges the idea that: • Vietnamese nationalists were hostile to the US. • Vietnamese nationalists wanted to subordinate themselves to the People’s Republic of China or the Soviet Union.
Document #7:Manifesto of the National Liberation Front, 1960 Challenges the idea that: • the 1954 partition of Vietnam was legitimate and universally accepted. • anti-Diem and anti-US sentiment in South Vietnam was a foreign import. • the insurgency in South Vietnam was foreign-born and universally communist.
Antiwar Posters as Critiques of US Containment Policy • Kunzle, David, Nguyen Ngoc Dung, and Carol Wells, eds., Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States, Cuba and Viet Nam, 1965-1975 (Smart Art Press,1996). • http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Exhibits/Track16.html#Poster or • Google “Vietnam antiwar posters”
Origins of the American Antiwar Movement “The debate over Vietnam occurred when a carefully constructed ideology, a set of ideas that had guided and justified American foreign policy for more than a generation, began to fragment. Some were led by their deep attachment to certain ideals, beliefs, and principles, and others by their profound commitment to the necessity to keep their country safe. And in retrospect, it is, perhaps, a little surprising that nobody wondered very much about what would happen to the general consensus if these two articles of faith ever appeared to separate, to conflict, to lead in different directions.” - David Levy, The Debate Over Vietnam
Protest Posters from Vietnam “All our rivers flow into the eastern sea. The north and south united under one roof!” “Nothing is more important than freedom and independence.”
Vietnamese Emphasis on National Struggle “Emulate the Fight Against America” “Victorious Vietnam”
International Critiques of US Policy and Culture Cuban, n.d. “Never forget…,” Vietnam, 1972
International Solidarity “Many thanks to the people of the world for your support,” Vietnam, 1972 Organization in Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Cuba 1972
