Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975

Tuong Vu

Description

Through the voices of senior officials, teachers, soldiers, journalists, and artists, The Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975, presents us with an interpretation of "South Vietnam" as a passionately imagined nation in the minds of ordinary Vietnamese, rather than merely as an expeditious political construct of the United States government.The moving and honest memoirs collected, translated, and edited here by Tuong Vu and Sean Fear describe the experiences of war, politics, and everyday life for people from many walks of life during the fraught years of Vietnam's Second Republic, leading up to and encompassing what Americans generally call the "Vietnam War." The voices gift the reader a sense of the authors' experiences in the Republic and their ideas about the nation during that time. The light and careful editing hand of Vu and Fear reveals that far from a Cold War proxy struggle, the conflict in Vietnam featured a true ideological divide between the communist North and the non-communist South.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Military history
• Vietnam
• Vietnam War
• Southeast Asia
• History of Asia
• Viêt Nam

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501745140
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975

The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975

Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building

Edited by Tuong Vu and Sean Fear

SƮƴƳƧƤƠƲƳ AƲƨƠ PƱƮƦƱƠƬ PƴơƫƨƢƠƳƨƮƭƲ an imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Southeast Asia Program Publications Editorial Board Mahinder Kingra (ex oƂcio) Thak Chaloemtiarana Chiara Formichi Tamara Loos Kaja McGowan

Copyright © 2019 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2019 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Vu, Tuong, 1965– editor. | Fear, Sean, 1984– editor. Title: The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975 : Vietnamese perspectives on nation building / edited by Tuong Vu and Sean Fear. Description: Ithaca : Southeast Asia Program Publications, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiîers: LCCN 2019012613 (print) | LCCN 2019013608 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501745140 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501745157 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501745126 | ISBN 9781501745126 (cloth) | ISBN 9781501745133 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Vietnam (Republic)—Politics and government. | Vietnam (Republic)—Civilization. Classiîcation: LCC DS556.9 (ebook) | LCC DS556.9. R47 2019 (print) | DDC 959.7/7043—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012613

Cover image: “Helping the people in all their endeavors is the duty of the soldiers of the Republic." Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives, photo no. 306-PPB-78.

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Introduction T U O N G V U A N D S E A N F E A R

Chapter 1

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Coping with Changes and War, Building a Foundation for Growth N G U YỄN ÐỨC CƯ ỜN G

Chapter 2

The Birth of Central Banking, 1955–1956 V ĵ Q UỐC T H Ú C

Chapter 3

Reform or Collapse: Economic Challenges during Vietnamization P HẠN GM K I M ỌC

Chapter 4

Land Reform and Agricultural Development, 1968–1975 C AO VĂ N T H Â N

Chapter 5

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Striving for a Lasting Peace: The Paris Accords and Aftermath

H OÀ N G ÐỨH ÃC N

Chapter 6

Public Security and the National Police T RẦI N H N M C Ô N G

Chapter 7

Reections of a Frontline Soldier B Ù I Q U YỀN

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Contents

Chapter 8

The Philosophies and Development of a Free Education N G U YỄN HỮHU P Ư ỚC

Chapter 9

Personal Reections on the Educational System VÕ K I M SƠN

Chapter 10

Life and Work of a Journalist P HẠRM T ẦN

Chapter 11

The Vietnam War in the Eyes of a Vietnamese War Correspondent V ĵ T H A N H T HỦY

Chapter 12

Sóng Thần’s Campaign for Press Freedom T R Ù N G DƯ ƠN G

Chapter 13

Writers of the Republic of Vietnam N H Ã C A ( T R A N S L AT E D BY T R Ù N G DƯ ƠN G )

Chapter 14

The Cinema Industry K IỀH I N HU C

Chapter 15

The Neglect of the Republic of Vietnam in the American Historical Memory N U - A N H T R A N

Chapter 16

Political, Military, and Cultural Memoirs in Vietnamese T UA N H OA N G

About the Editors

Index

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155

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The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975

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Tuong Vu and Sean Fear

From its origins as a guerilla struggle, the Vietnam War rapidly evolved into the deînitive conventional military encounter of the Cold War era. The înal stages fea- tured tanks, artillery, helicopters, perhaps the world’s most sophisticated air defenses, and round-the-clock bombardment on an unprecedented scale. Despite this show of arms on both sides, however, the core underlying conict was always primarily politi- cal in nature. Central to the struggle were the competing visions of “nation building” in the South advanced by rival Vietnamese communist and noncommunist actors, each supported to varying degrees by their respective international allies. Although scholarship on the role of the United States and the communist side has been substantial, republican Vietnamese contributions and perspectives have only recently attracted in-depth scholarly attention. The vast majority of academic works devoted to the Vietnam War have been centered on American decisions and experi- 1 ences. A series of recent studies has begun reversing this trend, but they have been 2 limited to certain periods or particular state projects.Few works address how local actors interpreted and shaped events, either in tandem or at cross-purposes with the Americans. And fewer still have explored the role of civil society and the population at large in South Vietnam. Far from puppets or incidental players in the conict, however, the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam) and its constituents were committed to a robust nation-building agenda of their own. This often took the form of top-down state- driven projects, including involuntary population resettlement; experimentation with state- and market-oriented economic reform; agrarian development and land regis- tration; modernization of the national educational system; and, in 1967, a sweeping political restructuring consisting of a new constitution, a bicameral legislature, and national- and village-level elections. Everyday citizens also had a part to play, as the testimonies in this volume attest. The military, boasting well over one million soldiers at peak strength, was swelled by conscription but also by thousands of dedicated volunteers, who at times fought bravely against often unfavorable odds. Desertion, corruption, and administrative ineptitude posed persistent challenges, but rank-and-île soldiers at times also dem- onstrated great commitment, their determined resistance against communist oƃen- 3 sives in 1968 through 1975 proving critical to prolonging the state’s survival. Meanwhile, despite the government’s recurring if generally ineƃective harass- ment and censorship, South Vietnamese artists, writers, musicians, and even îlm and television stars contributed to a burgeoning cultural scene in Saigon, their works regarded by many as a welcome alternative to the communists’ statist agitprop. South