Containment: Vietnam at Home & Abroad

Meredith H. Lair

George Mason University

America on the World StageTAH Workshop, LCPS

July 11, 2012

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 CatecheticalGuild 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

Critiques of the Conduct of the War

Critiques of American Consumerism

Critiques of American Social Inequality

Critiques of American Imperialism

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

“Never forget…,” Vietnam, 1972Cuban, n.d.

International Solidarity

Organization in Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Cuba 1972

“Many thanks to the people of the worldfor your support,” Vietnam, 1972