Exhibiting signs of resistance: South Vietnam's struggle for legitimacy, 1954-1960

Diplomatic History

Volumn 33, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 293-313

  Masur, Matthew ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 62149149503     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: 14677709     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2008.00763.x     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam: Asian Crossroads of Cultures (Washington, 1961), 26.
2. James Pomeroy Hendrick to Thomas Beggs, November 2, 1960, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 312, National Collection of Fine Arts, Office of the Director, Records, 1912-1965 (hereafter Smithsonian, RU 312).
3. Du Phuoc Long to Tran Van Chuong, November 8, 1956, golder 17397: Hô so v/v to chúc triên lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961.], Phu Tong Thõng De Nhat Cong Hòa [Papers of the President's Office of the First Republic], Trung tâm Luru trũ Quoc gia II [National Archive Center II], Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (hereafter PTTDICH NAII).
4. The use of the term "South Vietnam" is convenient, if imprecise, shorthand. After the Geneva Convention, Bao Dai appointed Diem Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam. The State of Vietnam declared independence from France on January 1, 1955. In October 1955, Diem announced the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). I use the term "South Vietnam"as a blanket term to describe these administrative units.
5. See Jessica Chapman, "Debating the Will of Heaven: South Vietnamese Politics and Nationalism in International Perspective, 1953-1956" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2006), 180-92.
6. Seth Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia (Durham, NC, 2004), 206-10; George McT. Kahin, Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam (New York, 1986), 81-84; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New York, 1983), 222-23.
7. "Thành tích Bo Công dân vu, Nha Thông tin,, Viet Tan Xã, phan thú hai" [Accomplishments of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Office of Information, and Vietnam Press, Part 2], folder 444: HO SO thành tích hoat dong 7 nam cua Chính Ph u (1954-1961) [File of seven years of government accomplishments (1954-1961)], PTTDICH NAII.
8. Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam, 221.
9. Thomas P. Mack to Thomas Beggs, May 11, 1955, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312. See also Thomas Beggs to (Leonard?) Carmichael, May 2, 1957, box 46, folder: Viet Nam: General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312.
10. Thomas Beggs to Perry T. Rathbone, May 13, 1957, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312.
11. Recent scholarship includes Jessica M. Chapman, "Staging Democracy: South Vietnam's 1955 Referendum to Depose Bao Dai," Diplomatic History 30, no. 4 (September, 2006): 671-703; John Ernst, Forging a Fateful Alliance: Michigan State University and the Vietnam War (East Lansing, MI, 1998); James T. Fisher, Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1937-1961 (Amherst, MA, 1997); Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam; Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950-1963 (Lanham, MD, 2006); Edward Miller, "Vision, Power, and Agency: The Ascent of Ngô Dình Diem, 1945-54," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 35, no. 3, (October 2004): 433-58; Joseph Morgan, The Vietnam Lobby: The American Friends of Vietnam, 1955 -1975 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1997); Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 (Cambridge, England, 2006); and Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale's Cold War (Amherst, MA, 2005).
12. Philip Catton, Diem's Final Failure: Prelude to America's War in Vietnam (Lawrence, KS, 2000).
13. Chapman, "Staging Democracy."
14. Miller, "Vision, Power, and Agency," and Edward Miller, "Grand Designs: Vision, Power and Nation-Building in America's Alliance with Ngo Dinh Diem, 1954-1960" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2004).
15. Vasavakul Thaveeporn, "Schools and Politics in South and North Viet Nam: A Comparative Study of State Apparatus, State Policy, and State Power (1945-1965)" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1994); Matthew B. Masur, "Hearts and Minds: Cultural Nation-Building in South Vietnam, 1954-1963" (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2004).
16. This debate is still lively. In two recent books Seth Jacobs has argued that South Vietnam was clearly the junior partner in the U.S.-Vietnamese relationship. Edward Miller took issue with this conclusion in an H-DIPLO review of Jacobs'work, sparking a series of posts debating these issues. See Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam and Edward Miller, Review of America's Miracle Man in Vietnam (http://www.h-net.org/ %7Ediplo/roundtables/PDF/AmericasMiracleMan-Miller.pdf H-DIPLO roundtable).
17. Chapman, "Staging Democracy," 680.
18. Catton, Diem's Final Failure, 36.
19. Miller, "Vision, Power, and Agency," 435.
20. Institution Requests Funds to Transport and Insure Vietnamese Art Exhibits, March-April 1960, Box 8, folder 42, Douglas Pike Collection: Other Manuscripts - American Friends of Vietnam, The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University (hereafter TTU VA). For more on the connection between state and private actors in American propaganda activities, see Kenneth Osgood, Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad (Lawrence, KS, 2006).
21. Catton, Diem's Final Failure.
22. Miller, "Vision, Power, and Agency," 440.
23. Thomas P. Mack to Thomas Beggs, May 11, 1955, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312.
24. Du Phuoc Long to Tran Van Chuong, November 8, 1956, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961.], PTTDICH NAII.
25. Thomas Beggs to (Leonard?) Carmichael, December 2, 1959, box 46, folder: Viet Nam: General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312.
26. President Ngo Dinh Diem on Democracy (Addresses Relative to the Constitution), (Saigon, 1957), 33.
27. Nghi Dinh so 257-ND/BTT cai to Bo Thông tin và Chien tranh Tâm-lý, July 1 1955 [Decision to restructure the Ministry of Information and Youth], folder 657:, Sac lenh, Nghi dinh cua Tong thong Viet Nam Cong Hòa v/v cai to Bo Thông tin và chien tranh tâm lý nam 1955 [Decrees and governmental decisions of the President of the Republic of Vietnam regarding the reorganization of the Ministry of Information and Psychological Warfare, 1955], PTTDICH NAII.
28. For more on these activities, see Masur, "Hearts and Minds," 92-125.
29. Report on Oram activities, no date (circa 1959-1960), 1, 8, folder 8982: Tài lieu cua Bo Truong PTT v/v thiet lap và hoat dong cua các Tòa dai dien VN o ngoai quoc nam 1960 [Documents of the secretary of state at the presidency regarding the establishment and activities of Vietnamese representative offices in foreign countries, 1960], PTTDICH NAII.
30. See Morgan, The Vietnam Lobby, and Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam.
31. Diem to Secretaries of State, September 21, 1956, folder 18760: Ho so ve hoat dong tin tuyên truyen o ngoai quoc nam 1956-1959 [Folder about overseas propaganda activities, 1956-1959], PTTDICH, NAII.
32. The Fight against the Subversive Communist Activities in South Vietnam (Saigon, 1956), 1, 14, 16.
33. The Vietnamese Theatre (Saigon,n.d.), 14, 19.
34. Vietnamese Embassy to Ministry of National Education, November 26, 1956, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
35. Nguyen Duong Don to Ngo Dinh Diem, March 8, 1957, folder 17397: Ho so v/ v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
36. Tran Huu The to Ngo Dinh Diem, March 16, 1959, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
37. It is not clear what delayed the exhibit. In late 1958 and early 1959, Olov Janse met with South Vietnamese officials in Saigon. He was frustrated by the slow pace of planning for the exhibit, a complaint that he passed along to Thomas Beggs in April 1959. Janse's letter does not specify the reason for the delays: It appears to have been nothing more than the slow movement of the South Vietnamese bureaucracy. See Olov Janse to Thomas Beggs, no date. Box 46, Folder: Viet Nam: General Correspondence, 1954-1959. Smithsonian, RU 312.
38. Tran Huu The to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, April 2, 1960, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
39. Tran Huu The to Ngo Dinh Diem, March 16, 1959, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
40. Carol Duncan, The Aesthetics of Power: Essays in Critical Art History (Cambridge, England, 1993), 8.
41. Thomas Beggs to Tran Van Chuong, November 19, 1956, folder 17397: Ho so v/v to churc trien lãm Van hóa VN tai Mỹ quoc nam 1957-1961 [File about establishing a Vietnamese cultural exhibit in the United States, 1957-1961], PTTDICH NAII.
42. Invoice list, "Viet Nam Art and Archaeology," box 46, folder: The Art and Archeology of Vietnam, October 1960, Smithsonian, RU 312.
43. The Origins of Certain Aspects of Culture and Traditional Crafts in Vietnam (Saigon, n.d.), 18.
44. Thomas P. Mack to Thomas Beggs, May 11, 1955, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, General Correspondence, 1954-1959, Smithsonian, RU 312.
45. Newspaper clipping (St. Louis Post-Dispatch?), n.d. (Summer 1961), box 46, folder: Viet Nam: Museums (1 of 2), Smithsonian, RU 312.
46. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 3.
47. Communist historians during this period also dated Vietnam's history to the Hong Bang, for some of the same reasons. See Patricia Pelley, Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past (Durham, NC, 2002), 65-66.
48. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 13.
49. Thai Van Kiem, Vietnam, Past and Present (Commercial Transworld Editions, 1957), 432, 18, unnumbered.
50. Pelley, Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past, 7 and Patrica Pelley, "History of Resistance and Resistance to History," in Keith Taylor and John K. Whitmore, eds., Essays into Vietnamese Pasts (Ithaca, NY, 1995).
51. The Vietnamese Theatre, 4.
52. Vietnamese Customs and Legends Related to Têt (Saigon, n.d.), 5.
53. The Vietnamese Music (Saigon, n.d.), 6-7.
54. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 9.
55. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 15.
56. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 9.
57. "An Eyeful of Vietnamese Art," Times of Vietnam (n.d.), box 47, folder: Viet Nam Exhibit: Newspaper Clippings, Smithsonian, RU 312.
58. Show of Vietnamese Art, a definite contribution to American-Vietnamese Understanding, January 17, 1961, box 8, folder 43, Douglas Pike Collection: Other Manuscripts-American Friends of Vietnam, TTU VA.
59. David Crownover to Thomas Beggs, November 2, 1961, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.
60. Constance Gill to Thomas Beggs, April 27, 1962, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.
61. Denys P. Myers to Thomas Beggs, May 10, 1962, box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.
62. It is hard to gauge exactly how many people saw "Art and Archaeology of Viet Nam" in person. Museum statistics indicate the total number of visitors without determining how many saw the special exhibit and how many viewed the permanent collections. Museum totals during the run of "Art and Archaeology of Viet Nam" are as follows: Baltimore, over 10,000; Pennsylvania, about 26,000; St. Louis, 42,763; Cleveland, about 50,000. Box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.
63. Tony Gieske, "Exhibit Here to Show Old East-West Art." Washington Post, July 14, 1960. Box 47, folder: Viet Nam Exhibit: Newspaper Clippings, Smithsonian, RU 312.
64. "Vietnamese Art to Go On Display." Washington Post, October 25, 1960, B11. Box 47, folder: Viet Nam Exhibit: Newspaper Clippings, Smithsonian, RU 312.
65. Warren I. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture: A Study in International Relations (New York, 1992), 4.
66. Duncan, Aesthetics of Power, 8.
67. Show of Vietnamese Art, a definite contribution to American-Vietnamese Understanding, January 17, 1961, box 8, folder 43, Douglas Pike Collection: Other Manuscripts-American Friends of Vietnam, TTU VA.
68. Duncan, Aesthetics of Power, 13.
69. For a more detailed discussion of Diem's declining popularity, see Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam and Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin.
70. "Battle at Palace," New York Times, November 11, 1960; "Ngo's Firm Rule Irritated Many," New York Times, November 11, 1960; "Washington Hears of Ouster," New York Times, November 11, 1960.
71. "Failure of a Coup," New York Times, November 13, 1960. See also "Top Rebels Jailed in South Vietnam," NY Times November 13, 1960; "Diem Regime Opposed," New York Times, November 18, 1960.
72. Report on Oram activities, n.d. (circa 1959-1960), 5, folder 8982: Tài lieu cua B o Truong PTT v/v thiet lap và hoat dong cua các Tòa dai dien VN o ngoai quoc nam 1960 [Documents of the secretary of state at the presidency regarding the establishment and activities of Vietnamese representative offices in foreign countries, 1960], PTTDICH NAII.
73. Ibid.
74. Tran Van Chuong to Vu Van Mau, January 15, 1961, folder 9211: Ho so v/v quan he giua Viet Nam voi Mehico, Brazil, Mỹ nam 1961 [Files about relations between Vietnam and Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, 1961], PTTDICH NAII.
75. Gilbert Jonas to Nguyen Phu Duc, March 13, 1961, folder 8982: Tài lieu cua Bo Truong PTT v/v thiet lap và hoat dong cua các Tòa dai dien VN o ngoai quoc nam 1960 [Documents of the secretary of state at the presidency regarding the establishment and activities of Vietnamese representative offices in foreign countries, 1960], PTTDICH NAII.
76. Memo, Gilbert Jonas to Tran Van Chuong, February 7, 1961, folder 9211: Ho so v/v quan he giura Viet Nam voi Mehico, Brazil, Mỹ nam 1961 [Files about relations between Vietnam and Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, 1961], PTTDICH NAII.
77. Denis Warner, The Last Confucian (New York, 1963), 79.
78. Art and Archeology of Viet Nam, 14.
79. Remarks of the Honorable Frederick E. Nolting on July 17, 1962, at the National Museum on the Occasion of the Return of Vietnamese Art Treasures from the United States," box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.
80. "Response by the Secretary of State for National Education," box 46, folder: Viet Nam, 1960-1961, Correspondence and Memoranda, Smithsonian, RU 312.