Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (The New Cold War History) PDF
Preview Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (The New Cold War History)
IMAGINING VIETNAM AND AMERICA John Lewis Gaddis, editor IMAGINING VIETNAM AND AMERICA The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, – Foreword by John Lewis Gaddis TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress ChapelHillandLondon ©TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress Allrightsreserved ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica SetinElectraandChampiontypesbyTsengInformationSystems Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelinesforpermanenceanddurability oftheCommitteeonProductionGuidelinesforBookLongevityoftheCouncil onLibraryResources. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Bradley,Mark. ImaginingVietnamandAmerica:themakingofpostcolonialVietnam, –/byMarkPhilipBradley;forewordbyJohnLewisGaddis. p. cm.—(ThenewColdWarhistory) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ---(cloth:alk.paper)—---(pbk.:alk.paper) .Vietnam—Politicsandgovernment—thcentury. .Vietnam—Foreign relations—UnitedStates. .UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—Vietnam. .UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—thcentury. I.Title. II.Series. .. .'—dc - Portionsofthisworkhavebeenpreviouslypublished,insomewhatdifferentform,as‘‘Imagining America:TheUnitedStatesinRadicalVietnameseAnticolonialDiscourse,’’JournalofAmerican– EastAsianRelations,no.(Winter);‘‘MakingRevolutionaryNationalism:Vietnam, AmericaandtheAugustRevolutionof,’’Itinerario,no.();and‘‘SlouchingToward Bethlehem:Culture,DiplomacyandtheOriginsoftheColdWarinVietnam,’’inColdWar Constructions:ThePoliticalCultureofUnitedStatesImperialism,–,ed.ChristianG.Appy (Amherst:UniversityofMassachusettsPress,),©bytheUniversityofMassachusetts Press,andarereprintedherewithpermission,respectively,ofImprintPublications,Inc.,the editorsofItinerarioandtheUniversityofMassachusettsPress. For my parents, Paul and Anna Bradley CONTENTS ForewordbyJohnLewisGaddis,ix Acknowledgments,xi Abbreviations,xv Introduction: LibertyandtheMakingofPostcolonialOrder, EuropeanWind,AmericanRain: TheUnitedStatesinVietnameseAnticolonialDiscourse, RepresentingVietnam: TheInterwarAmericanConstructionofFrenchIndochina, TrusteeshipandtheAmericanVisionofPostcolonialVietnam, Self-EvidentTruths?: Vietnam,America,andtheAugustRevolutionof, ImprobableOpportunities: VietnameseandAmericanDiplomacyinthePostcolonialMoment, Conclusion: BecomingPostcolonialinaColdWarWorld, Notes, Bibliography, Index, FOREWORD It is rare to find a historian who actually demonstrates the relationship betweencultureanddiplomacy.Historianstalkfrequentlyenoughabouttheneed tomakethisconnection,butwhentheybegintowrite,theirsensitivitytocultural differencestendstofade.Knowinghoweasilythedocumentstheyfindinthear- chivescrossedborders,theyoftenforgetthattheideasthesedocumentscontain werenotequallytransportable.Wordslike‘‘democracy’’and‘‘liberation’’cancarry verydifferentmeaningsacrosstimeandspace.Culturehasawayofparticularizing thesignificance,evenofwhatappeartobeuniversalconcepts. MarkBradley’sImaginingVietnamandAmericaisawelcomedeparturefrom thispatternofwritinghistory.Itshowshowaculturallyrootedparticularizationof universalsbroughtabout,inSoutheastAsia,acostlyandprotractedColdWarcon- flict.AnyonewhoreadonlythewordsofAmericanandVietnameseleadersatthe endofWorldWarIIwouldhavethoughtsuchanoutcomeunlikely.FranklinD. Roosevelt’s bitter denunciations of French colonialism seemed to clear the way forHoChiMinh’sdeclarationofindependence,withitsquotationsfromThomas Jefferson.Butappearancesdeceived,forasBradleymakesclear,theseconverging pronouncementsarosefromremarkablydivergentexpectations. TheVietMinhregardedtheAmericansalongwiththeRussiansasrevolution- arieswhosehistoryofturningwordsintodeedsprovidedamodelforovercoming imperialism—and perhaps also a basis for actual support. The Americans, how- ever much they despised French colonialism, still saw the Vietnamese as naive, passive, and ineffectual people whose independence in an emerging Cold War could only create opportunities for international communism. The very infre- quencyofcontactspriortoWorldWarIIhadledHoandtheAmericanstoassume
Description:The list of books you might like
