Vietnam's Southern Revolution: From Peasant Insurrection to Total War, 1959-1968

287 Pages·2009·2.285 MB·English

by  David Hunt

vietnam’s
southern
revolution

★
vietnam’s
southern
revolution
from peasant
insurrection
to total war
david hunt
University of Massachusetts Press
amherst
Copyright © 2008 by University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
LC 2008043126
ISBN 978- 1-5 5849-6 92- 7 (paper); 691- 0 (library cloth)
Designed by Richard Hendel
Set in Quadraat and The Serif Extra Bold by Binghamton Valley Composition
Printed and bound by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Library of Congress Cata loging- in- Publication Data
Hunt, David, 1942-
Vietnam’s southern revolution: from peasant insurrection to total war /
David Hunt. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55849-691-0 (library cloth ed. : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-1-55849-692-7 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Vietnam War, 1961-1975—Social aspects.
2. Vietnam—Social conditions—20th century.
3. Peasantry—Vietnam—My Tho—History—20th century.
4. My Tho (Vietnam)—Social conditions—20th century.
5. Peasantry—Vietnam—My Tho—Interviews.
6. My Tho (Vietnam)—Biography. 7. War and society—History—20th century.
8. Civil-military relations—Vietnam—History—20th century.
9. Vietnam—Politics and government—1945-1975. I. Title.
DS559.8.S6H86 2009
959.704'31—dc22
2008043126
British Library Cata loguing in Publication data are available.
To
James McMillin Hunt
and Mai Jean Hunt
and to Thuy Hunt

contents
Ac know ledg ments ix
Abbreviations xi
chapter 1 A Social History of the Vietnam War 1
chapter 2 An Itinerant Peasantry 10
chapter 3 The Peasant Revolt of 1959–60 29
chapter 4 Contested Unities of the Golden Period 47
chapter 5 The Pop u lar Movement and the Generational Divide 68
chapter 6 Modern Girls and New Women 90
chapter 7 Escalation at Ground Level 115
chapter 8 Mapping the Exodus 136
chapter 9 The American Other 153
chapter 10 Fate of the Liberated Zone 171
chapter 11 “Live Hour, Live Minute” 193
chapter 12 The Tet Offensive 212
Appendix: The Uses of a Source 225
Notes 235
Index 265

ac know ledg ments
Not long after I started teaching at the University of Massachusetts Boston,
Linda Gordon and others on the editorial board of Radical America called my
attention to a collection of interviews with “Viet Cong” defectors and prison-
ers of war, which the Rand Corporation had just released to the public. I
wrote an essay for Radical America and then an article for Past & Present on the
National Liberation Front in My Tho province, all the while thinking that
these fascinating materials deserved a more extended treatment. In the fol-
lowing years, while turning to other scholarly tasks, I continued to think
about them, and in 1997 I started over again with the fi rst of the interviews in
the My Tho series and began to write this book.
The history of Vietnam’s Southern Revolution is therefore entwined with all
the projects and relations of my working life. The idealism, intellectual seri-
ousness, and love of teaching among colleagues at UMass Boston and espe-
cially among Column comrades gave me a community and a sense of direction
that has lasted to the present. In the History Department, I especially want
to thank Esther Kingston- Mann, the most imaginative and intrepid scholar to
come out of “peasant studies,” Woody Smith, a learned and generous col-
league, and Maureen Dwyer, who when problems arise invariably knows what
to do to solve them. Most of all, I am grateful to UMB students, by now thou-
sands of them, who have taken my classes. I have been moved and enlight-
ened by their striving for an education and a better life.
In 1985 John McAuliff’s invitation to join an educator’s delegation to Viet-
nam set in motion a chain of events that shaped the rest of my professional and
personal life. In the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Con-
sequences, Kevin Bowen, Larry Heinemann, and Bruce Weigl shared their
poems and stories with me and helped me think in a deeper way about the Viet-
nam ese. In for mants who know more about Vietnam than I do, and especially
Ngo Vinh Long, Nguyen Ba Chung, Nguyen Duc Chinh, H ue-T am Ho Tai, and
William Turley, have patiently answered my questions and saved me from many
errors. Among the people I count on are Bill Beik, my compagnon de route going
back to Sacramento Place; Jim Dittmar, Milt Kotelchuck, Dick Lourie, Mark
Pawlak, and Peter Weiler (and Ron Schreiber, RIP) from the oldest men’s group
on the east coast; Pam Annas, Linda Dittmar and Jack Spence, for many acts of
friendship in time of need; and Marilyn Young, respected and loved, and not
just by me, for keeping the faith and for her principled scholarship.
Bill Beik and Peter Weiler have read and commented on just about every-
thing I have written, and this book is no exception. Chris Appy, Mark Bradley,
Woody Smith, and William Turley provided a close and helpful critique of the
entire manuscript, and drafts of chapters were scrutinized by David Biggs,
Dick Cluster, Clark Dougan, Jim Green, Jim Hunt, Esther Kingston- Mann,
Rochelle Ruthchild, Tim Sieber, Steve Silliman, Malcolm Smuts, Philip Tay-
lor, Paul Wright, Weili Ye, Katherine Yih, and Marilyn Young. They spotted all
the fl aws, as I knew they would.
At UMass Press, Paul Wright encouraged me through the years, and so did
Clark Dougan, an editor who also happens to be an accomplished historian;
Amanda Heller and Mary Bellino worked hard to improve what I had written,
Carol Betsch saw the project through, and Kate Blackmer did the maps and
taught me a lot about map making. Stephen Denney helped me fi nd clean
copies of many interviews in the DT series. People in the know were im-
pressed and I was delighted when Jim O’Brien, whose reputation on this and
other fronts is exemplary, agreed to do the index.
My parents, Freda and Jim Hunt, are gone, but the memory of their devo-
tion continues to give me strength, as does the constant support of Miriam
Hunt, with her passion for books, Jean Hunt, the anchor of our family, and
Mas Nakawatase, the brother I gained in 1971. From the beginning, my son
Jim has been there right beside me, full of hope and courage as we made our
way through many an adventure. So has my daughter Mai Jean, whose loving
heart and radiant presence are a joy and inspiration. I keep trying to fi nd the
words to say all there is to say about Thuy Hunt, who cares for me always and
is always in my thoughts.
x acknowledgments