Between War and the State: Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954–1975

Van Nguyen-Marshall

Published by Cornell University Press 2023

Between War and the State

Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954–1975

Van Nguyen-Marshall

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501770593

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Between War and the State, Van Nguyen-Marshall examines an array of voluntary activities, including mutual-help, professional, charitable, community development, student, women's, and rights organizations active in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. By bringing focus to the public lives of South Vietnamese people, Between War and the State challenges persistent stereotypes of South Vietnam as a place without society or agency. Such robust associational life underscores how an active civil society survived despite difficulties imposed by the war, government restrictions, economic hardship, and external political forces. These competing political forces, which included the United States, Western aid agencies, and Vietnamese communist agents, created a highly competitive arena wherein the South Vietnamese state did not have a monopoly on persuasive or coercive power. To maintain its influence, the state sometimes needed to accommodate groups and limit its use of violence. Civil society participants in South Vietnam leveraged their social connections, made alliances, appealed to the domestic and international public, and used street protests to voice their concerns, secure their interests, and carry out their activities.

Author / Editor information

Van Nguyen-Marshall is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Trent University. She is the author of In Search of Moral Authority.

Reviews

Jessica Chapman, Williams College, author of Cauldron of Resistance:

Tremendously valuable and illuminating. Van Nguyen-Marshall's use of Vietnamese primary sources and US archives to reveal the vibrancy of public life that continued under the oppressive watch of successive Republic of Vietnam governments amid the disruptions of war is nothing short of prodigious.

Peter Zinoman, University of California, Berkeley, author of Vietnamese Colonial Republican:

An extremely impressive book that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of the strength and complexity of civil society in the Republic of Vietnam—a hugely important but poorly understood issue in the history of the Vietnam War.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Map of Vietnam, 1954–1975 Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction: Theory and Scope Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Historical and Political Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. Sociability and Associational Life in South Vietnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
3. Performing Social Service in South Vietnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4. Voluntary Efforts in Social and Community Development Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
5. Social and Political Activism of Students in South Vietnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
6. Sóng Thần Newspaper and the “Highway of Horror” Project Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
7. The Fight for Rights and Freedoms in the 1970s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Conclusion: Challenges and Possibilities in Comparative Context Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 1
- Images: 7
- Other: 7 b&w halftones, 1 map
Keywords: Vietnam War; South Vietnam’s civil society; South Vietnam politics; Republic of Vietnam; civilian life under the RVN; US presence in Vietnam; history of South Vietnam

eBook

Published: July 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781501770593