South Vietnamese Trade Unionism
From cfefw@eiu.edu Fri Sep 3 08:01:44 2004
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 09:57:52 -0500
From: Ed Wehrle <cfefw@eiu.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: South Vietnamese Trade Unionism
I’m in the process of completing a study of trade unionism and the Vietnam War-focusing on the interaction between the Vietnamese Confederation of Labor (CVT) under Tran Quoc Buu and the AFL-CIO. While I rely mostly on the US sources, I~Rve also used materials at the French colonial archives in Aix-en-Provence as well as other French archives and Vietnamese oral sources. My book is scheduled for publication next year with the University of Michigan Press.
I wondered if anyone had suggestions as to sources of information (including oral sources) I might have overlooked? My thanks.
Edmund F. Wehrle
Eastern Illinois University
From mchale@gwu.edu Fri Sep 3 08:49:05 2004
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:47:54 -0100
From: Shawn McHale <mchale@gwu.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: South Vietnamese Trade Unionism
Ed,
Pierre Brocheux has been researching the general topic of south Vietnamese trade unionism, including the American contribution to it. I imagine that he would be a good source of information.
Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
From Edward.G.Miller@Dartmouth.EDU Fri Sep 3 09:27:41 2004
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 12:22:07 -0400
From: Ed Miller <Edward.G.Miller@Dartmouth.EDU>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: South Vietnamese Trade Unionism
Dear Ed:
As Shawn indicates, Brocheux is definitely the guy to talk to about this, as he has been doing a lot of work in American, French and Vietnamese archives on this subject during the last couple of years.
There are a lot of Vietnamese sources on the CVT which, so far as I know, have not yet been mined by scholars. One of the most important of these for your purposes would be the newspaper CONG NHAN (The Worker), which seems to have been Buu's main public mouthpiece. The first series of CN began in early 1953 and ran until the spring of 1954, when Buu was allied with Ngo Dinh Nhu and supporting Nhu's efforts to get Diem appointed as premier of the State of Vietnam. The paper ceased publication in 1954, but was revived in 1956 and ran until 1958 or so. The paper was then revived again in 1963, following the coup against Diem; I'm not sure how long it ran after that. Cornell has some issues from all three of these runs. My notes indicate that the General Sciences Library in Saigon has more complete holdings (though I've never actually looked at these, so i can't say for sure just how complete).
There is also bound to be a great deal on Buu and the CVT in the RVN materials at Archives 2 in Saigon, both from the Diem and post-Diem periods.
Also, have you looked in the SHAT archives at Vincennes? I would guess there would be lots of good stuff there, especially on Buu's activities during the late 1940s and 1950s.
Good luck with your book--its a great topic, and one which is long overdue for scholarly assessment!
Ed Miller
Assistant Professor of History
Dartmouth College
From cfefw@eiu.edu Fri Sep 3 09:58:53 2004
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 11:55:12 -0500
From: Ed Wehrle <cfefw@eiu.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: South Vietnamese Trade Unionism
Shawn:
My thanks. Pierre and I have been in contact for a while--and he directed to a key archives in Paris.
-Ed Wehrle