Technical Assistance in Vietnam
From judithh@u.washington.edu Fri Jul 16 09:01:46 2004
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 09:28:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Judith Henchy <judithh@u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam (fwd)
Dear VSG,
This inquiry is copied from H-Asia. If you repond on VSG, please remember to copy Suzanne Moon.
I am also interested in this question, having had difficulty tracking
USAID funding to libraries and archives during this period.
Judith
Subject: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 17:43:51 +0800
From: H-SEASIA Editor <h_seasia@NUS.EDU.SG>
Reply-To: H-Net Discussion List on History and Study of Southeast Asia
<H-SEASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
To: H-SEASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
From: Suzanne Moon [mailto:smoon@Mines.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 5:10 AM
Dear Colleagues,
In the fall, I will be teaching a class on the history of international development, and I'd like to have a section on U.S. technical aid to Vietnam during the 1950's and 1960's. So far, I have had very little luck finding historical literature on this topic, although I have found some interesting primary materials (congressional hearings and so forth). Can anyone suggest books or articles that take a historical look at the activities of USAID or its precursor organizations in Vietnam? So far I have found a few books on Michigan State's work in Vietnam, and quite a bit on the history of medicine during the Vietnam war (and the colonial period). I'd really like to find somethng that takes a broader look at technical aid (including for example agricultural assistance, or infrastructure building) or "community development" programs going on before and during the war.
Thanks!
Suzanne Moon
Suzanne Moon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Liberal Arts and International Studies
Colorado School of Mines
Stratton Hall, Suite 322 1005 14th St.
Golden, CO 80401 303-384-2407
From hoanhtr@erols.com Fri Jul 16 09:01:42 2004
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 10:43:50 -0700
From: Tran Dinh Hoanh <hoanhtr@erols.com>
To: "[devel-vn discussion group]" <devel-vn@cairo.anu.edu.au>,
avsl-l discussion group <avsl-l@postbox.anu.edu.au>,
vnbiz <vnbiz@vietlinks.net>
Cc: smoon@Mines.EDU
Subject: [devel-vn] Re: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam
Dear Susan & All,
I think "South Vietnam Trial And Experience -- A Challenge for Development" by Nguyen Anh Tuan may help. Dr Nguyen Anh Tuan was Minister of Finance of South Vietnam before 1975. This book is a Monograph in International Studies, Ohio University, Southeast Asia Series, No. 80. ( Ohio University Center for International Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Athens. Ohio, 1987). ISBN 0-89680-141-1.
Good luck.
Hoanh
_______
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney at Law
Washington DC, USA
From dtsang@lib.uci.edu Fri Jul 16 09:01:51 2004
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 14:32:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Tsang <dtsang@lib.uci.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam (fwd)
How about this title, Suzanne:
Author Dacy, Douglas C
Title Foreign aid, war, and economic development : South Vietnam, 1955-1975 / Douglas C. Dacy Published Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1986
LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
Langson Library HC444 .D33 1986 NOT CHCKD OUT
Description xix, 300 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
Subj-lcsh Economic assistance, American -- Vietnam
Vietnam -- Economic conditions
Vietnam -- Politics and government -- 1945-1975
Note(s) Includes index
Bibliography: p. 283-293
ISBN 0521303273
Call # HC444 .D33 1986
Also, try searching catalogs under the first subject tracing.
dan
Daniel C. Tsang
Bibliographer for Asian American Studies, Economics & Political Science
Social Science Data Librarian
Fulbright Research Scholar in Vietnam, 2003-2004
380 Jack Langson Library, University of California
PO Box 19557, Irvine CA 92623-9557, USA
E-mail: dtsang@uci.edu; Tel: (949) 824-4978; fax: (949) 824-2700
UCI Social Science Data Archives: http://data.lib.uci.edu
Subject Guides: http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/subject.html
From dtsang@lib.uci.edu Fri Jul 16 09:01:54 2004
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 14:42:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Tsang <dtsang@lib.uci.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: more Re: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam (fwd)
A couple of dissertations:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/1377214
PUBLICATION NUMBER AAT 1377214
TITLE JOHN F. KENNEDY'S THIRD WORLD POLICY: FOREIGN AID AND THE ROLE OF
SOUTH VIETNAM
AUTHOR BRADFORD, JOHN STEVEN
DEGREE MA
SCHOOL SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY
DATE 1995
PAGES 131
ADVISER REYNOLDS, BRUCE
SOURCE MAI 34/03, p. 1022, Jun 1996
SUBJECT HISTORY, UNITED STATES (0337); POLITICAL SCIENCE, INTERNATIONAL
LAW AND RELATIONS (0616)
This thesis maintains that President Kennedy's Third World Foreign Policy was a synthesis of ideas that were developed during the 1950s by United States scholarly, philanthropic and military institutions. The research indicates that John F. Kennedy used these ideas to define the Democratic vision in the 1960 presidential campaign and thereafter to implement a program of general economic assistance to developing nations. Despite the President's apparently sincere advocacy of American development aid to the Third World, this thesis finds that U.S. government institutions reverted to their traditional roles by the third year of Kennedy's presidency. This helped to buttress congressional rejection of Third World development aid in 1963. Throughout the course of the foreign aid debate, South Vietnam was cited as the symbol of the U.S. national security problem in the Third World and the claim of success there by direct military means served to undermine support for the President's idealistic program
.................
and:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/NN87599
PUBLICATION NUMBER AAT NN87599
TITLE UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE DIPLOMACY: CONGRESSIONAL POLICY
ON AID TO VIETNAM, 1952-1963
AUTHOR DORE, GILBERT
DEGREE PHD
SCHOOL MCGILL UNIVERSITY ( CANADA)
DATE 1992
PAGES 267
ADVISER RANDALL, STEPHEN J.
ISBN 0-315-87599-2
SOURCE DAI-A 55/06, p. 1667, Dec 1994
SUBJECT HISTORY, UNITED STATES (0337); POLITICAL SCIENCE, INTERNATIONAL
LAW AND RELATIONS (0616)
American foreign assistance to the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam was a controversial issue during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, straining the executive-legislative relationship and provoking discord within Congress. For Dwight D. Eisenhower, the programme was the best means of containing communism, short of ordering American forces to the region. Both major parties were divided on the issue. Conservatives and liberals in each party perceived foreign aid differently. Old Guard Republicans and southern Democrats were skeptical about the expensive assistance programme. They contended that the 'give-away' legislation would undermine Saigon's resolve to attain economic and political autonomy. Generally suspicious of America's allies, conservatives were especially critical toward Diem since they considered him an unproven ally who could take advantage of United States' generosity. Liberal Republicans and Democrats, who harboured an internationalist perspective, acknowledged foreign aid as a legitimate means of countering communism. Perceiving Diem as an alternative to Ho Chi Minh's leadership and Bao Dai's incompetence, liberals supported the Premier's pro-democratic aspirations. The French reversal at Dien Bien Phu, the 'fiasco' of the Geneva Conference, and the subsequent foreign assistance investigations by the legislative branch brought about a tenuous truce between conservatives and liberals. Although fundamental differences remained, both groups were convinced that a reappraisal of the aid programme was needed before the President committed America too heavily in Vietnam. The increasing commitments by Eisenhower's successor and his lack of co-operation with Capitol Hill solidified the conservative-liberal entente. Diem's assassination in November 1963 sobered Congress and strengthened its disapproval of America's assistance policy. Such congressional activism peaked by the late 1960's and early 1970's. The experience acquired during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years allowed Congress, not the President, to oppose United States military intervention in Vietnam during the Nixon Presidency. It also provided the initiative to rationalize the foreign aid legislation, favoring economic and technical development rather than military commitments.
and:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/8610041
PUBLICATION NUMBER AAT 8610041
TITLE TONKIN TO TET: THE U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY SYSTEM AND VIETNAM
(UNITED STATES)
AUTHOR HATCHER, PATRICK LLOYD
DEGREE PHD
SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
DATE 1985
PAGES 554
SOURCE DAI-A 47/03, p. 1024, Sep 1986
SUBJECT HISTORY, MODERN (0582)
DIGITAL FORMATS 22.40Mb image-only PDF
24 page Preview
This study analyzes the design of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, concentrating on 1963-1965. With all postwar presidents supervising an internationalism of self interest, American oligarchs organized a republican empire around four principles. They assumed the beneficence of their principles--collective security, limited war, political intervention, economic constraints--for themselves and their allies. In Vietnam they applied all four simultaneously, thereby launching a reform of Vietnamese institutions at the same time that they assisted in the military campaigns. As global reformers American internationalists strove for a Lockean reordering while their Soviet competitors strove for a Leninist reordering, carrying this competition to specific tests such as Vietnam. Both found their Vietnamese ally difficult and suspicious. As reformers of the Vietnamese fatherland, Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem fought for the chieftainship of an extended Vietnamese tribe, one free of outsiders and reordered by the winning chief. To coordinate American designs the internationalists created a clearing house, the National Security Council. It was to this council that the institutions of the national security state brought their interventionist designs. In addition to the NSC, this study covers the role in Vietnam of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Agency for International Development. To coordinate the various designs by Vietnamese contenders, each contender orchestrated his own institution, which in the case of Hanoi was a revolutionary party while in the case of Saigon it was a traditional family followed by a military committee. In the race to force upon the Vietnamese security rights, individual rights, and the subsistence rights, the American Whig and Tory internationalists created a multitude of winners and losers among Vietnam's ambivalent peasant majority and her articulate urban minority. This extremism eroded South Vietnam's already weak foundations.
dan
Daniel C. Tsang
Bibliographer for Asian American Studies, Economics & Political Science
Social Science Data Librarian
Fulbright Research Scholar in Vietnam, 2003-2004
380 Jack Langson Library, University of California
PO Box 19557, Irvine CA 92623-9557, USA
E-mail: dtsang@uci.edu; Tel: (949) 824-4978; fax: (949) 824-2700
UCI Social Science Data Archives: http://data.lib.uci.edu
Subject Guides: http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/subject.html
From emiller@fas.harvard.edu Fri Jul 16 09:02:04 2004
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 17:10:38 -0400
From: Ed Miller <emiller@fas.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: Query: Technical Assistance in Vietnam (fwd)
Dear Suzanne and list:
The following are some sources I've found useful on this subject. Most are secondary sources, but I also include some primary sources that provide some valuable "on the ground" perspectives. (These are somewhat skewed toward's the Diem period, since that is the subject of my research at the moment.)
Robert Packenham, LIBERAL AMERICA AND THE THIRD WORLD: POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IDEAS IN FOREIGN AID AND SOCIAL SCIENCE (1973). Still an essential source for understanding the context of US technical assistance programs during this period.
John D. Montgomery, THE POLITICS OF FOREIGN AID: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (1962) Lots of info about US technical assistance to South Vietnam during the Diem period by an American participant.
Robert Scigliano and Guy Fox, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN VIETNAM: THE MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE(1965). A post-mortem on the MSU group by two group participants.
Gerald Hickey, WINDOW ON A WAR: AN ANTHROPOLOGIST IN THE VIETNAM CONFLICT 2002). The memoir of a former Michigan State Team member, RAND consultant and leading expert on Vietnam's highland minorities.
John Ernst, FORGING A FATEFUL ALLIANCE: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY AND THE VIETNAM WAR (1998). Useful chronicle of the Michigan State group, though unfortunately quite sketchy on the Vietnamese side of the aid equation.
Philip Catton, DIEM'S FINAL FAILURE: PRELUDE TO AMERICA'S WAR IN VIETNAM (2002). By far the best history of the Strategic Hamlet Program of the early 1960s.
Harvey Neese and John O'Donnell, ed.s, PRELUDE TO TRAGEDY: VIETNAM, 1960-1965 (2001). A very interesting collection of essays by South Vietnamese and Americans involved in various aspects of US aid programs during the early 1960s.
Louis Walinsky, ed. AGRARIAN REFORM AS UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE SELECTED PAPERS OF WOLF LADEJINSKY (1977). Selected personal papers of the man who was first the top US land reform adviser in South Vietnam and then special consultant to Diem. Pages 214-314 contain some of Ladejinsky's reports and letters about Vietnam produced during 1955-1962.
Jefferson Peter Marquis, "The 'Other War': An intellectual history of American nationbuilding in South Vietnam, 1954-1975" (PhD Dissertation, Ohio State, 1997).
Hope this is helpful. Good luck!
Ed