Jessica Elkind
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813165837
- eISBN:
- 9780813167183
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165837.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Political History
Aid Under Fire explores American nation building and modernization efforts in South Vietnam during the decade leading up to the full-scale ground war.Beginning in the mid-1950s, American nation ...
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Aid Under Fire explores American nation building and modernization efforts in South Vietnam during the decade leading up to the full-scale ground war.Beginning in the mid-1950s, American nation builders traveled to southern Vietnam, eager to help establish a permanent non-Communist state that would advance US interests in Asia.Ignoring the political concerns of the majority of the Vietnamese people, they supported the South Vietnamese government through a massive program of military, economic, and technical assistance.Based on American and Vietnamese archival sources, this book tells the story of how nation-building efforts were carried out and reveals in stark terms the limits on American power and influence in the period widely considered the apex of US supremacy in the world. This bookfocuses on the activities of the civilian aid workers who spearheaded US policies in South Vietnam.Confident in the transformative power of American models, these men and women were developmental enthusiasts who sought to reform Vietnamese institutions and garner support for the government in Saigon.However, like the government officials who recruited them, most aid workers lacked a basic knowledge and understanding of Vietnamese culture, history, and politics.As a result, they attempted to replicate political, economic, and military systems on the basis oftheir own experiences while displaying a willful blindness to the conditions and attitudes in Vietnam. By examining civilian aid workers’ role in implementing and shaping American modernization efforts in Vietnam, this book shows how nation building functioned—and ultimately failed—at the ground level.Less
Aid Under Fire explores American nation building and modernization efforts in South Vietnam during the decade leading up to the full-scale ground war.Beginning in the mid-1950s, American nation builders traveled to southern Vietnam, eager to help establish a permanent non-Communist state that would advance US interests in Asia.Ignoring the political concerns of the majority of the Vietnamese people, they supported the South Vietnamese government through a massive program of military, economic, and technical assistance.Based on American and Vietnamese archival sources, this book tells the story of how nation-building efforts were carried out and reveals in stark terms the limits on American power and influence in the period widely considered the apex of US supremacy in the world. This bookfocuses on the activities of the civilian aid workers who spearheaded US policies in South Vietnam.Confident in the transformative power of American models, these men and women were developmental enthusiasts who sought to reform Vietnamese institutions and garner support for the government in Saigon.However, like the government officials who recruited them, most aid workers lacked a basic knowledge and understanding of Vietnamese culture, history, and politics.As a result, they attempted to replicate political, economic, and military systems on the basis oftheir own experiences while displaying a willful blindness to the conditions and attitudes in Vietnam. By examining civilian aid workers’ role in implementing and shaping American modernization efforts in Vietnam, this book shows how nation building functioned—and ultimately failed—at the ground level.
Jessica Elkind
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813165837
- eISBN:
- 9780813167183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165837.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter examines US involvement in refugee resettlement schemes between 1954 and 1956.Refugee assistance served as a critical and formative experience for American nation builders in Vietnam and ...
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This chapter examines US involvement in refugee resettlement schemes between 1954 and 1956.Refugee assistance served as a critical and formative experience for American nation builders in Vietnam and shaped the attitudes and approaches they took in their future projects.Although nearly one million northerners were absorbed into South Vietnam without causing major social or economic disruptions, there is little evidence that these people were integrated into their communities or that they enhanced Diem’s legitimacy and popularity, which were the key objectives of the effort.Despite these mixed results, many Americans claimed that refugee resettlement was a resounding success.The aid workers’ positive assessments of their achievements in helping the refugees and in cooperating with the South Vietnamese government created a misplaced sense of optimism and contributed to their naïveté about the possibility for effectivenation building in South Vietnam.Less
This chapter examines US involvement in refugee resettlement schemes between 1954 and 1956.Refugee assistance served as a critical and formative experience for American nation builders in Vietnam and shaped the attitudes and approaches they took in their future projects.Although nearly one million northerners were absorbed into South Vietnam without causing major social or economic disruptions, there is little evidence that these people were integrated into their communities or that they enhanced Diem’s legitimacy and popularity, which were the key objectives of the effort.Despite these mixed results, many Americans claimed that refugee resettlement was a resounding success.The aid workers’ positive assessments of their achievements in helping the refugees and in cooperating with the South Vietnamese government created a misplaced sense of optimism and contributed to their naïveté about the possibility for effectivenation building in South Vietnam.
Jessica Elkind
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813165837
- eISBN:
- 9780813167183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165837.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Political History
The introduction presents the key arguments and themes of the book.It examines the basic US approach to Vietnam and demonstrates how US nation-building activities in South Vietnam fit into broader ...
More
The introduction presents the key arguments and themes of the book.It examines the basic US approach to Vietnam and demonstrates how US nation-building activities in South Vietnam fit into broader modernization efforts, especially during the first decades of the Cold War.It discusses the relevant scholarship on US involvement in Vietnam as well as modernization and nation building and explains how this book fits into and contributes to that literature.It also introduces the various civilian organizations tasked with carrying out official nation-building policies.Finally, it provides an overview of the South Vietnamese–US relationship as well as the political and cultural landscape in which American aid workers in Vietnam operated.Less
The introduction presents the key arguments and themes of the book.It examines the basic US approach to Vietnam and demonstrates how US nation-building activities in South Vietnam fit into broader modernization efforts, especially during the first decades of the Cold War.It discusses the relevant scholarship on US involvement in Vietnam as well as modernization and nation building and explains how this book fits into and contributes to that literature.It also introduces the various civilian organizations tasked with carrying out official nation-building policies.Finally, it provides an overview of the South Vietnamese–US relationship as well as the political and cultural landscape in which American aid workers in Vietnam operated.
