Contested Autonomy
The video clip I saw of a young Vietnamese-American woman who opened an art gallery in Vietnam led to my humanities moment. She said that her mother disowned her because of her decision to go back to Vietnam. I could relate this to my personal experience. My mother was very upset when any one of her children wanted to go back to visit Vietnam. She told us that she risked her own life for us to escape Vietnam in 1978, and we should not want to go back to visit a country with a horrific and unjust communist dictatorship. She said that we should not support the communists by going back there, even as a tourist. This made me realize that our lives are full of conflicts because we are tempted to believe that our own experiences and points of view are more important than others. <br /><br />Like Ambassador MacWhite and his Asian friend in <em>The Ugly American</em>, we refuse to listen to each other’s perspective. Just as Vietnam was contested territory, our autonomy is also contested. Rather than being open to different avenues for deeper understanding, we are often close minded. I know that conflicts are inevitable. While I may not have power to control every encounter, I must accept that these challenges strengthen my understanding and empathy.
<em>The Ugly American</em> by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Julie Doan, Elementary Teacher, Oregon
contested-autonomy
Violent Legacy Continued
My moment was a culmination of two. The first was the image or video taken from Muhammad Ali’s comments regarding the Vietnam War. I have played this video many times in class to highlight the conflicting viewpoints and social implications of the Vietnam War. Considering the backlash experienced by Ali followed by his most recent transformation into an iconic symbol of defiance, I and others have used this video mainly to highlight the racial component of sending African Americans to fight wars in foreign countries despite them not being treat equally in America. And as a black man, the most important moment in the video was previously when he says that no Vietcong had ever called him a nigger and that they want him to go fight for them, but they won’t fight for him, Ali, at home. But after watching the video early in the course and creating the map on unexploded ordinance in Laos, my ah hah moment came from connecting Ali’s comments regarding the people in Vietnam to the unexploded ordinance that continues to take the lives of many in Southeast Asia today. In fact, before he speaks on the racial aspects of American society, he talks about the killing of poor, brown, people in a country that has done nothing wrong towards him or any American for that fact. The picture above of the unexploded ordinances that continue to kill children living in Southeast Asia today is testimony to how the legacy of contested territory continues to dramatically influence the lives many in these countries today in a violent way
Tony Noland, 44, Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher
violent-legacy-continued
You Cannot Copy That Map
In a lecture on the lived experiences of the local peoples of the area surrounding Dien Bien Phu in Northwest Vietnam, Dr. Christian C. Lentz, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Chapel Hill, shared this map of the Northwest Region of Vietnam and a short anecdote about why this map is of particular importance. He was in the middle of doing research in Hanoi at the North Vietnam Archives Center #3, and faced opposition when he attempted to make copies of many of the maps dating to the French colonial era in Vietnam, whether they be from the French or a Vietnamese production. This map alone Dr. Lentz was allowed to reproduce. This map represents for me the numerous layers that the themes of “contested” and “territory” manifest in Southeast Asia in this time period.
This seemingly little tidbit that he shared in the midst of his lecture is what really stuck with me, and cemented my understanding of the conflict in Southeast Asia. The “contest” for Vietnam extends much further past the initial creation of this map in 1952. The idea that a visiting scholar such as Dr. Lentz was strictly forbidden to copy any maps other than this one speaks to how hotly contested the memory of the Vietnam War is still today. As Dr. Lentz told the story, I created a mental image of a Vietnamese archival official standing over Dr. Lentz’ shoulder, closely monitoring what the American scholar copied. How do we remember this conflict? From which perspective? Controlling what can and cannot be recreated is an attempt to steer the narrative, which is very much still being written.
Dr. Lentz’ story on the “Black River Region after Northwest Campaign (Oct-Dec 1952)” map simplified for me all the complexities that contributed to the warfare in Southeast Asia into a single map, a visual representation of a territory that meant so many different things to so many different actors, each pulled into a conflict that continues to this day to be contested. I can only hope through continued scholarship, communication, and openness, that one day, the archival official will instead say, “Yes, you can copy that map.”
July 2018 - NEH Summer Institute
Maggie Childress, 24, Teacher, Wake County, North Carolina
you-cannot-copy-that-map
The Long History of Contested Freedom in Vietnam
“Vietnam” has been a contested idea for a long time. As an American History teacher, I tend to offer my students a compelling look at the American government’s military intervention in Vietnam from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s. Over the course of two weeks with teacher colleagues from all over the country and with the help of some equally impressive university scholars I came to understand how of part of Southeast Asia known today as Vietnam has a long history as a contested place. I want to now re-evaluate the when in which I teach about Vietnam to my future classes. I selected this image because for me it conveyed what a long process Vietnam went through in order to exist presently. It is a place to me as a teacher that tells a much larger story than simply the American war in Vietnam. It’s a story of process from colonization to revolution that spans many centuries and has several links to different places and peoples. In order to contextualize Vietnam as more than just the site where Americans were sent from 1954-1975 we need to tell the more complicated story of the history of the place, and that’s why I selected this image as my humanities moment.
It’s a great primary source to summarize the different approach that I gained from my time in that seminar. It’s a propaganda poster from “Operation Freedom” which was done by the United States Information Agency in order to convince people from North Vietnam to escape communism by moving below the 17th parallel. Everything about this image to me is a reminder of how contested this land had been. The words themselves, all in the style of the Vietnamese Latin alphabet, can tell a remarkable story of how this country emerged in the cross-currents of South East Asia. The communist flag, the images of a destroyed yet oppressive North, the green, serene wet rice agriculture of the South offer students a lot to unpack. Why was the country divided? When was this produced? What role did the United States have in Vietnam and why would they produce this? Do you think this changed people’s minds? All questions that need to be answered by examining the history of Vietnamese and not of the colonial actors.
The words are also a powerful message telling the viewer in Vietnamese: “Go to the SOUTH to avoid COMMUNISM” and that “The NAM VIỆT compatriots are waiting to welcome their Bắc Việt compatriots with open arms.” What assumptions did the American propaganda designers make? What is different about the country in the North versus the South? There is so much to explore about Vietnam itself through this image rather than doing a unit of the exclusively the American government or military, and forces my students, as well as myself to confront a much different history of Vietnam by including an understanding of how Vietnam was not just something acted on by outsiders, but how it was in itself, a place composed of a number of different ethnicities, religions as people in order to teach a more complete history in my curriculum of how Americans ended up there.
Source: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6949142
A propaganda poster from “Operation Freedom” which was done by the United States Information Agency
July 24th, 2018
Brendon, 30, High School U.S. History Teacher, from Camden, Delaware
the-long-history-of-contested-freedom-in-vietnam
Discovering Contested Territory Through Vietnamese Folk Poetry
Until this summer institute, I had never heard of the Vietnamese folk poetry known as ca dao. To be honest, I had never even thought of Vietnamese people having a poetic tradition at all. I, like so many other Americans, had relegated Vietnam to an inert location on a map or a tidy historical category. I could barely conceive of a Vietnam beyond the context of American military intervention. Even as we learned about the legacies of European colonialism in the initial seminars, I still saw Vietnam as an almost passive landscape trodden over by successive waves of foreign invaders. In effect, I had made Vietnam a victim in its own story. That changed for me when I heard professor and poet John Balaban talk about his experience collecting and publishing for the first time the oral poetry of Vietnamese farmers. Balaban spoke of an ancient people, full of history, full of passion, and full of pride, inundated by the monsoons that swept away the architectural vestiges of power that we in the “West” have come to rely on so heavily for our historical identity. What was left was a long, beautiful tradition of oral history preserved in the daily life of simple farmers. As Balaban eloquently writes in <em>Ca Dao Vietnam: Vietnamese Folk Poetry</em>, poetry flourished “in villages where the lone singer can hear his or her voice against the drone of crickets, the slap of water, or the rustling of banana leaves in the wind (p. 2). This line jolted me out of my facile characterization of Vietnam and its people. Long before the French cast their colonizing net over the people of Vietnam, long before the Americans stumbled into their disastrous war, long before there even was a place called Vietnam, a lone singer could hear her voice “against the drone of crickets, the slap of water, or the rustling of banana leaves in the wind.” The theme of our institute was “Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia.” At first glance, I assumed that we would be discussing America’s involvement in the so-called Vietnam War of the twentieth century; after two weeks of intense study, I have realized that I fundamentally misread the title of this institute. To study contested territory is not to examine how America and the Viet Cong fought bitterly over this hill or that, but rather to place America in the context of an ancient regional story that is crowded with diversity and life. “America’s Role in Southeast Asia” says nothing of dominance or destiny – it was my enculturation as an American that read into it such a teleological narrative. Contested territory, like so much else, starts, and perhaps ends, in the mind.
<em>Ca Dao Vietnam: Vietnamese Folk Poetry</em> by John Balaban
Wednesday, July 18th, 2018
Kevin Shuford
discovering-contested-territory-through-vietnamese-folk-poetry
Vietnamese Declaration of Independence
The introduction of the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence from the Nancy Gardner presentation was one of the high points of the week for me. Until that time I had not even presumed that such a document existed. To find out that the document was actually written by Ho Chi Minh himself was an eye opener. Furthermore to find out that Ho actually used the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Men as resources was extremely edifying. I found it interesting that he opened with a direct quote from the Declaration of Independence and went on to quote from the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
His conversation is to the American and French authorities. He questions them on their hypocrisy throughout the document based on the American and French struggles for independence. This is one of the documents that I plan to share with my students.
The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
7/18/2018
Dorothy Morris-Ross, 71, High School Teacher
vietnamese-declaration-of-independence
Embracing the Complexity and Chaos of the Humanities Through a Photo
On May 8th, 1957, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was greeted by President Dwight Eisenhower (along with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles) at Washington National Airport at the beginning of an official state visit for President Diem. This seemingly ordinary photo is noteworthy because it captures the complexity of the Cold War and the contested territory of Southeast Asia, and embracing that chaotic feeling is a main reason why I love the humanities.
There is much to teach about in this photo. Why would Eisenhower personally greet Diem at the airport, something he only did on one other occasion (and is almost never done by sitting U.S. presidents for heads of state)? Why is the year 1957 important? What does the United States think of Vietnam at this time? How is this photo potentially problematic? There are contrasts on many levels when dissecting this photo, and it can launch exploration in so many directions.
The photo encapsulates a conversation that I had with Vietnam historian Pierre Asselin after a talk he presented to our NEH summer seminar at the National Humanities Center. While we were discussing the challenges of teaching the Cold War to students, Professor Asselin noted, “if you study the Cold War correctly, you should be more confused as you go along, and that’s a great feeling!” This last line resonated with me, and reiterated my belief that it is important for students to understand different perspectives, sometimes without finding an answer to the question that was posed, but understanding the complexity and nuance of that question. This process is where real learning takes place, and it is important to teach students to embrace this chaos (and even to seek it out) in their own learning. Challenging our initial impressions of a source and digging deeper speaks to the lifelong value of the humanities.
July 24, 2018
Bryan Boucher, 39, Teacher
embracing-the-complexity-and-chaos-of-the-humanities-through-a-photo
The Senselessness of Rambo and Other Things
It was the beginning of another morning session for Contested Territory and I was still circulating ideas in my mind about connections between Vietnam and the South Side of Chicago. While perusing my notebook to find a clean page, our speaker for the session was introduced and we all settled in for the lecture. I looked up to hear a tall bearded white man with an unrecognizable accent. I’m looking closely at his mouth to help me decipher his words when I make out Rambo. Rambo was his entry point into the study of Vietnam and the Vietnam War. Immediately, my reaction is visceral and I tensed up. Images of what seems to be senseless violence on brown bodies flash before me and his voice goes mute in my head. The phrase senseless violence repeats in my mind until I remember where I’ve heard it used before. Senseless violence is the phrase that trivializes gang violence which leads to very little investigation of homicides and allows it to persist on the South and West Side of Chicago. I decided Contested Territory for my students would be a lesson challenging them to see gang violence as more than just violence, but intimate communities that are fighting over land, economic safety and respect, similar to the motivation for many wars in Vietnam. Contested Territory is a way that students could learn about a people and a history far from us while feeling just how close those realities are to their neighborhood.
Brittanee C. Rolle, 28, Teacher
the-senselessness-of-rambo-and-other-things
Perspectives on Commemorating the Vietnam War
“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The idea of “contested territories”, which we have wrestled with this week, can apply to how the war is remembered and commemorated too. My humanities moment came in a group discussion this week with Quynh, a Vietnamese professor. We were discussing the idea of the Vietnam War Memorial as a teaching tool and I asked her if there was a similar monument in Vietnam. She immediately said yes, there is: Sơn Mỹ. She showed me a picture of a monument that I assumed had the names of Vietnamese soldiers until she handed me a piece of paper with the words “Mỹ Lai Massacre”. I realized this monument contained the names of more than 500 civilians killed by U.S. soldiers in the Sơn Mỹ district in 1968. At first, in my mind, I rejected the idea that this monument could be like the Vietnam War Memorial displaying the names of all the Americans killed in the war. I didn’t want to equate a Vietnamese monument to Mỹ Lai, one of the worst events in the war, with the Wall. But I came to understand that in some ways the monuments are similar. The war made victims of both sides.
July 24, 2018
Laura Wakefield, History Educator
perspectives-on-commemorating-the-vietnam-war
The Ho Chi Minh and Marcus Garvey Connection
This seminar has been an amazing experience for me. I have always admired Ho Chi Minh. His commitment to the people of Vietnam and his efforts to free his land from colonialism is such an inspirational story. I must admit that I had never heard of the term Contested Territory before I came to this NEH two-week seminar. After much study over these two weeks, I can see how contested territory fits this topic. Each time the Vietnamese people attempted to rise and reclaim their territory, they were met with resistance from colonizers who had a vested interest in preserving their presence in the country for in my opinion, political and economic reasons. <br /><br />I learned so much about the battle of Dien Bien Phu, The Ho Chi Minh Trail, Contested Territories, GIS Mapping, and some of the comrades who assistant in the movement to liberate Vietnam. However, my greatest moments were the GIS mapping assignment we received in the first week. Our team decided to create a GIS map that centered around Ho Chi Minh travels. I was stunned by how many places and people this person encountered. In my opinion, it is his travels that shaped his outlook and set the mental framework for him to be able to return to Vietnam with a strong ideology of independence, Nationalism, and Communism. <br /><br />After our presentation, I decided to do more research in this area and discovered a film by Floyd Webb entitled <em>Ho Chi Minh in Harlem: Nguyen Ai Quoc, Marcus Garvey and the American Empire</em>. I was beyond excited to see the connection between Marcus Garvey and Ho Chi Minh as I see the Black Struggle in the United States similar to the Vietnam struggle in that both races were in a constant battle for liberation and freedom and contesting territory or carving out a space on the earth where people could express their own ideologies and live their own way of life. Marcus Garvey was a huge proponent of Black people in America carving out territories within the United States and creating their own government structures, military, political systems, etc. To know that Ho Chi Minh attended Marcus Garvey lectures and meetings was rewarding in that it shows that Ho Chi Minh met with all races in his quests to build a bridge and shape his identity which moved him closer to contesting territory and win the ultimate battle for Vietnam; Independence.
<em>Ho Chi Minh in Harlem: Nguyen Ai Quoc, Marcus Garvey and the American Empire</em> by Floyd Webb
July 2018 (during the Contested Territory Seminar)
Solomon C. Williams, 38 years old, teacher of high school American Government and Economics
ho-chi-minh-marcus-garvey
Why Americans in Indochina Wars?
I misunderstood the Geneva Accords and the reasons behind American involvement in Vietnam. I knew it was in the context of the Cold War but I did not understand why it had to happen and was I to teach a war or a conflict? After Pierre Asselin spoke on the subject and shared a similar map I understood that context was critical and that this was a war for the Vietnamese and a conflict the Americans could not politically shy away from.
The map chosen is significant as it is a Western perspective of a nation with delineations assigned by outsiders. Questions emerged. Where is Vietnam? Who is Vietnam? How could this map possibly tell me the answers.
It was in viewing this map and reflecting on the conversations and lectures from the seminar that I better understand this was a complex situation for a diverse group of people who had to answer difficult questions in the context of the Cold War. Who you claimed to be determined if you were a friend or foe of the United States. If a friend threatened to fall to our enemy, what choice did we have but to act in order to save an ally. As France used the Cold War to gain American support, the North Vietnamese used our own words to defend its independence. It was a time for hard choices, and we made ours: to defend democracy from tyranny of communism.
This moment in history resonated with me because I walked away finally feeling like I understood what various peoples of Vietnam were fighting for and how the United States fit into the narrative.
July 1954
Kate Cruze, 35, History Teacher, Greensboro NC
why-americans-in-indochina-wars
The Truth About Territory
Over the course of the National Humanities Center Institute on Contested Territory: Southeast Asia 1945-1975 through the National Endowment for the Humanities, I learned about the contributing factors to the definition of territory. For instance; how territory is defined, claimed, argued about, and taken away. Territory is far more than just a physical space that a leader governs and taxes. Territories are full of people from different backgrounds, religions, experiences, and ethnicities. Southeast Asia, and Vietnam in particular, is a place where many local powers and foreign governments have tried to establish their mark and expand their own territory to fulfill their imperialistic agenda.
The map that is shown is a map of South Vietnam and the different ethnic groups that reside within. There are three umbrella ethnicities, with multiple ethnicities within each umbrella. When I first looked at this map, I was fascinated that all of these ethnicities are present in South Vietnam. After closer analysis and further learning about territory, it began to become even stranger to me that a foreign power would have the audacity to try and take when there are so many interests at play. Many colonial powers considered their interests alone without the thought of how they were carving up locations primarily in the Global South. The idea of territory, then, becomes much harder to describe. It also becomes much harder to figure out to whom the territory belongs. The perspective of the people who live in a particular space are frequently at odds with those who come in and try to make the space theirs. My understanding of territory as something that can be fought over and “won” is complicated by the idea that just because an area is titled something or is officially run by a leader, does not mean that the territory belongs to that person or group of people.
Map of South Vietnam
July 25th, 2018
Breanna Holtz, 26, Social Studies teacher in Oregon
truth-about-territory
"Three Mountain Pass" - Connecting to Vietnam
For teenagers, the world they live in is often described as “normal” and everything else is “weird.” One of my goals as a history teacher is to help my students recognize difference, but also to feel connected to people who lived in a much different place and time than them. Ho Xuan Huong’s poem, “Three Mountain Pass“ provoked in me admiration of her artistic talent, curiosity (“Who is this woman who can write such clearly sexual poems in 18th century Vietnam?”) and a sense that we had a shared experience of love and passion that shortened the distance between us.
“Three Mountain Pass” helped me understand the extremely high value Vietnamese culture places on poetic imagery - such that transgressive poetry could flourish because of its beauty. It also made me think deeply about the space Ho Xuan Huong carved out to express herself (and challenged the notion, propagated by American media, of Vietnamese women as passive objects, rather than educated artists with agency.) I am grateful to John Balaban for helping to bring these poems to me and to an American audience more generally, and that I was able to first feel a deep connection to Vietnam through this poem.
"Three Mountain Pass": https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/three-mountain-pass/
"Three Mountain Pass" by Hồ Xuân Hương
Lindsey Graham, 27, history teacher
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