History 485A
Devine
Fall 2011
Study Questions: Week 1
Martin
Loicano, “Vietnam Divided”
1. Loicano takes issue with much
of the conventional wisdom in “general accounts” of Vietnamese history. What is the “conventional wisdom” and why does
Loicano find it misleading?
2. What evidence does Loicano
offer that Vietnamese-Chinese relations have not simply been one thousand years
of struggle and resistance on the part of the Vietnamese? Why does he believe Vietnamese-Chinese
relations have been portrayed this way?
3. How did southern Vietnam differ
from northern Vietnam economically, culturally, and ideologically?
4. What factors lead to the emergence
of a “unique southern identity” in Saigon?
What traits did southern Vietnamese develop as part of this identity? How did outside observes distinguish the
southern Vietnamese from the northern Vietnamese?
5. What evidence does Loicano
offer to show that there was animosity between north and south Vietnam long
before what we know as “the Vietnam War”?
6. How did the presence of the
French in the South make regional differences within Vietnam even more stark?
7. Why were the communist Viet
Minh not as popular in the South?
8. How was Diem’s government in
the South different than Ho’s Communist government in the North? What evidence does Loicano cite in arguing
that life in the South was relatively
more humane?
Mark Philip
Bradley, Imagining America and Vietnam
Anne Foster, “An
Empire of the Mind”
1.
How
did the American approach to imperialism differ from that of the
Europeans? Why did the Americans believe
their way was better? Why were the
Europeans suspicious of the American approach?
2.
Why
were the French hostile toward American missionaries in Southeast Asia? What “threatening”
things were the missionaries teaching the “natives”? Why were American ideas about education and
its purpose particularly threatening?
3.
Why
were the results of American missionaries’ efforts in Southeast Asia both “imperialistic”
and “liberating”?
4.
How
did American colonial policy in the Philippines and with regard to employing “natives”
in industry differ from European policies?
5.
How
did Southeast Asians’ lives change once they gained access to American consumer
goods and foodstuffs?
6.
What
did Americans mean when they said “trade follows the film”?
7.
What
hopes did Americans have for films shown in Southeast Asia? What fears did Europeans have about the same
movies?
8.
To
what extent were Southeast Asians receptive to American culture in the 1920s
and 1930s? What explains their reaction?
9.
Foster
observes, “The cultural empire proved as unruly as the political ones.” (109) What do you think she means by this?