Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War

Nationalism, Communism, and the Vietnam War

169 Na­ tion­ al­ ism, Com­ mu­ nism, and the Viet­ nam War mat­ thew masur Two nar­ ra­ tives or frame­ works tend to dom­ i­ nate his­ tor­ i- ­ cal teach­ ing of the Viet­ nam War. In the “na­ tion­ al­ ist” nar­ ra­ tive, the strug­ gle in Viet­ nam pit­ ted local na­ tion­ al­ ists ­ against tra­ di­ tional­ Frenchco­ lo­ ni­ al­ ismanditssuc­ ces­ sor,­ American­ neo-imperialism. In the “Cold War” nar­ ra­ tive, the ­ United ­ States, ­ guided by the dic­ tates of con­ tain­ ment, grad­ u­ ally and in­ cre­ men­ tally inter­ vened in Viet­ nam to stem the ­ spread of com­ mu­ nism. The na­ tion­ al­ ist and Cold War nar­ ra­ tives are not mu­ tu­ ally ex­ clu­ sive. In fact a full under­ stand­ ing of the wars in Viet­ nam re­ quires teach­ ers and stu­ dents to under­ stand how na­ tion­ al­ ism and com­ mu­ nism be­ came ­ linked in Viet­ nam and how the ­ United ­ States re­ acted to this phe­ nom­ e­ non. The im­ plied di­ chot­ omy ­ between na­ tion­ al­ ism and com­ mu­ nism par­ allels a com­ mon dis­ cus­ sion about the ideol­ ogy of Ho Chi Minh, the most fa­ mous fig­ ure in mod­ ern Viet­ na­ mese his­ tory.1 For much of Ho’s life, and in much of the historiog­ ra­ phy about the Viet­ nam War, ob­ serv­ ers have won­ dered ­ whether Ho Chi Minh was pri­ mar­ ily a na­ tion­ al­ ist or a com­ mu­ nist. This ques­ tion ­ plagued ­ American of­ fi­ cials as they con­ tem­ plated the ap­ pro­ pri­ ate pol­ icy to­ ward Viet­ nam in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. What stu­ dents may not know is that Ho Chi ­ Minh’s com­ mu­ nist al­ lies were sim­ i­ larly un­ cer­ tain about his true mo­ ti­ va­ tions and guid­ ing prin­ ci­ ples. More­ over, sup­ port­ ers and crit­ ics of the war, both while it was being ­ fought and in the ­ decades since, often used Ho’s po­ lit­ i­ cal ideol­ ogy to sup­ port their ar­ gu­ ments. Thus, teach­ ers can use the rise of Ho Chi Minh and Amer­ ica’s re­ sponse to his pop­ u­ lar­ ity to show that na­ tion­ al­ ism and com­ mu­ nism, de­ col­ o­ ni­ za­ tion and the Cold War, were all part of the Viet­ nam War. 170 part three: understanding and teaching specific content Using Ho Chi Minh to es­ tab­ lish an over­ arch­ ing nar­ ra­ tive about the war and to il­ lus­ trate the am­ bi­ gu­ ities ­ within this ­ larger story can be ad­ van­ ta­ geous for teach­ ers and stu­ dents alike. It cap­ i­ talizes on the fact that many stu­ dents are at least ­ vaguely fa­ mil­ iar with Ho Chi Minh as an im­ por­ tant his­ tor­ i­ cal fig­ ure. Fo­ cus­ ing on a fa­ mous in­ di­ vid­ ual can hu­ man­ ize and bring to life a topic that stu­ dents might oth­ er­ wise find dry or bland. This is par­ tic­ u­ larly true be­ cause de­ col­ o­ ni­ za­ tion and Cold War anti­ com­ mu­ nism are top­ ics that do not al­ ways res­ o­ nate with stu­ dents in the ­ twenty-first cen­ tury. More­ over, Ho Chi Minh has been a reg­ u­ lar sub­ ject in the historiog­ ra­ phy on the Viet­ nam War, so there is ample ­ source ma­ te­ rial for teach­ ers to draw on. At the same time, as­ sess­ ments of Ho can be quite var­ ied, and no his­ tor­ i­ cal con­ sen­ sus has­ emerged on the man and his life. This am­ bi­ gu­ ity will force stu­ dents to wres­ tle with the ev­ i­ dence and come to their own con­ clu­ sions about Ho Chi Minh and, more ­ broadly, the Viet­ nam War. Ho Chi Minh spent the bet­ ter part of sixty years work­ ing for na­ tional in­ de­ pen­ dence and so­ cial rev­ o­ lu­ tion in Viet­ nam. He was born in Nghe An prov­ ince in 1890 and spent his early years in Hue, where he met im­ por­ tant Viet...