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249 8 Building a Colony BUilDing a natiOn iS haRD WORK; it is much easier to construct a colony. as U.S. agencies attempted to modernize and westernize South vietnam while imprinting american values and culture on the vietnamese population, the eisenhower administration replaced the French colonial presence in South vietnam with an american neocolonial one. The United States did not directly colonize South vietnamese territory, but it certainly exhibited neocolonial behavior in the sense that americans and american institutions took over former French functions at all levels of South vietnamese society. americans trained, taught, guided, and controlled in their search for a stable, independent, and noncommunist South vietnam. although at first prime minister ngo Dinh Diem appeared to share the american vision of South vietnam, thus ensuring increased U.S. aid and commitments to his regime, it became clear by the late 1950s that he would pursue his own course. The escalating clashes between South vietnamese and american officials would eventually lead the eisenhower administration to lose its anticolonial credentials as well as its ability to extricate itself from the ever more complicated situation in vietnam. By the time eisenhower left office, the United States was committed to a noncommunist, but not necessarily democratic, South vietnam. eisenhower officials believed in the idea of an independent South vietnam , but only if its leader followed an american model. Thus, while paying much lip service to Diem’s nationalist credentials, Washington did not want an actual nationalist—the trappings would have sufficed. Unfortunately for those in the White house and U.S. embassy in Saigon, Diem’s nationalism only grew stronger as the tide of american advisers and agencies rose. as a result, american actions became more and more neocolonial in nature as they tried to persuade, and eventually coerce, Diem to follow american policy. attempts to modify Diem’s behavior began with cultural initiatives, but spread to the economic, political, and military realms as well. neocolonialism under the eisenhower administration would set the tone for future 0 War by Other Means, 1–10 american involvement in vietnam, permanently marring its claims to be fighting for an independent South vietnamese nation. although France and the United States shared a “colonial mentality” in that representatives of both countries operated on the assumption of their cultural superiority, the two differed in why they used cultural initiatives in South vietnam. The French sought to preserve their civilizing mission; the americans planned to stop the spread of communism. The French tried to separate cultural activities from propaganda whereas the americans combined the two. it is perhaps fair to say that american cultural diplomacy in vietnam began as propaganda in the war against communism, but propaganda eventually metamorphosed into cultural initiatives designed to build a nation. although the americans thought they would be able to avoid earlier French mistakes by replacing the civilizing mission with one of modernization , they too would come to be seen as imperialists rather than liberators. american officials paid close attention to how institutions and characteristics of French origin “colored” the situation in vietnam, recognizing that they “might” have been as important as native factors in determining South vietnam’s development and modernization. The portuguese romanization of writing, which was imposed by the French, helped vietnam gain “immeasurable ground” over those countries that succeeded in clinging to their ideographs in the race to make the entire population literate. almost equally important was the secondary use of a european language, which gave a very influential portion of the population easy access to western knowledge and thought. French engineering “bestowed” on vietnam a railway, several ports, an extensive canal system, roads reaching to every region, and a number of airports, as well as private plantations, a telephone system, and revenueproducing power companies. in the government structure the French had held almost all positions of responsibility, from administrators, technicians, and civil servants, down to very routine work. The rapid withdrawal of this vast responsible group after the independence of South vietnam was a severe blow to the operation of the government.1 americans, for the most part, quietly stepped into places the French had vacated as they attempted to build South vietnam on an american rather than French model. americans asserted their influence by “recovering the spot.” They systematically replaced the French names for streets, buildings, institutions, roads, and just about every other French-designated object, with an american version. But americans in Saigon did not create a more nationalist South vietnam; they simply switched...

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