“…times that try men's souls” – the United States after Vietnam

1975 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-182
Author(s):  
David Dunn
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Society ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Thomas Paine ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
Present Context ◽  
The Times

For those who believed that the Vietnam war ‘ended’ in January 1973 with the signing of the Paris agreements, the events of the spring of 1975 must have come as a profound shock. Alternatively, for those who believed that the Paris agreements were no more than a pause on the way to the inevitable, these same events would seem to be eminently predictable. The implications of the American defeat in South East Asia are clearly a matter for the long term and one does no more than state the obvious by saying that the long term implications have yet to unfold. However, even from the short term perspective, there is much one can say about the Vietnam conflict, in terms of both its internal consequences and its impact on America and international society. Over the years, Vietnam has been held to be responsible for the end of Lyndon Johnson's career, for the so-called ‘Great Society’, for the growth of student radicalism and civil unrest. Whether and to what extent any or all of these links can be demonstrated are questions for the future. What of the present? In surveying the events of the spring of 1975 one recalls the words of Thomas Paine, written almost two centuries ago: “These are the times that try men's souls”. The point is not without a certain irony in the present context, for the American bicentennial celebrations which began in Concord, Massachusetts, were overshadowed by the scenes of evacuation and collapse in South East Asia.

Sino-American Relations and the Vietnam War, 1964–66

1976 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 293-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank E. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Public Signals ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
The 1960S

Perceptions as well as realities have always played an important role in international politics and it is frequently difficult to separate the two. By the 1960s the realities of increased American involvement in South east Asia and a more militarily and politically influential China heightened the possibility of a Sino-American confrontation. It is the thesis of this study that the United States and the People's Republic of China, both fearful of that possibility as a spill-over from the conflict in Indochina, reached a tacit understanding limiting their involvement. This understanding was transmitted through a series of subtle public signals and, quite possibly, by a number of confidential communications. The primary motive was to prevent an unwanted Sino-American con frontation which could have resulted from a misperception of intentions. As will be demonstrated in this study both Peking and Washington sought, on a number of occasions, to transmit their intentions in order to prevent misperceptions and possible over-reactions.

Maritime funds for South-east Asia boost US ties

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rights Issues

Significance In response to China's activities in the South China Sea, the United States has begun to implement its South-east Asia Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), which seeks to build the maritime capacity of security partners in the region. Impacts Duterte's anti-crime agenda for the Philippines could see some positive knock-on effects for coast guard procurements. Closer defence ties underlined by the MSI will also see greater diplomatic spats between Washington and its allies over human rights issues. A victory by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections would help bolster US credibility as a long-term regional security guarantor.

‘Staring into All Their Yellow Eyes’: Where the Wild Things Are, the 1960s, and the Vietnam War

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Michelle Ann Abate ◽  
Sarah Bradford Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Alternative Reading

Since its release in 1963, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are has been viewed from a psychological perspective as a literary representation of children's inner emotional struggles. This essay challenges that common critical assessment. We make a case that Sendak's classic picturebook was also influenced by the turbulent era of the 1960s in general and the nation's rapidly escalating military involvement in Vietnam in particular. Our alternative reading of Sendak's text reveals a variety of both visual and verbal elements that recall the conflict in South East Asia and considers the significance of the book's geo-political engagement.

Washington will engage more with South-east Asia

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Set Up

Significance She addressed two key issues during her trip: tensions in post-coup Myanmar and China’s growing regional footprint. Shortly after she left the region, the United States announced that it would donate unused COVID-19 vaccines abroad, including to South-east Asia. Impacts Washington will tighten its sanctions on the Myanmar military while supporting ASEAN’s five-point plan to ease the country’s crisis. The National Unity Government, a parallel administration to Myanmar’s junta set up by its opponents, will try to attract greater US backing. Manila and Washington may extend negotiations over renewing their Visiting Forces Agreement to prevent the pact expiring in August.

The United States and Southeast Asia: A Case of Strategic Surrender

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leszek Buszynski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
United States Policy ◽  
Global Context ◽  
The Soviet Union

Southeast Asia in United States policy fell from a region of high priority during the Vietnam war to become, after the fall of Indochina, an area of relatively minor interest. For the United States, Southeast Asia evoked memories of misperception, intensified over-commitment, and simplistic assumptions that characterized the American effort to defeat local Vietnamese national communism. Since the formulation of the Nixon doctrine of disengagement in 1969, United States policy towards Southeast Asia has been undergoing a process of long-term readjustment in recognition of the exaggerated significance that the region had assumed in American thinking. The fall of Saigon in April 1975 was a major stimulus to this readjustment as it gave the Americans compelling reasons to anticipate a reassertion of Soviet influence in the region. Successive American administrations attempted to place the region in a wider global context to avoid the dangers of extreme reaction to local national communism while developing the flexibility to coordinate a response to the Soviet Union at a global level. The main concern of American policy was to remove the basis for direct United States involvement in the region in a way that would satisfy post-Vietnam war public and congressional opinion and the demands of strategic planners for greater freedom of manoeuvre against the Soviet Union.

Mr. X and the Pacific

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Heer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Impact

This book chronicles and assesses the little-known involvement of US diplomat George F. Kennan—renowned as an expert on the Soviet Union—in US policy toward East Asia, primarily in the early Cold War years. Kennan, with vital assistance from his deputy John Paton Davies, played pivotal roles in effecting the US withdrawal from the Chinese civil war and the redirection of American occupation policy in Japan, and in developing the “defensive perimeter” concept in the western Pacific. His influence, however, faded soon thereafter: he was less successful in warning against US security commitments in Korea and Indochina, and the impact of the Korean War ultimately eclipsed his strategic vision for US policy in East Asia. This was due in large part to Kennan’s inability to reconcile his judgment that the mainland of East Asia was strategically expendable to the United States with his belief that US prestige should not be compromised there. The book examines the subsequent evolution of Kennan’s thinking about East Asian issues—including his role as a prominent critic of US involvement in the Vietnam War—and the legacies of his engagement with the region.

Representations of suicide in cinema

2021 ◽  
pp. 699-708
Author(s):  
Gérard Camy ◽  
Camilla Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The United States ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Minor Part ◽  
East Asian Cinema ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Asian Cinema

Here, representations of suicide in fiction film from the United States, Europe, and South East Asia are presented. Films are helpful in addressing discourses on suicide worldwide. Typically, the sufferings of the characters considering suicide or taking their lives occupy a minor part of the plot in scenarios highlighting action, cultural, and social reflection or existential interrogations. In Hollywood dramas, redemption, punishment, lost love, and solitude are major reasons for suicides; often the consequence of genuine injustice. In the European films discussed, suicides on screen often open to comments and reflections on many tragic circumstances explaining the protagonists’ actions. Not recognizing oneself in and by society seems an important reason for suicide. Wanting to understand the motives behind the voluntary death of a peer is recurrent. Much South East Asian cinema reflects the malaise of a society, its interiorized violence, death’ fascination, and the distress of a youth lacking excitement.

Book Reviews: Political Ideas, Hobbes's Science of Politics, Adam Ferguson: The History of Civil Society, The Works of Joseph De Maistre, Rosa Luxemburg, Marxism in Modern France, Marxist Ideology in the Contemporary World, The Moral Challenge of Communism, The Principles of Politics, Pacifism: An Historical and Sociological Study, The Pacifist Conscience, Pacifisme Et Internationalisms, Non-Violent Action: Theory and Practice, The Mafia and Politics, The Honoured Society, The Foundations of Freedom, The Real World of Democracy, The Left in Europe since 1789, Conflict in Society, The Study of Society, Communication and Political Power, Greater London: The Politics of Metropolitan Reform, Guide to Decision: The Royal Commission, Tizard, A Peril and a Hope, The Scientific Estate, Cases and Materials on Constitutional and Administrative Law, Occasional Papers on Social Administration: No, Land Values, Pensions and Public Servants, Public Sector Pensions, The Responsible Society: The Ideas of Guild Socialism, The Growth of the British Party System, The Government of Northern Ireland: Public Finance and Public Services 1921–1964, An Atlas of European Affairs, Nordic Cooperation: Conference Organised by The Nordic Council at Hasselby, 2–4 June 1965, L'Union Economique Belgo—Luxembourgeoise: Experiences Et Perspectives D'Avenir, Western European Integration, Walter Hallstein: Bibliographie Seiner Veroffent-Lichungen, Europäische Gegenwart: Schriften Zur Europapo-Litik, Columbia Essays in International Affairs, European Challenge. Tuairim Pamphlet No. 11, The Uneasy Entente, The European Idea, Atomic Energy Policy in France under the Fourth Republic, Private Interest and Public Policy, Verbände Und Gesetzgebung, Wohin Treibt Die Bundesrepublik?, The Germans and their Modern History, Wirtschaft Und Politik in Deutschland, Demogratic Parties in the Low Countries and Germany, The Political Vocation, Private Power and American Democracy, The National Guard in Politics, Envoy Extraordinary, Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate, The Philosophy of Mr. Nehru, Nehru: The Years of Power, Apprentice to Power: India, 1904–1908, Dawn of Renascent India, The Congress Ideology and Programme, 1920–47, South Asian Affairs, Number Two: The Movement for National Freedom in India, The Political Philosophy of M. N. Roy, Sarojini Naidu: A Biography, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (1884–1911), Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, Gandhi and the Nuclear Age, Research on the Bureaucracy of Pakistan, Political Development in Pakistan, Buddhism or Communism, Religion and Politics in Burma, Communism in Africa, African Powder Keg, The Political Awakening of Africa, Pan-Africanism and East African Integration, Britain and the Commonwealth, Governments of the Commonwealth, Commonwealth for a Colour-Blind World, Unscrambling an Empire, A Decade of the Commonwealth, 1955–1964, The Establishment of the Department of Trade: A Case-Study in Administrative Organization, Administrative Questions and Political Answers, Planning and Forecasting in New Zealand, Decisions: Case Studies in Australian Administration, Economic Development, Politics of the Developing Nations, The Rise and Fall of Western Colonialism, The Political Basis of Economic Development, Political Oppositions in Western Democracies, Mathematics and Politics, The New Utopians, Symbols of American Community 1735–1775, The Case of Richard Sorge, An Instance of Treason, The Roots of Appeasement, Silesia, Yesterday and Today, Teuton and Slav, The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans, The Reluctant Ally, Rumania: Russia's Dissident Ally, The New Eastern Europe, Problems of National Strategy, Decision-Making for Deffnce, International Political Communication, Propaganda and the Cold War, The Effect of Independence on Treaties, United Nations and Domestic Jurisdiction, Cambridge Essays in International Law, The Inductive Approach to International Law, Politics and Power, Eine Welt Oder Keine?, The Dynamics of International Organization: The Making of World Order, International Behaviour: A Social-Psychological Analysis, Diplomatic Investigations, Theory and the International System, Annihilation and Utopia, The State of War, Nationalism Old and New, Dimensions Du Nationalisme, Protest in Tokyo: The Security Treaty Crisis of 1960, Soviet Strategies in South-East Asia, Defeating Communist Insurgency, towards Peace in Indo-China, South Vietnam: Nation under Stress, Communism in North Vietnam, Vietnam: History, Documents and Opinions on a Major World Crisis, Vietnam and the United States, Thailand and the Struggle for South-East Asia, Thailand and the United States, South-East Asia's Second Front, South Asia, International Economic Integration, Communist Economic Challenge, The Third World, The Economics of Competitive Coexistence, U.S, The Western Hemisphere Idea: Its Rise and Decline, American Support of Free Elections Abroad, The United States and Latin American Wars 1932–1942, The Unwritten Alliance, The Pan-American Federation of Labor, A Latin American Common Market?, Proceedings of a Seminar on Commonwealth Responsibilities for Security in the Indo-Pacific Region. Australian Institute of International Affairs and the Australian National University Defence Studies Project, The Anzus Treaty Alliance, Australian Policies and Attitudes Towards China, World Politics in the General Assembly, The United Nations in the Balance, United Nations: Then and now, The Glasshouse: The United Nations in Action, The Trauma of Decolonization: The Dutch and West New Guinea, De L'Impérialisme À La Décolonisation, Self-Determination Revisited in the Era of Decolonisation, The Elephants and the Grass, Afro-Asia and Non-Alignment

1967 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-289
Author(s):  
Michael Levin ◽  
J. W. N. Watkins ◽  
A. S. Skinner ◽  
Alan Ryan ◽  
John Plamenatz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
United Nations ◽  
East Asia ◽  
International Law ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
International Affairs

“Trump’s First Year in Asia: Accelerating a Long-term Trend”

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Kang
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
Term Trend ◽  
Trade War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Long Term Trend

What has been the impact of Donald J. Trump’s presidency on the place of the United States in East Asia? Trump already has shown a proclivity for upending the mainstream American consensus about grand strategy to East Asia, with the real possibility of a trade war with China or a shooting war with North Korea on the horizon. However, this article will place President Trump’s first year in office into a larger context of long-term decline of U.S. leadership and influence in East Asia, arguing that this trend has been underway for quite some time, and that Trump has not altered fundamentally this trajectory. Some of Trump’s actions may accelerate a decline in U.S. leadership, but by no means was Trump the first nor will he be the last U.S. president to deal with a swiftly changing East Asia. The region has been changing rapidly for decades, and there are no indications that this will stop anytime soon. However, continuing and gradual U.S. withdrawal from leadership does not mean less American-East Asia interaction. East Asia will remain the most important trading and investment region for the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

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