Battle for the Airwaves during the First Indochina War

The VOV proudly proclaims September 7, 1945 as the foundational date for Vietnamese public radio, when the Declaration of Independence was read out on wireless for the first time. Vietnamese technicians who had been trained by the French set up a station in Hanoi to support the Viet Minh’s independence coalition. In December 1946, the French seized control of Hanoi again and established a new station, Radio Hanoi, at Rue Richaud (now Quán Sứ street). In contrast to the exclusive European radio clubs of the 1920s and 1930s, Radio Hanoi hired a troupe of Vietnamese musicians and actors who performed live on air and at popular venues in the capital between 1948 and the early 1950s. Their programming of entertainment and news in several languages appealed to Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese alike. Meanwhile the Viet Minh resumed their broadcasts of anti-colonial rhetoric from a discrete mountain location, but they struggled to sustain the attention of their listeners. To reengage with the public and draw listeners away from Radio Hanoi, they began to program communist-themed entertainment (music, poetry, stories, and short plays) alongside political news and information. Chapter 2 draws on oral histories, archival records, and historical broadcasts to reconstruct the sonic ambience of this creative conflict. The research investigates how composers, musicians, singers, and voice actors at both stations battled to nurture a resilient and attentive radio listenership with attractive artistic outputs that were often imbued with implicit (Radio Hanoi) and explicit (Viet Minh Radio) political ideologies.

Songs of the Golden Age in the Democratic Republic

Following the Geneva Accords of 1954, the VOV employed an array of ensembles that performed newly composed red music and revolutionary songs (ca khúc cách mạng) from the First Indochina War. Chapter 3 examines the construction of the DRV’s broadcasting and performing arts infrastructure at a time when radio was the principal mass medium for sound-based communications and the primary source for news and cultural programming. These infrastructural developments coincided with an escalation of tensions in the Second Indochina War (1955–75), when the DRV used radio to inundate southern listeners with their propaganda. With a particular focus on the central site for cultural production (state radio) and the most prominent musical form of the era (red music), this chapter illustrates how the DRV’s Ministry of Culture used radio productions on socialist themes as technologies of governmentality. Broadcasters reified the roles of men, women, and children in the ears and minds of their listening public. Their productions also played a crucial role in defining cultural boundaries between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as broadcasters sought to sonically territorialize the socialist state. Based on interviews with former station employees, analyses of iconic songs, and archival documents, the research suggests the ongoing veneration of singers, songs, and stories from this golden age of radio music constructs a particular narrative about Vietnamese history that commemorates the achievements of the CPV and perpetuates its control in the reform era.

Impact of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on Rural Communities' Livelihoods in Xiengkhouang Province, Lao PDR

<p>For over 30 years since the end of the Second Indochina War, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has been a major issue. Laos is considered the most heavily bombed country in the world in terms of quantity of ammunition per capita. Approximately 25 percent of the villages are contaminated with UXO, and a third of the country’s total area is covered by UXO contamination, comprising around 87 thousand square kilometres. This severely limits the expansion of agricultural production, which leads to scarcity of food supplies, and limits local people’s ability to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Thus, UXO is both a significant challenge to community development and national social and economic development. UXOs are also the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often farmers who are involved in agricultural activities. Between 1999 and 2012, 934 casualties which was divided into 655 injuries and 279 deaths. This study was conducted in Xienkhouang province, Lao PDR, a region heavily affected by UXO. The aim of this thesis is to explore the policies and institutions working on UXO in this province, the major difficulties rural communities face in their livelihoods in relation to UXO and the strategies they are using to cope with these difficulties, and to provide a reflection on how to improve support for these communities. Applying the sustainable livelihood framework as its conceptual framework, this research followed a qualitative approach involving the conduction of 24 semi-structured interviews, including 15 villagers and 9 interviews from organisations working on the UXO domain. Understanding of the impact of UXO on rural communities' livelihoods an their coping mechanism is crucial to expand debates within development studies in post-conflict settings, as well as for both practitioners and policy makers.</p>

Impact of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on Rural Communities' Livelihoods in Xiengkhouang Province, Lao PDR

<p>For over 30 years since the end of the Second Indochina War, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has been a major issue. Laos is considered the most heavily bombed country in the world in terms of quantity of ammunition per capita. Approximately 25 percent of the villages are contaminated with UXO, and a third of the country’s total area is covered by UXO contamination, comprising around 87 thousand square kilometres. This severely limits the expansion of agricultural production, which leads to scarcity of food supplies, and limits local people’s ability to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Thus, UXO is both a significant challenge to community development and national social and economic development. UXOs are also the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often farmers who are involved in agricultural activities. Between 1999 and 2012, 934 casualties which was divided into 655 injuries and 279 deaths. This study was conducted in Xienkhouang province, Lao PDR, a region heavily affected by UXO. The aim of this thesis is to explore the policies and institutions working on UXO in this province, the major difficulties rural communities face in their livelihoods in relation to UXO and the strategies they are using to cope with these difficulties, and to provide a reflection on how to improve support for these communities. Applying the sustainable livelihood framework as its conceptual framework, this research followed a qualitative approach involving the conduction of 24 semi-structured interviews, including 15 villagers and 9 interviews from organisations working on the UXO domain. Understanding of the impact of UXO on rural communities' livelihoods an their coping mechanism is crucial to expand debates within development studies in post-conflict settings, as well as for both practitioners and policy makers.</p>

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's strategy in Tonkin (Vietnam) during the First Indochina War (1950-1952)

Since 1950, the war in Indochina entered a fierce phase, especially in Tonkin (Vietnam). Viet Minh forces, supported by China and the Soviet Union, cornered the French expeditionary army and lost many important bases on the battlefield. That is why the US has increased its support for the French army in the war and at the same time trusted a very talented General of the French army, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny went to Indochina to implement a strategy to reverse the situation of the French army with a series of effective military policies. The strategies of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny caused many difficulties for the Viet Minh and the Indochina battlefield also had great changes. However, as his strategies were being implemented, he died in 1952 and the French army lost a man capable of turning the tide. The rise of the Viet Minh and the strength of the Vietnamese patriotism completely defeated the French army in 1954. This article refers to General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's strategy in Tonkin (Vietnam) battlefield, thereby clarifying his military policies in the first Indochina war.

Providing Access To The Everette Dixie Reese Prints And Negatives At The George Eastman House

This thesis is an applied project undertaken to provide access to a group of nearly 5,700 undescribed prints and negatives made by Everette Dixie Reese (1923-1955) preserved at George Eastman House (GEH). Reese acted as the Chief of the Photo Section for the Special Technical and Economic Mission (STEM) to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV) from 1951 to 1955 during the Indochina War (1946-1954). The project involved writing a multilevel, archival finding aid for the materials following the Society of American Archivists' standard that includes the scope and content, research strengths, series and subseries descriptions and container lists for the materials along with an extended biography and chronology for Reese. In preparation for the eventual object-level cataloguing of the collection, five objects were selected and catalogued in The Museum System (TMS) to act as exemplification models for future cataloguers. These products are supplemented by an analytical paper outlining the methodology of the project, research required, decisions made in the process, and the steps taken to complete it.

Providing Access To The Everette Dixie Reese Prints And Negatives At The George Eastman House

This thesis is an applied project undertaken to provide access to a group of nearly 5,700 undescribed prints and negatives made by Everette Dixie Reese (1923-1955) preserved at George Eastman House (GEH). Reese acted as the Chief of the Photo Section for the Special Technical and Economic Mission (STEM) to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV) from 1951 to 1955 during the Indochina War (1946-1954). The project involved writing a multilevel, archival finding aid for the materials following the Society of American Archivists' standard that includes the scope and content, research strengths, series and subseries descriptions and container lists for the materials along with an extended biography and chronology for Reese. In preparation for the eventual object-level cataloguing of the collection, five objects were selected and catalogued in The Museum System (TMS) to act as exemplification models for future cataloguers. These products are supplemented by an analytical paper outlining the methodology of the project, research required, decisions made in the process, and the steps taken to complete it.

Revolution knows no boundaries? Chinese revolutionaries in North Vietnam during the early years of the First Indochina War

This article analyses the roles and activities of three groups of Chinese communist revolutionaries in the early phase of the First Indochina War. The author argues that although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not begin to provide substantial aid to North Vietnam until 1950, the involvement of Chinese communists, including members of both the CCP and the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), in the First Indochina War started at the very moment the war broke out in 1946. Although the early participants were not as prominent as the Chinese political and military advisers who arrived after 1949, their activities deserve to be examined, not only because they were the forerunners of later actors, but also because they had already made concrete contributions to the Vietnamese revolution before the founding of the People's Republic of China and the arrival of large-scale Chinese military and economic aid. Moreover, interactions between early Chinese participants and the Vietnamese revolutionaries established a pattern that would characterise Sino–Vietnamese relations in the subsequent decades.