Publishing Institution: American Diplomacy / Political Geography: Vietnam

Author:: Mark White
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: What if the most famous murder in history had not taken place on November 22, 1963? With a life and a presidency ended prematurely by an assassin’s bullets, there has been an understandable impulse on the part of historians to consider what would have happened to Kennedy had he lived beyond Dallas. Equally understandable, historians have commented on this issue so as to bolster their interpretation of Kennedy’s presidency.
Topic:: Elections, Vietnam War, and Domestic Policy
Political Geography:: Vietnam, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States of America

Author:: Kenneth M. Quinn
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: As the country is convulsed by the simultaneous nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over racism and the devastation of more than 150,000 Coronavirus deaths, I sought escape in Spike Lee’s latest offering on Netflix— “Da 5 Bloods,” a story of four African American army veterans returning to Vietnam 50 years after their wartime service. They are drawn back together to return to their former battlefield to search for the remains of their Black comrade—the fifth Blood—who died in combat but whose body was not recovered.
Topic:: Race, Media, Film, History, and Vietnam War
Political Geography:: Vietnam and United States of America

Author:: J. R. Bullington
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: My first overseas post as a newly-minted Foreign Service Officer was the American Consulate at Hué. I arrived in July, 1965, just as the massive deployment of U.S. combat units was getting underway. Emerging from a redneck hillbilly background in Tennessee and Alabama, and devoid of any international experience, I could not imagine the challenging, life-shaping adventure on which I was about to embark. This is my Foreign Service war story/love story/coming-of-professional-age story, as well as a participant’s account of a significant but largely unknown episode in the history of the Vietnam War. In 1965, the Vietnam War had not yet come to dominate American politics as it did by 1967. Nonetheless, it was very much in the news, and I was happy to be going to an exciting job in an exotic country that was emerging as a major focus of American foreign policy. Moreover, I had been unable to achieve my childhood dream of a military career because of a teenage bout with polio that left me with a slightly crippled leg, so I was pleased to have this opportunity to serve my country in a war. I was 24, and more than a little naïve.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Memoir, Vietnam War, and Buddhism
Political Geography:: Vietnam, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States of America

Author:: J. R. Bullington
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: Enforced social distancing and the consequent abundance of time for reflection can give rise to some unusual mental connections. For me, it was a letter from a previously unknown Foreign Service Officer colleague and memories of another cruel April 45 years ago, when Saigon and the Republic of Vietnam fell to the communist North Vietnamese. This connection, which was brought to mind by Eliot’s poem, evoked not only sad recollections but also some cautious long-term optimism.
Topic:: Diplomacy and Memoir
Political Geography:: Vietnam and United States of America

Author:: Allen Keiswetter
Publication Date:: 01-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: I knew Vietnam would be my first tour when I joined the US Foreign Service fifty years ago this coming June at age 23. I served there for 18 months (April 1968 to October 1969) as part of Civilian Operations for Revolutionary Development Support. Known as CORDS, it was a US civilian military organization assisting South Vietnamese pacification programs.I had an uneasy beginning; things both at home and in Vietnam seemed to be unravelling. The Tet offensive in early 1968 delayed my departure from Washington for two months. En route, I transited Honolulu where I saw LBJ on TV in the airport lounge announcing that he was not going to run for reelection. On arrival in Saigon, I learned that Martin Luther King had been assassinated and that rioting was rocking Washington D.C.
Topic:: Diplomacy, War, and Memoir
Political Geography:: South Asia, Vietnam, and United States of America

Author:: John Gunther Dean and Charles Stuart Kennedy
Publication Date:: 06-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Information Series. Ambassador John Gunther Dean Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview date: September 6, 2000
Topic:: Cold War, Diplomacy, Memoir, and Oral History
Political Geography:: Vietnam, Cambodia, Southeast Asia, Laos, and United States of America

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