Introduction: Image-making and Imperialism: Sovereign,
Surveillance and Spectacle in the Vietnam War
1. Colonialism and National Culture
2. The Other Vietnamese Revolution: Personalism and US Imperialism
in South Vietnam
3. Psychological Warfare and the Society of Consumption in the
South
4. Surveillance and Spectacle in Bùi Anh Tu?n’s Z.28 Novels
5. Sovereignty, Surveillance and Spectacle in the Saigon Fabulous
Four
Bibliography
Index
Duy Lap Nguyen is Assistant Professor at the University of Houston
'In The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South
Vietnam, Duy Lap Nguyen has dissolved the entrenched stereotype of
Ngô Ðình Diem and developed an analysis of his thought, aims,
policies, and opponents that is fresh and convincing, meanwhile
subverting prevailing interpretations of modern Vietnamese history.
He also develops a fresh analysis of American and South Vietnamese
relations in the post-Diem era.'
H-Asia
'A wide-ranging work of original historical research, critical
theory, and cultural criticism, this volume by Nguyen (Univ. of
Houston) reexamines the political and cultural history of the
Vietnam War from the largely excluded perspective of the South
Vietnamese. Disputing the widely held representation of the war as
a contest between Vietnamese people and US imperialism, The
Unimagined Community provocatively argues that, in its early stage,
the war was not an anti-communist crusade but a struggle between
two competing versions of anti-colonial communism. Providing an
extended analysis of the culture of the early South Vietnamese
republic, ranging from its political philosophy and psychological
warfare to its popular culture and films, the book deftly shows
that the war was a contest between two Vietnamese states that
embraced two different conceptions of communism: one based on the
dictatorship of the proletariat and the other on socialism without
the state. Nguyen convincingly argues that in its nine years of
existence, the early South Vietnamese state sought to establish a
Marxist, humanist nation that favored a stateless form of democracy
and rural autonomy—a remarkable political experiment against both
capitalism and liberal democracy.' (Reprinted with permission from
Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American
Library Association.)
Y. L. Espiritu, University of California San Diego
'In The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South
Vietnam, Duy Lap Nguyen has masterfully brought together a range of
sources to not only contest nationalist historiographies but
critically investigate the immediate post independence history of
South Vietnam, in particular the first republic and its leaders’
visions for the future.'
The Journal of Asian Studies
'A wide-ranging work of original historical research, critical
theory, and cultural criticism, this volume by Nguyen (Univ. of
Houston) reexamines the political and cultural history of the
Vietnam War from the largely excluded perspective of the South
Vietnamese. Disputing the widely held representation of the war as
a contest between Vietnamese people and US imperialism, The
Unimagined Community provocatively argues that, in its early stage,
the war was not an anti-communist crusade but a struggle between
two competing versions of anti-colonial communism. Providing an
extended analysis of the culture of the early South Vietnamese
republic, ranging from its political philosophy and psychological
warfare to its popular culture and films, the book deftly shows
that the war was a contest between two Vietnamese states that
embraced two different conceptions of communism: one based on the
dictatorship of the proletariat and the other on socialism without
the state. Nguyen convincingly argues that in its nine years of
existence, the early South Vietnamese state sought to establish a
Marxist, humanist nation that favored a stateless form of democracy
and rural autonomy—a remarkable political experiment against both
capitalism and liberal democracy.'
Choice
(Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights
reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.)
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