When State Propaganda Becomes Social Knowledge: Legacies of the Southern Republic

Nguyen, Y Thien

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-rykq-ja94

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When State Propaganda Becomes Social Knowledge: Legacies of the Southern Republic

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This dissertation seeks to explain the discursive origin, development, and transformation of “Republican anticommunism,” and how and why this state-originated ideology continues to shape Vietnamese exile communities today. The dissertation focuses on examining mechanisms that allows certain narratives produced by the Republic of Vietnam to persist, despite the regime changes, turmoil, war, and, ultimately, state collapse that characterizes Vietnamese Republican history (1955-1975). The dissertation explores the unstudied “Political Study Program” Chương Trình Học Tập Chính Trị (PSP) of the Republican government and examines its operations and ideological messaging throughout duration of the Republican era. Focusing on three state-derived Republican anticommunist narratives (Narrative of the Geneva Accords, Anti-Neutralism, and Vietnamese Underdevelopment), the dissertation demonstrates how ideas once articulated as propaganda by the Republican state becomes a widely deployed form of “social knowledge” drawn upon by state and non-state actors alike. The dissertation, firstly, highlights the efforts of the Republican state to “cultivate,” develop, and disseminate an anticommunist political culture. Secondly, the project historically documents how these ideas were creatively reconfigured by diverse actors across the Republican era. Lastly, it traces the migration of these state-derived ideas following the Fall of Saigon (1975) and examines how Republican anticommunism was reconstituted in the formation of Vietnamese America. Alongside providing one of the first comprehensive political and social history of the Vietnamese Republican era, the dissertation critically analyzes the historical process has led to the creation of an anticommunist Vietnamese community overseas. It, furthermore, advances a new theoretical paradigm that views the historical significance of South Vietnam through its prevailing legacy on present day Vietnamese exile communities. At its crux, the dissertation demonstrates how state-derived ideas, forms of identification, and discourses can survive long after the state that progenerated them had fallen.

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