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Social Science Asian Studies

Between War and the State

Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954-1975

by (author) Van Nguyen-Marshall

Publisher
Cornell University Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2023
Category
Asian Studies, Southeast Asia, Vietnam War
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781501770586
    Publish Date
    Jul 2023
    List Price
    $51.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781501770579
    Publish Date
    Jul 2023
    List Price
    $175.95

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Description

In Between War and the State, Van Nguyen-Marshall examines an array of voluntary activities, including mutual-help, professional, charitable, community development, student, women's, and rights organizations active in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. By bringing focus to the public lives of South Vietnamese people, Between War and the State challenges persistent stereotypes of South Vietnam as a place without society or agency. Such robust associational life underscores how an active civil society survived despite difficulties imposed by the war, government restrictions, economic hardship, and external political forces. These competing political forces, which included the United States, Western aid agencies, and Vietnamese communist agents, created a highly competitive arena wherein the South Vietnamese state did not have a monopoly on persuasive or coercive power. To maintain its influence, the state sometimes needed to accommodate groups and limit its use of violence. Civil society participants in South Vietnam leveraged their social connections, made alliances, appealed to the domestic and international public, and used street protests to voice their concerns, secure their interests, and carry out their activities.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Van Nguyen-Marshall is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Trent University. She is the author of In Search of Moral Authority.