âMourning a Loss: Conservative Support for Ngo Dinh Diemâ
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Seth Offenbach in
Current site
Google Scholar
The U.S. conservative movement in the mid-20th Century argued that the United States needed to continuously get tougher in the fight against communism worldwide. It remained supportive of U.S. efforts throughout the Vietnam War. However, in the period immediately preceding Americanization of the war in 1965, conservatives were uncertain about the outcome of any fighting in Vietnam. Specifically, they claimed that optimism for the Republic of Vietnam was lost with the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. Without Diem, conservatives claimed, the Vietnam War was likely lost before it began. This article discusses how Diem went from a barely talked-about anti-Communist ally prior to his death to becoming posthumously the last great hope for Southeast Asia. Conservatives argued that without Diem, the only way the United States would be able to stop Communist expansion in Indochina would be to engage in a massive aerial bombing campaign and find a regional partner to deploy troops. Had he survived, this might not have been necessary. Learning why and how conservatives supported Diem after his death helps us better understand how conservatives reacted to the Vietnam War once Americanization began in 1965.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Alden Robert . âCity Accords Diem a Warm Welcome: Parade Crowds Enthusiastic.â New York Times, 14 1957, p. 22.
-
Group Research Archives. Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. New York, NY.
-
Human Events, 1963â1965.
-
âThe Issue: Vietnam.â New York Times, 8 October 1964, p. 42.
-
Mohr Charles . âGoldwater Calls for Drive to Finish War in Vietnam.â New York Times, 11 1964, p. 1.
-
Papers of Albert C. Wedemeyer. Hoover Institution Archives. Stanford, CA.
-
Papers of Clarence Manion. Chicago Historical Society. Research Center. Chicago History Museum. Chicago, IL.
-
Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Austin, TX.
-
National Review, 1963â1965.
-
Szulc Tad . âVietnam: U.S. Dilemma: Washington, With a Deep Commitment in the Area, is Facing Major Decisions on Diem Regime.â New York Times, 1 September 1963, p. E4.
-
Wilson Victor . âA-Attack on Viet Jungle Proposed by Goldwater.â Washington Post, 25 1964, p. A1.
-
Boot Max . The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam. New York: Liveright Publishing, 2018.
-
Brennan Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the gop . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
-
Burke Kyle . âRadio Free Enterprise: The Manion Forum and the Making of the Transnational Right in the 1960s.â Diplomatic History 40, No. 1 (2016): 111â39.
-
Burke Kyle . Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
-
Chapman Jessica M. Cauldron of Resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and 1950s Southern Vietnam. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013.
-
Critchlow Donald T. The Conservative Ascendancy: How the gop Right Made Political History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
-
Gardener Lloyd C. Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam. Chicago: Elephant Books, 1995.
-
Goldberg Robert Alan . Barry Goldwater. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.
-
Goldwater Barry . Why Not Victory? 2nd Ed. New York: MacFadden Books, 1964.
-
Hemmer Nicole R. Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
-
Higgins Marguerite . Our Vietnam Nightmare. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
-
Jacobs Seth . Americaâs Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
-
Johns Andrew L. Vietnamâs Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010.
-
Kabaservice Geoffrey . Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
-
Klein Christina . Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945â1961. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003.
-
Lokos Lionel . Hysteria 1964: The Fear Campaign Against Barry Goldwater. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1967.
-
Mao Joyce . Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
-
Mattson Kevin . When America Was Great: The Fighting Faith of Postwar Liberalism. New York: Routledge, 2006.
-
Moyar Mark . Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954â1965 . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
-
Miller Edward . Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
-
Miller Edward . âReligious Revival and the Politics of Nation Building: Reinterpreting the 1963 âBuddhist Crisisâ in South Vietnam,â Modern Asian Studies 49, No. 6 (November 2015): 1903â62.
-
Morgan Joseph G. The Vietnam Lobby: The American Friends of Vietnam 1955â1975. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
-
Nash George . The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
-
Nickerson Michelle M. Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.
-
Offenbach Seth . âDefending Freedom in Vietnam: A Conservative Dilemma.â In The Right Side of the Sixties: Reexamining Conservatismâs Decade of Transformation. Gifford Laura Jane and Williams Daniel K. , Eds., 201â20. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
-
Perlstein Rick . Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.
-
Robin Corey . The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
-
Scanlon Sandra . The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.
-
Schneider Gregory L. The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.
-
Taranto Stacie . Kitchen Table Politics: Conservative Women and Family Values in the Seventies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1123 | 114 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 84 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 135 | 5 | 0 |
âMourning a Loss: Conservative Support for Ngo Dinh Diemâ
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Seth Offenbach in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The U.S. conservative movement in the mid-20th Century argued that the United States needed to continuously get tougher in the fight against communism worldwide. It remained supportive of U.S. efforts throughout the Vietnam War. However, in the period immediately preceding Americanization of the war in 1965, conservatives were uncertain about the outcome of any fighting in Vietnam. Specifically, they claimed that optimism for the Republic of Vietnam was lost with the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. Without Diem, conservatives claimed, the Vietnam War was likely lost before it began. This article discusses how Diem went from a barely talked-about anti-Communist ally prior to his death to becoming posthumously the last great hope for Southeast Asia. Conservatives argued that without Diem, the only way the United States would be able to stop Communist expansion in Indochina would be to engage in a massive aerial bombing campaign and find a regional partner to deploy troops. Had he survived, this might not have been necessary. Learning why and how conservatives supported Diem after his death helps us better understand how conservatives reacted to the Vietnam War once Americanization began in 1965.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1123 | 114 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 84 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 135 | 5 | 0 |
