From Anti-Imperialism to Human Rights: the Vietnam War and Radical Internationalism in the 1960S and 1970S
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 From Anti-Imperialism To Human Rights: The Vietnam War And Radical Internationalism In The 1960s And 1970s Salar Mohandesi University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the European History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Mohandesi, Salar, "From Anti-Imperialism To Human Rights: The Vietnam War And Radical Internationalism In The 1960s And 1970s" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2478. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2478 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2478 For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Anti-Imperialism To Human Rights: The Vietnam War And Radical Internationalism In The 1960s And 1970s Abstract This dissertation explores changing forms of internationalism among the French and U.S. radical left from the 1960s through the late 1970s. In the 1960s, Vietnamese resistance to U.S. imperialism inspired French activists to forge an international antiwar alliance with U.S. activists opposing their government’s aggression. Together, they created a form of anti-imperialist internationalism based on the right of nations to self-determination. Despite transnational protest, the United States escalated the war, leading many activists to argue that the best way to aid Vietnamese national liberation was to translate that struggle into their own domestic contexts. In so doing, they triggered a wave of upheaval that reached new heights in May 1968. But when this anti-imperialist front faced repression and imprisonment in France and the United States, these same radicals began to advance individual rights alongside anti- imperialist revolution in the early 1970s. Once they learned of South Vietnam’s heightened repression of political dissenters, they grafted their new attention to rights onto the antiwar movement, demanding the restoration of civil liberties. Yet in arguing that South Vietnam violated fundamental democratic rights, anti-imperialist internationalism increasingly took the form of criticizing the internal affairs of a sovereign state. In this way, anti-imperialists lent legitimacy to a rival form of internationalism that shared the progressive aspirations of anti-imperialism but rejected nationalism in favor of human rights. When genocide, internecine war, and refugee crises in Southeast Asia undermined faith in national liberation in the late 1970s, former French radicals sided with the U.S. government to lead a global movement championing human rights against the sovereignty of nation-states like Vietnam. By tracing this history of solidarity with the Vietnamese liberation struggle from the 1960s to the 1970s, this dissertation explains how and why human rights came to displace anti-imperialism as the dominant form of internationalism. It shows that the Vietnam War was a truly global phenomenon, that the trajectory of the left in countries like France was powerfully shaped by developments in what was then called the Third World, and that the rise of human rights was closely connected to transformations within anti-imperialist internationalism. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Warren Breckman Keywords Anti-Imperialism, Global 1960s, Human Rights, Internationalism, Social Movements, Vietnam War Subject Categories European History | History | United States History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2478 FROM ANTI-IMPERIALISM TO HUMAN RIGHTS: THE VIETNAM WAR AND RADICAL INTERNATIONALISM IN THE 1960S AND 1970S Salar Mohandesi A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation _____________________ Warren Breckman Rose Family Endowed Term Chair, Professor of History Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________ Peter Holquist, Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Samuel Moyn, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and Professor of History at Harvard University Roger Chartier, Annenberg Visiting Professor in History and Professor at the Collège de France FROM HUMAN RIGHTS TO ANTI-IMPERIALISM: THE VIETNAM WAR AND RADICAL INTERNATIONALISM IN THE 1960S AND 1970S COPYRIGHT 2017 SALAR MICHAEL MOHANDESI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Intellectual production is a collaborative process, from beginning to end. In writing this dissertation, I have drawn on the support, advice, and ideas of many individuals. Thanks, first, to the Council of European Studies for a Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship and to the University of Pennsylvania for both a Dissertation Research Fellowship and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Thanks as well to all the archivists who helped make this project possible. Their assistance proved invaluable as I worked through mounds of documents at the Bancroft Library, Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Centre des Archives Contemporaines, Columbia University Archives, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, Swarthmore College Archives, and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. I would like to thank my committee for their support throughout this process. Samuel Moyn has been an outstanding advisor, going above and beyond the responsibilities of an outside reader. As many will immediately recognize, his research has influenced my own thinking about the period covered in this dissertation. Beyond his scholarship, Sam has been a profoundly attentive, thoughtful, and reliable mentor. I would also like to express my gratitude to Roger Chartier, whose insightful comments have the power to improve any project, no matter the topic or the time period. As with Sam, Roger’s goodwill continues to astound me. In a world where many professors tend to prioritize their own work, ignore emails, and leave students in the dark, Roger’s dedication to his students stands out as a model for all to follow. Lastly, many thanks go to Warren Breckman, my primary advisor at Penn. I thank him for giving me a chance and accepting me into graduate school. I also wish to thank him for not only accommodating my interests, and respectfully engaging with my ideas, but for pushing back when necessary. I could always count on him to provide incisive, honest, and challenging commentary on all of my work. His guidance has been indispensible throughout graduate schools, from the first-year seminar to the job market. iii Of course, there are many other professors not at Penn who have helped me with this project in some way or another. I would like to recognize Gerd-Rainer Horn, Michael Scott Christofferson, and Don Reid for lending an ear, sharing relevant materials, or making possible important opportunities. I would especially like to thank Bethany Keenan both for her excellent scholarship, which has made my own dissertation possible, and for her advice. At Penn, I benefited greatly from the guidance of other graduate students, especially Elizabeth Della Zazzera and Chase Richards. Graduate school, as many of us now know, is often a confusing journey, even labyrinthine. Since many of us are never given any kind of map, we often rely on the generous wisdom of other, older students. Of course, meaningful intellectual production is not limited to the confines of our university departments. Much of my thinking has been powerfully shaped by long discussions with friends outside the University of Pennsylvania. I wish to thank all those who participated in our West Philly reading groups, above all Ben Webster, one of the most widely-read, reflective, and intellectually curious individuals I have ever met. I would also like to recognize all my collaborators, co-authors, and co-editors over the years. Thanks to Patrick King, for his selflessness and encyclopedic knowledge. Thanks to Ben Mabie for his camaraderie and searching mind. And thanks especially to Asad Haider for making possible a rich intellectual collaboration that continues to challenge my thinking. I would have never been in a position to even start this dissertation without the tireless support of my family – Mom Dad, Bababozorg, Madar, Mitra, and Jasmine. Thank you all for always being there for me, for supporting my decision to pursue a doctorate in history, for your constant encouragement during graduate school, and for patiently listening to my ideas, even if they seemed bizarre or incomprehensible. Special thanks go to Emma Teitelman. Writing a dissertation can be a lonely process filled with uncertainty. But with Emma, I was never alone, even when I was miles away digging through an archive. This project emerged out of innumerable conversations together. It would have never come to fruition without her questions, comments, and edits. I remain forever iv indebted to her patience, encouragement, and sheer brilliance. I cherish our friendship and partnership. Lastly, all scholarship depends heavily on the work of others. This dissertation was made possible not only by all the scholarly work that came before, but, even more importantly, by the often invisible or forgotten political work of millions. This dissertation goes to the millions of Vietnamese who suffered tremendously