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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Politics of Experience: Peace Corps Volunteers, Vietnam Veterans, and American Internationalism, 1961 - 1985 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/24g1x6rc Author Armentrout, Anna Jane Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Politics of Experience: Peace Corps Volunteers, Vietnam Veterans, and American Internationalism, 1961 – 1985 By Anna Jane Armentrout A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Daniel J. Sargent, Chair Professor David A. Hollinger Professor Scott Saul Fall 2012 © 2012 – Anna Jane Armentrout All rights reserved. Abstract The Politics of Experience: Peace Corps Volunteers, Vietnam Veterans, and American Internationalism, 1961 – 1985 by Anna Jane Armentrout Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel J. Sargent, Chair This dissertation argues that knowledge based on personal experience came to rival accredited knowledge in American foreign policymaking during the Vietnam War. This shift toward experiential authority transformed American political culture and foreign policy. First-person narratives of Americans who lived abroad became crucial sources for popular understanding and congressional decision-making. In turn, the authority of personal experience in discussions of foreign policy helped enable a movement away from the global projects of development and containment and toward human rights around the world. Focusing on Vietnam veterans and Peace Corps volunteers, this dissertation explores the uses to which these groups put their on-the-ground experience when they spoke publicly about American foreign policy issues. By examining veteran testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and returned Peace Corps volunteer activism about American policy in the developing world, this study finds that the authority of personal experience acquired great persuasive power in the context of a nation reeling from the failure of its foreign policy abroad and wary of its political leaders’ integrity and ability. This crisis in accredited authority and consequent shift toward experiential authority had lasting impacts both on American political culture and the foreign policies Americans pursued in the post-Vietnam era. By examining a distinct language of political participation, this study provides a new lens through which to interpret the events of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... ii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Authority, Experience, and the Peace Corps Idea: The History and Historiography of American Foreign Policymaking ..................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: The “Re-Entry Crisis”: Peace Corps Volunteers, 1961 – 1965 .................................. 25 Chapter 3: “The First Man So Qualified”: The Veteran Voice in the Debate over Vietnam, 1965 and 1966 ........................................................................................................................................ 47 Chapter 4: “It is On the Basis of Our Experience Overseas . That We Now Speak”: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, 1967-1971 ............................................................................................. 65 Chapter 5: “The Virtue of Tangible Truths”: J. W. Fulbright, Veteran Experience, and Remaking American Foreign Policy, 1967 – 1971 ......................................................................................... 80 Chapter 6: Volunteers and Veterans: The Authority of Experience After Vietnam, 1970 – 1985 ..................................................................................................................................................... 109 Epilogue: Institutionalizing the Discourse of Experience: Political Culture and Human Rights 129 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 133 i Acknowledgments I have been fortunate to work with dedicated and insightful committee members. They have re- shaped my project for the better, but they have also been generous in encouraging me to make it my own. I never left a meeting with Daniel Sargent, my dissertation chair, without feeling renewed excitement about this project. His openness, energy, and enthusiasm made our collaboration a pleasure and provided direction and momentum. His intellect and his attitude are admirable, and I am extremely grateful for the thought and care he put into improving this dissertation. David Hollinger has been a source of excitement about the history of ideas from my college days in his undergraduate survey on intellectual history. I feel privileged that this project benefitted from his knowledge and his perspicacity. Scott Saul provided an extremely rich and much needed perspective on American literature and culture in the 1960s. His astute comments and spirit of generosity improved this work and the process of completing it. I would like to say a separate word of thanks to Kathleen Frydl. My work with her provided, more than anything else, the foundations of this project. Her passion for ideas and her encouragement of my own have been singularly important. Her intellectual energy is a gift to all her students and colleagues. Many other professors shaped my graduate school experience for the better. David Henkin and Robin Einhorn, in particular, provided candid encouragement and teaching mentorship. Leon Litwack, Jennifer Spear, Tyler Stovall, Rebecca McLennan, and Jose David Saldivar all made my graduate training richer, and Martin Jay and Thomas Laqueur’s suggestions led me in new and rewarding directions. Historians beyond U.C. Berkeley contributed to this project as well. Those who read and commented on my papers at conferences improved the project considerably: I am grateful to Andrew Preston, Marilyn Young, Michael Allen, Thomas Maddux, and Kelly Shannon for their thoughtful feedback. Christina Klein’s scholarship provided great inspiration for my work and her suggestions proved enormously helpful. I am particularly appreciative of the institutions and individuals that made research for this project possible. I received financial support from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the Berkeley Department of History, the U.C. Berkeley Graduate Division, and Una’s Fellowship in History. I am also grateful to the staff and librarians at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum for their assistance in making Peace Corps oral histories available for my research. Clay Howard, Dan Lee, Elaine Ron, Ariel Ron, and Nataly Abramovich all opened their homes to me during my visits to archives. The short time I spent in New Haven as a visiting scholar at Yale introduced me to a new community. I enjoyed conversations with Talya Zemach-Bersin, Liz Montegary, and Merve Emre about our shared interest in the study of international travel. I am grateful to the Department of History and to Jenifer Van Vleck, in particular, for inviting me to attend and participate in the Yale International History Workshop. ii Friends, colleagues, and family members have enriched the experience of writing a dissertation in immeasurable ways. Various dissertation-writing groups and lunchtime chats have provided good times and good feedback. Clay Howard, Keith Woodhouse, Felicia Angeja Viator, Rachel Bernard, Andrew Mamo, and Daniel Immerwahr all generously read and commented on chapter drafts. Thomas and Barbara Armentrout shared thoughtful stylistic suggestions, and Ben Armentrout provided valuable advice, support, and inspiration during the writing process. I am especially grateful for the friendships I developed in graduate school. MacKenzie Moore and Beatrice Gurwitz deserve special recognition for being a friendship dream team. Simply put, they are amazing people and I am glad they are in my life. Ariel Ron and Nataly Abramovich have provided the most unexpected and delightful combination of “real talk” and steadfast support. Chris Shaw has been both a good friend and a good neighbor, Laura Ferguson is a cherished and insightful confidant, Felicia Angeja Viator’s grace and kindness never cease to amaze me, and Clay Howard has provided a significant supply of encouragement. The residents of Hillegass-Parker House made cooperative living an invigorating source of sustenance, and I’d like to thank Tim Ruckle and Rebecca Webster, in particular, for their musical collaborations. Writing retreats and exam passage celebrations at Stinson Beach made going to graduate school in beautiful Northern California even more of a privilege and a pleasure and, for that, I have the Brosgart-Moore-Gross family to thank. Last but far from least, my friendship with Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar began long before graduate school but she provided unfailing love and inspiration throughout its duration. My family is my most important source of support. I do not know
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