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Constructing Americans' Responsibility to Give: Shifting Debates About Foreign and Humanitarian Aid to Child Refugees, 1945

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Constructing Americans’ Responsibility to Give: Shifting Debates about Foreign and Humanitarian Aid to Child Refugees, 1945–1989 A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY SHARON J. PARK IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Elaine Tyler May May 2016 © Sharon J. Park 2016 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the University of Minnesota grants and fellowships that supported my research and writing periods: the Jerome Joss Graduate Student Research Grant and the Theresa & Nathan Berman Graduate Fellowship from the Jewish Studies Department; the Dunn Peace Research Scholarship from the Institute for Global Studies; the Graduate Summer Fellowship in German & European Studies from Mrs. Hella Mears; and the Summer Research Grant in Austrian/Central European Studies from the Center for Austrian Studies; and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and Domestic Thesis Research Travel Grant from the College of Liberal Arts. The research conducted for this dissertation was possible only with the generous assistance of the staff and archivists at the YIVO Institute (Center for Jewish History), New York Public Library, National Archives at College Park, German Federal Archives in Koblenz, Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, California Social Welfare Archives, UNESCO Archives (especially Adele Torrance), University of Minnesota Social Welfare History Archives (Linnea Anderson), Immigration History Research Center Archives (Daniel Necas), and the Minnesota Historical Society. I am indebted to many professors and mentors who helped me reach this point. My advisor Elaine Tyler May was supportive at each stage of the PhD program, encouraged me to pursue my own interests, and bent over backwards to connect me to scholars and resources. My committee members—Mary Jo Maynes, Leslie Morris, Tracey Deutsch, Barbara Welke, and Lary May—played key roles in the development of my project and have shaped the way I think about a variety of fields and topics: cultural diplomacy, memoirs, personal narratives, transnational migration and identities, childhood studies, capitalism, and legal history. Professors Tom Wolfe, Ann Waltner, Christopher Roberts, Evan Roberts, and Mai Na Lee were influential during the early stages of my project, whether it was through our conversations or the content of their teaching. I am also grateful to Lynn Dumenil and my professors at Occidental College, who taught me to think critically and care about social issues in the past and present. The Center for Austrian Studies, Institute for Global Studies, and Minnesota Historical Society staff and i supervisors (especially Klaas van der Sanden, Jennifer Thao, Linda Cameron, and Ann Regan) gave me invaluable advice and opportunities to develop as a scholar and a professional. I was fortunate to participate in various workshops and writing groups that helped me rethink my approaches to source materials, including the Modern History Workshop, Childhood Studies Across the Disciplines collaborative, and the Legal History Workshop. Special thanks to Laura Luepke, Joanne Jahnke-Wegner, Melissa Hampton, Brooke Depenbusch, Blair Williams, Nate Holdren, and the Mays’ dissertation group for sharing thoughtful feedback, accountability, and writing strategies. The Community of Scholars Program and Center for Writing Studies also pushed me along by providing the space to “shut up and write!” and tips for overcoming writing blocks. I especially valued the consultations with Jasmine Tang, who helped me find my own voice through writing. To Elizabeth Venditto, Chen-Yu Wu, Marie Wu, the Monkey, Emily Bruce, Ellen Manovich, Elizabeth Dillenburg, Verena Stern, Matthias Falter, and Ruchen Gao: thank you for offering encouragement, much-needed breaks, and thought-provoking ways to think about refugee and immigration issues and/or children. Finally, I am grateful to my mother, father, and sister, who ensured that I was healthy, supported and respected all of my decisions, and reminded me of three things that are more important than my work. ii Dedication To my family iii Table of Contents List of Figures......................................................................................................................v Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapters: 1. A “Person-to-Person Marshall Plan”: Narratives about American Humanitarianism and Aid to European Child Refugees after World War II, 1945–1953......................30 2. Searching for Homes after World War II: Policy-level Debates about Refugee Children as Economic Dependents & U.S. Immigrants, 1945–1953.........................87 3. Refugee Children’s Voices: Disrupting Narratives about Aid Distribution, Resettlement, and Homes, 1945–1953.....................................................................153 4. “A Marshall Plan at Home”: the “Discovery” of Hungry American Children and Shifting Public Debates about U.S. Foreign & Domestic Aid, 1950s–1970s..........202 5. Redefining Americans’ Obligation to Give: Responses to the Southeast Asian Refugee Crisis after the Vietnam War, 1975–1989.................................................253 6. “An Uncertain Welcome” in the U.S.: Southeast Asian Refugee Families & Children as Welfare Recipients, Non-Citizens, and Future Citizens, 1975–1989..................305 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................357 Bibliography....................................................................................................................367 iv List of Figures 1. Scenes from U.S. War Department film Seeds of Destiny (1946)…………………...30 2. “Austrian child with shoes (1947),” republished in Los Angeles Times (1957)……..55 3. Opening a CARE Package (1948)…………………………………………………...55 4. Responses from a Gallup Organization poll on Displaced Persons (Jan. 1948)…….78 5. “Does He Know The Homes of All The Boys and Girls All Over The World?” cartoon in The Washington Post (1947)……………………….…………………….87 6. Hunger in America (1968) pamphlet……………………………………………….202 7. “Great Society Meets Vietnam” cartoon in The San Francisco Sun-Reporter……..221 8. Photo of Vietnamese refugee girl in The Chicago Tribune (1970)……….………..253 9. Numbers of children admitted under U.S. refugee programs………………………274 10. “No Gooks” anti-refugee graffiti in Garden Grove, California (1981)…………….344 11. “Offer May Vary” cartoon by Clay Bennett in The Christian Science Monitor…...357 v Introduction: This dissertation takes a historical perspective to consider Americans’ responses to refugees during the post-World War II years, as well as the power of the child figure to prompt debates about national and geopolitical priorities. It examines shifting attitudes among policymakers and the American public toward foreign aid and refugee assistance between 1945 and 1989, particularly the visibility of children as aid recipients in the appeals on behalf of aid and resettlement programs—or on the other hand, to cut or set limits to such programs. To analyze the changes and the continuities in American attitudes toward refugee assistance throughout the Cold War years, I focus on two refugee groups after two wars in which the U.S. was explicitly involved—European Jewish refugees after World War II and Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War. As the following chapters will argue, humanitarian aid to child refugees served several purposes for different American stakeholders during the Cold War period. On both the international and domestic fronts, politicians and diplomats attempted to use humanitarian aid, or at least the display of sending aid abroad, to resolve foreign policy issues, whether it was to establish the position of the U.S. as a global power or to compensate for foreign policy failures. While these may have served as the intended goals, this dissertation will address the question of who actually shapes refugee policy at the level of policy and on the ground. First, taxpayers used the issue of aid as a rhetorical mechanism to clarify the lines between citizens and non-citizens and to indicate which refugees had the potential to belong in the U.S. Secondly, in response to the needs of child and youth refugees and the reactions of the American public, policymakers and social agencies had to modify refugee, immigration, and welfare policy. In particular, 1 they recreated and redefined the category of unaccompanied minors, as well as the broader status of the refugee in U.S. policy. This dissertation thus aims to highlight the roles of taxpayers and refugees’ agency in setting the agenda for policy-level debates about refugees, immigration, and social welfare. Why These Two Case Studies? The aftermaths of World War II and the Vietnam War serve as a lens for viewing the changes in U.S. policies and cultural understandings of aid to refugee children and families throughout this Cold War period. Other refugee crises played key roles in defining refugee policy, such as the Korean War refugees in the 1950s and the Cuban refugee crisis in the 1960s. In particular, the Korean War case was a key moment in the history of transnational adoption, while the Cuban refugee program established precedents for making social services available to refugees in the U.S.1 In fact, legislators in the 1970s and 1980s referred to the latter case as a model to follow or to avoid
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