South Vietnam: A Social, Cultural, Political History, 1963 to 1967 By Ryan Nelson 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 Peter Zinoman, Chair Professor Daniel Sargent Professor Penny Edwards Summer 2020 © 2020 Ryan Nelson All rights reserved. 1 Abstract South Vietnam: A Social, Cultural, Political History, 1963 to 1967 by Ryan Nelson Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Peter Zinoman, Chair This dissertation explores the putative autocratic legacy of President Ngô Đình Diệm among South Vietnamese and the dynamic nature of South Vietnam’s social, cultural, and political development during the so-called interregnum period, 1963 to 1967. The years between President Ngô Đình Diệm’s First Republic government, from 1955 to 1963, and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu’s Second Republic government, from 1967 to 1975, demarcate this distinct but misunderstood period of national development. Previously, under the leadership of President Ngô Đình Diệm and his family, domineering conservative Catholics who exhibited much enmity for Western influence amid an escalating civil war, South Vietnam experienced better security conditions, but its citizens enjoyed fewer personal freedoms and had less civic independence. The overthrow of Ngô Đình Diệm’s government engendered watershed changes. South Vietnam experienced deteriorating security conditions, but citizens enjoyed more individual freedoms and had greater civic independence. Driven by elite and non-elite domestic actors, this shift impacted various aspects of society, from sports and female gender norms to politics and the performing arts. Whereas most literature portrays the 1963 coup against Ngô Đình Diệm as throwing the country into complete chaos and engendering widespread failure for multiple years, this work highlights the coup as a point of departure for a new and creative phase of national innovation, reinventing the mid-1960s as a creative and generative phase of South Vietnamese history. An overwhelming majority of extant South Vietnamese press materials published between November 1963 and September 1967 support this study. i For my mother Janice Conway, a constant pillar of support, and my best friend Bryce Baker, who passed away too soon. ii Acknowledgments Six years of research on South Vietnamese society through various local print media lie at the heart of this study. Years of language training, interlibrary loan borrowing, and digitizing print and microfilm materials made this close examination of media possible. The author wishes to thank various people for their assistance along the way. The efforts of UC-Berkeley librarian and curator Virginia Shih afforded me easy access to comprehensive records of important media like Libery (Tự Do), Political Discussion (Chính Luận), Encyclopedia (Bách Khoa), and the Saigon Daily News. UC- Berkeley’s interlibrary loan department filled hundreds of requests for South Vietnamese publications held at other institutions, always in a timely fashion. Rebecca Darby, Paul Lynch, and the staff managing UC-Berkeley’s microfilm room accommodated my every need, making the research process easier and more enjoyable. From Vietnam, Nguyễn Đình Hiền transcribed many newspaper articles I digititized from microfilm that proved difficult to read. The collective tutelage of several Vietnamese- language instructors over my career helped me navigate all these Vietnamese-language materials, including Nguyễn Đình Hiền in Nha Trang, Hong Thi Dinh at UW-Madison, Bac Hoai Tran at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute, Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Hanh Tran at UC-Berkeley, and Phạm Thị Ngọc Phúc and Lê Thị Khánh Hoà at the Vietnamese Language Studies Institute in Hồ Chí Minh City. Lê Thị Khánh Hoà in particular answered and provided context to many language questions that popped up during the research process, for which I am eternally grateful. I am indebted to my dissertation committee at UC-Berkeley, composed of Professors Peter Zinoman, Daniel Sargent, and Penny Edwards. The dissertation greatly benefited from their various comments and constructive criticisms. Hanh Tran made various insightful observations about the first chapter. Of course, the author takes full responsibility for any mistakes found in this work. iii Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………………….ii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………..iii List of figures……………………………………………………………………………………………iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One An Unambiguous Legacy: Public Perceptions about former President Ngô Đình Diệm and the First Republic years…………………………………………………………………………………………..14 Student Radicals………………………………………………………………………………………...16 Critics of the 1959 Family Laws………………………………………………………………………..22 Performing Artists………………………………………………………………………………………27 Hue Journalists………………………………………………………………………………………….34 Upland Minorities………………………………………………………………………………………38 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………...43 Chapter Two Political development: South Vietnam’s democratic, decentralizing turn……………………………...45 Democracy delayed: From Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ to Trần Văn Hương, November 1963 to January 1965..47 Democracy introduced: The May 1965 town, city, and provincial council elections…………………..51 The road to constitutional democracy: The September 1966 Constituent Assembly election………….56 Democracy realized: The 1967 elections for President and Senate…………………………………….65 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………...75 Chapter Three The Body Beautiful: Changing Women’s Fashion and Gender Norms………………………………...77 New Wave and Topless Fashion………………………………………………………………………...81 The 1965 Miss South Vietnam Beauty Contest………………………………………………………...88 The Miniskirt……………………………………………………………………………………………95 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….103 Chapter Four Renaissance Era: South Vietnamese sports development……………………………………………..105 Starting Over: Sports development during South Vietnam’s early-Interregnum period………………107 Maintaining momentum: Sports development during the first half of 1965…………………………..113 Realizing greatness: The 1966 Merdeka Soccer Tournament…………………………………………119 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….126 Final Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………127 References……………………………………………………………………………………………..131 Western-language publications………………………………………………………………………..131 Vietnamese-language publications…………………………………………………………………….134 South Vietnamese periodicals…………………………………………………………………………134 iv List of figures Figure 1. Photograph of student protesters gathered around Quách Thị Trang’s statue, Saigon Daily News (Saigon: Aug. 26, 1964)………………………………………………………………………….20 Figure 2. Photograph of Quách Thị Trang. Ngày Nay (Sài Gòn: Aug. 25, 1964)………………………21 Figure 3. Photograph of the French film star Brigitte Bardot on the front cover of Kịch Ảnh magazine, January 28, 1964………………………………………………………………………………………..79 Figure 4. Photograph of the 18-year-old singer Diễm Thúy, Saigon Post (Saigon: Feb. 1, 1964)…….80 Figure 5. Newspaper cartoon critical of Western dance crazes and the nightclub scene, Ngày Mới (Sài Gòn: Jan. 12, 1964)……………………………………………………………………………………..83 Figure 6. Newspaper cartoon about changing women’s fashion and gender norms, Tiếng Vang (Sài Gòn: Jan. 16, 1964)…………………………………………………………………………………………...84 Figure 8. Newspaper cartoon portraying a street protest against topless fashion, Tự Do (Sài Gòn: Jul. 7, 1964)........................................................................................................................................................86 Figure 9. Newspaper cartoon of women observing Western fashion trends, Chính Luận (Sài Gòn: Sep. 25, 1965)..................................................................................................................................................90 Figure 10. Photograph of contestants rehearsing for the formal wear competition at the 1965 Miss South Vietnam Beauty Contest, Chính Luận (Sài Gòn: Oct. 21, 1965)………………………………...92 Figure 11. Photograph of contestants rehearsing for the swimsuit competition at the 1965 Miss South Vietnam Beauty Contest, Chính Luận (Sài Gòn: Oct. 22, 1965)……………………………………….93 Figure 12. Photograph of Miss South Vietnam Thái Kim Hương and runners-up, Kịch Ảnh (Sài Gòn: Oct. 30, 1965)...........................................................................................................................................94 Figure 13. Newspaper cartoon highlighting the trend of receding hem lines, Chính Luận (Sài Gòn: Aug. 26, 1965)………………………………………………………………………………………………..97 Figure 14. Newspaper cartoon of presidential candidate Trần Văn Lý calling for a miniskirt ban, Saigon Daily News (Saigon: Aug. 9, 1967)……………………………………………………………………101 Figure 15. Photograph of the 1965 South Vietnamese men’s national table tennis team, Saigon Post (Saigon: Apr. 11, 1965)………………………………………………………………………………..116 Figure 16. Photograph of flyweight boxers Nguyễn Sang and Kid Doan fighting at Tinh Vo Stadium, Saigon Post (Saigon: May 18, 1965)………………………………………………………………….118 Figure 17. Photograph of the 1966 South Vietnamese men’s national soccer team, Thao Trường (Sài Gòn: Aug. 13, 1966)…………………………………………………………………………………...123 Figure 18. Photograph of teammates carrying team captain Phạm Huỳnh Tam Lang hoisting the Merdeka Cup, Thao