| After World War II,with the rapid expansion of the communist camp,especially the founding of the People's Republic of China,U.S.was more concerned about the expansion of the communism in the Far East.In the "domino" theory,the United States began to re-examine the strategic significance of Vietnam between the two camps,so that Vietnam was seen as the anti-communist bridge in Asian,and U.S.had attempted to build the South Vietnam to contain the expansion of the red camp.From 1954 to 1973,the American government had implemented planned,purposefully Its largest psychological warfare in history for almost 20 years.In the psychological warfare,the Vietnamese culture and American culture had played most important role.Whether the theoretical understanding of Vietnamese culture,or psychological warfare products in practice,the United States have given great attention.This thesis is based on the research of the predecessors at home and abroad,making full use of the most nearly declassified documents,and studying on American psychological warfare in Vietnam from the perspective of culture during 1954-1972 years.The first chapter inspects the evolution of American psychological warfare and the use of its cultural factors before the Vietnam war.American psychology war started from the War of Independence,then the Spanish-American War,World War I,World War ?,and to the early Cold War(1946-1954),and it was more and more development and mature.It was initially disordered and unorganized,afterwards,it was gradually changed.U.S.created the institutions,and then further enhanced the understanding of the theory of psychological warfare,established the conventional command srtructure,and trained specialized practitioners personnel,so theory and configuration of psychological warfare were gradually complete.In this long process of evolution of psychological warfare,U.S.had paid attention to the cultural factors gradually.Whether using of external symbols such as brochures,speeches,comics,movies,radio,or the worship of ghosts and other intrinsic values of the mining,it had a more in-depth,skill.Especially it combined Psychological Warfare with entertainment culture in the practices,and had get a good effect,to a certain extent,with "no war and subdue the soldiers".The second chapter discusses the historical process and causes of U.S.involvement and its psychological warfare and using of the Vietnamese culture in Vietnam.With the confrontation between the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union,and the development of the communist camp,the United States was constantly worried about the interests of the Far East.In the "domino" theory,the United States began to attach importance to Viet Nam's anti-Communist strategic significance,and decided to develop psychological warfare in Vietnam in order to achieve its political objectives.Since 1954,Eisenhower,Kennedy,Johnson,and Nixon all in Vietnam had implemened a wide range of psychological warfare.The psychological warfare agencies involved in U.S.Information Agency,Central Intelligence Agency,Military Assistance Command Vietnam,the US Embassy in Vietnam,the Vietnamese Ministry of Information,and the Vietnamese General Political Warfare Department,and they all have their own working mechanism.The United States attached great importance to use the Vietnamese culture in the psychological warfare,according to Vietnamese cultural characteristics,and used the Vietnamese language,literature,art and other cultural patterns as the instrument of a series of psychological warfare.The third chapter explores the use of Vietnamese Confucianism in American psychological warfare to the Vietnamese.Vietnamese Confucianism was impactted by China,but it had a strong Vietnamese characteristics.One of the core ideas of Vietnamese Confucianism is family ethics.There are filial piety,thanksgiving parents and heritage family virtue for the three important dimensions,which constitutes the Vietnamese basic outlook on life and values.Therefore,American psychological warfare products made use of the image of the anxious mother,the weak and lonely wife and children to strongly advocate the absence of men at home,and hope to arouse the sense of responsibility and obligation to the family of male Vietnamese communist and so as to return to the family and the government.In addition,it appealed people following the example of Tran Hung Dao,Le Loi,Nguyen Trai,who were loyalty and patriotic national heroes in Vietnamese history,to arouse the Vietnamese nationalism and patriotism,and to defend the country with Saigon government.What's more,the United States also borrowed Mencius "system of its permanent production" and the Communist Party "land reform" example to carry out"land reform" in order to win the Vietnamese farmers to support the South Vietnam government.The fourth chapter studies the use of Vietnamese folk beliefs in psychological warfare.Because the astrology was popular in Vietnam,Lansdale in 1955 launched the "Almanac Plan",at the same time U.S.psychological warfare agencies were also spread "Trang Trinh prophecy" everywhere,to lure people to flee the south from the authoritarian rule.In addition,it also made use of the Vietnamese funeral,taboo aspects of traditional practices,implementing "The Wandering Soul" and "Ace of Spade" plan,which were designed for Vietcong and the soliders from the north,in order to appeal them to Chieu Hoi by emphasizing the "unknown cemetery" and not be buried with their ancestors after they were dead,which could lead to their ghosts wandering around forever,and all Vietnamese feared it,even were ashamed of it."Ace of Spade" plan was intended to distribute the "Ace of Spade" in the body of the dead Vietnamese to produce the fear of death,and make the enemies collapse.The fifth chapter takes the Vietnamese Tet and Hung Vuong Day as an example to discuss the application of Vietnamese festivals culture in the psychological warfare.During the Vietnamese New Year,people will reunion and spend the occasion joyfully with their family,it provides a chance for U.S.to launch the Tet Campaign,so as to evoke the Vietncong and North Vietnamese soldiers homesickness,missing their family,and frustrating their morale.At the same time,the Dai Doan Ket National Reconciliation Programs has utilized the worship of Hung Vuong in Vietnam and awaken the national pride of the Vietnamese and the national unity of the people to enhance their sense of national identity,so that they could support the South Vietnamese government against the North Vietnamese communist regime.The sixth chapter explores the use of American culture in Viet Nam as the psychological warfare.In order to dispel the Vietnamese view of the United States as"invaders" and "colonists",the United States has repeatedly constructed its own image of "Vietnamese allies" by emphasizing its mission of "peace envoy" and "savior".They promoted the "charity" of the American savior and the idea of "free paradise" in the south through the "Operation Passage to Freedom".They advertised South Vietnam's gradual liberalization of thought,social development and economic prosperity with the help of the United States to show the capitalist free concept,and to promote the capitalist superior democratic political system by fostering the civic consciousness of the Vietnamese people,promoting the constitution of South Vietnam and holding democratic elections.In addition,the United States showed its military strength,material wealth,and developed civilization to make the Vietnamese believe that the United States and the south Vietnam were invincible,as long as following the United States to defend the communism,and it would enjoy the development of capitalism results,and live a happy life.Therefore,the United States spared no effort to finance the development of health care,improve health conditions,the development of agriculture,animal husbandry,education reform and so on in south Vietnam,to improve people's livelihood to win the goodwill of the Vietnamese people.The seventh chapter is a comprehensive analysis of the effect of the psychological warfare carried out by the United States in Vietnam.Although the precise effects of psychological warfare are difficult to measure,the psychological warfare has been remarkably effective in responding to the main targets of the psychological warfare:the enemy who are mainly the Vietcong and North Vietnamese soldiers and non-enemies who are mainly South Vietnamese ordinary people,but there are also many problems.There are many reasons that affect the effect of US psychological warfare in Vietnam.Among them,the differences between American and Vietnamese cultural traditions,the shortage of professionals,the large mobility of staff,the incoordination of psychological warfare institutions,Vietcong's anti-American propaganda etc.,were largely restricted the effect of its play.At last,the United States had utilized the culture in the psychological warfare for Vietnam,and it provides the necessary experience and lessons.Its the serious study of the Vietnamese culture in the theory provided the necessary basis for the psychological warfare,therefore in the process of implementation,as far as possible it had used more Vietnamese national culture elements,and enhanced the affinity and appeal.But the problem was also fatal.Although the United States had paid enough attention to Vietnamese culture in theory,but its inherent cultural superiority,the corruption of South Vietnamese government and deep-rooted conflicts and boycotts brought by cultural differences,weakened the power of psychological warfare.In short,only from theory to practice effectively integrated,culture will become a psychological warfare killer rather than stumbling block. |
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