The unimagined community

The unimagined community proposes a reexamination of the Vietnam War from a perspective that has been largely excluded from historical accounts of the conflict, that of the South Vietnamese. Challenging the conventional view that the war was a struggle between the Vietnamese people and US imperialism, the study presents a wide-ranging investigation of South Vietnamese culture, from political philosophy and psychological warfare to popular culture and film. Beginning with a genealogy of the concept of a Vietnamese “culture,” as the latter emerged during the colonial period, the book concludes with a reflection on the rise of popular culture during the American intervention. Reexamining the war from the South Vietnamese perspectiveThe unimagined community pursues the provocative thesis that the conflict, in this early stage, was not an anti-communist crusade, but a struggle between two competing versions of anticolonial communism.

The unimagined community presents a wide-ranging study of South Vietnemese culture, from political philosophy and psychological warfare to popular culture and film. The book pursues the provocative claim that in its early phase the conflict was not an anti-communist crusade, but a struggle between two different forms of anticolonial communism.

The unimagined community proposes a reexamination of the Vietnam War from a perspective that has been largely excluded from historical accounts of the conflict, that of the South Vietnamese. Challenging the conventional view that the war was a struggle between the Vietnamese people and US imperialism, the study presents a wide-ranging investigation of South Vietnamese culture, from political philosophy and psychological warfare to popular culture and film. Beginning with a genealogy of the concept of a Vietnamese “culture,” as the latter emerged during the colonial period, the book concludes with a reflection on the rise of popular culture during the American intervention. Reexamining the war from the South Vietnamese perspective, The unimagined community pursues the provocative thesis that the conflict, in this early stage, was not an anti-communist crusade, but a struggle between two competing versions of anticolonial communism.

Introduction: Image-making and Imperialism: Sovereign, Surveillance and Spectacle in the Vietnam War
1. Colonialism and National Culture
2. The Other Vietnamese Revolution: Personalism and US Imperialism in South Vietnam
3. Psychological Warfare and the Society of Consumption in the South
5. Surveillance and Spectacle in Bùi Anh Tu?n’s Z.28 Novels
6. Sovereignty, Surveillance and Spectacle in the Saigon Fabulous Four
Bibliography
Index