The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam

by Duy Lap Nguyen

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.

Genres: History

296 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2019

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ambitious project that spans academic disciplines, The Unimagined Community nuances discussion about the different Vietnams involved in the war. Nguyen succeeds in challenging the conventional readings of Ngô Đình Diệm as a naïve nationalist or an American puppet. Any scholar of 20th century Vietnam and American international relations would benefit from this overview, as well as any those interested in lesser-known anti-capitalist philosophical theory and the influence of globalization on Southeast Asian cultures.

Still, as much as Nguyen’s strength lies in the breadth of his sources, it is also the greatest weakness of this book. Had he chosen to hone in solely on the Ngôs, the protagonists of his most well-supported argument, his thesis would have been more focused. Instead, the final third of the book focusing on the effect of American capitalism and surveillance on South Vietnam’s cultural productions deflects attention from the rest of the book and seems to respond to an entirely different thesis. Southern Vietnamese cultural production is an enormous topic that deserves more attention in a more elaborated form. Still, Nguyen’s work offers novel insight into the intersection of ideology, war strategy, and culture production.

[RYAN PHAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huh. I didn’t realize that South Vietnam had a strong book culture with Bùi Anh Tuấn’s Z.28 novels about a Vietnamese super spy who uses American weapons, disobeys American orders, uses his wages to sleep with prostitutes, and embodies South Vietnam’s worries about its over reliance on America. There was also Nhã Ca’s many books. I didn’t realize there was a time before Vietnam had strict control over publishing and there was a state monopoly.