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• 1 2019-11-18T15:48:26-05:00 Learning in the Sinosphere 33 Page 1 of Path A Introductory Page plain 4801 2020-08-02T13:08:03-04:00 Michitake Aso

  The Korean War (1950-1953) and the First Indochina War (1946-1954) were closely linked. A key event in Asia underlying both wars was the 1949 victory of the communist party, led by Mao Zedong, over the nationalist party and the formation of the People's Republic of China. With the founding of the PRC, and the subsequent entry of Chinese troops into the Korean War (1950-1953), understandings of the First Indochina War began to shift. Among United States leaders, the events of 1949 and 1950 recast the fighting on the Indochina peninsula from a colonial war in which the United States opposed the French, to a part of the Cold War in which the two shared common interests. Even though French leaders remained intent on keeping at least some of Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) as part of their empire, they were content to receive American aid that was earmarked as part of the battle against communism.
  
  Ho Chi Minh and the Việt Minh were likewise careful observers of the Korean War. They quickly understood the implications when the North Koreans and Chinese communists leveled charges of biological warfare against the United Nations forces, led by the United States. Vietnamese intellectuals and political leaders were inspired to draw on existing Sinosphere maps. Vietnamese leaders turned to political, intellectual, and cultural connections to China and Korea for relevant experience with biological warfare. Newer maps of the communist world both reinforced Sinosphere maps and placed Vietnam at the center of newer political geographies of revolution. 
  
  Consider the following map published by the US Central Intelligence Agency in 1967. While this map presents a topographic view of Northern Vietnam, thus using the language of scientific objectivity, there were at least two important choices to note. First, it reproduces older Sinosphere and regional geographies by linking Northern Vietnam to its northern neighbor. This decision was not accidental, of course, and like earlier regional maps had a military motivation. Starting in 1965, the United States had sent its military to the Republic of Vietnam and began what is known in America as the Vietnam War. During this war, communist China sent aid and advisors to North Vietnam. Second, this map notes the major population centers of Hanoi and Thai Nguyen and shows them linked by a railroad. Both Hanoi, as the capital, and Thai Nguyen, as a major industrial city, were targets of incessant American bombing. The railroad linking the two cities was also a prime target [verify]. 
  
  
  In this way, the shape of this map was the result of the victories of first the Chinese, and later the Vietnamese, communist parties.
  
  In this path you can consider an international conference that presented evidence for the charges of US germ warfare in North Korea and China. Then view some of the images related to germ warfare produced in China and compare them to the Việt Minh pamphlet viewed in "Countering Biological Warfare."
  
  If you are unfamiliar with the historical geographies of Northern Vietnam you may wish to explore the subpath on this subject. Otherwise, you can continue on the path about biological warfare during the Korean War.

• 1 2020-07-31T17:32:20-04:00 Cartographies of Revolution 14 Red River Delta plain 2020-08-11T18:27:05-04:00 Michitake Aso Cold War-era maps show the connections that Vietnam had with the socialist world. After the 1949 victory of the Chinese communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Việt Minh gained an important ally. Starting in May 1951, supplies from the USSR also began to cross the North Vietnam-China border. Between 1952 and 1954, the Việt Minh received over 100 tonnes of medical supplies and equipment from China and the USSR. The map below shows "Dissident Activities in Indochina" from November 1950. It was produced by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1951 and included in the Pentagon Papers. The Việt Minh were active in the lands bordering China including a region called the Việt Bắc.
  
  
  Now consider the following map published by the CIA in 1967. While this map presents a topographic view of Northern Vietnam, thus using the language of scientific objectivity, there were at least two important choices to note. First, it reproduces older Sinosphere and regional geographies by linking Northern Vietnam to its northern neighbor. This decision was not accidental, of course, and like earlier regional maps had a military motivation. Starting in 1965, the United States had sent its military to the Republic of Vietnam and began what is known in America as the Vietnam War. During this war, communist China sent aid and advisors to North Vietnam. Second, this map notes the major population centers of Hanoi and Thai Nguyen and shows them linked by a railroad. Both Hanoi, as the capital, and Thai Nguyen, as a major industrial city, were targets of incessant American bombing. The railroad linking the two cities was also a prime target [verify]. 
  
  
  In this way, the shape of this map was the result of the victories of first the Chinese, and later the Vietnamese, communist parties.
  
  By the 1970s, the National Liberation Front, and its ally the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, could imagine themselves as the world leaders of the socialist countries. Add Che Guavara quote about let there be multiple "Vietnams."