MACH Unit 7: Migration 3: Third Worlds and First Worlds

The Vietnam War (1955-1975)

An armed conflict fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. Controversial proxy war

Rolling Stones (1962-), “Gimme Shelter” (1969), Mick Jagger (1943-)

Foil to “The Sound of Silence” from The Graduate, acknowledged the politics of Vietnam, explained how to listen to the song

John Lennon (1940-1980) and Yoko Ono (1933-), War is Over (1969)

Billboard in Times Square NYC celebrating the end of the war and Christmas, protest piece as the war wasn’t over

Martha Rosler (1943-), House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home (1967-1972)

Feminist conceptual photographer, montage artist, commented on advertising of the war

Norman Mailer (1923-2007), Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967)

Book did not mention Vietnam until the last page

Eddie Adams (1933-2004), Saigon Execution (1968)

Photographer, not opposed to the war, photo of a guy being killed

The Green Berets (1968)

Only film made on Vietnam during the war, pro-war, heavily criticized

John Gast (1842-1896), American Progress (1872)

Painting focused on empire

O. Henry (1862-1910) and “banana republics” (1904)

Wrote short stories on colonies becoming outposts of American empire, described Honduras and Guatemala being economically exploited by the United States

United Nations (1945-)

Founded with 51 members, 126 in 1968, representative of American domination

The Bandung Conference in Indonesia (1955)

The birth of the third world, meeting of Asian and African states, most of them newly independent

Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948)

Leader of mass independence movement in India, great thinker

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)

Leader of mass independence movement in Martinique, great thinker

Che Guevara (1928-1967)

Leader of mass independence movement in Cuba, great thinker

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1975)

Revolutionary, founder and the first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Catholic Missionaries

Tried to spread religion in the third world

Secular Missionaries

Focused on soft power. Example: Peace Corps

William Lederer (1912-2009) and Eugene Burdick (1918-1965), The Ugly American (1958)

Sensitive Americans in Asia, depicted the failures of the US diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia

Edward Lansdale (1908-1987)

United States Air Force Officer, pioneered psychological warfare

Barry Sadler (1940-1989), “The Ballad of the Green Berets” (1966)

Projected authority when he sang, song featured in The Green Berets

John Wayne (1907-1979), True Grit (1969)

Director and star in The Green Berets, hoped to grow support for troops, worked with The White House

Richard Slotkin (1942-), Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1800-1860 (1973)

Book on how the attitudes and traditions that shape American culture evolved from the social and psychological anxieties of European settlers struggling in a new world to claim the land and displace Native Americans

Michael Rogin (1937-2001), Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (1975)

Book on Andrew Jackson’s view of the Native Americans as a threat to the new nation and its citizens

Philip Jones Griffiths (1936-2008), Vietnam, Inc. (1971)

Welsh photographer of the daily life in the Vietnam War

Michael Herr (1940-2016), Dispatches (1977)

Writer for Esquire, wrote on Vietnam as the non-human specter of the helicopter

M*A*S*H (1972-1983)

Film version of Dispatches about the Korean War, title sequence featured a chopper

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Combined the aerial view of the chopper with the ground perspective of the Vietnamese, used opera when focused on the meta chopper, silence when focusing on the village

Platoon (1986)

Anti-war film focused on the battlefield

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Zombie film resemblant of Vietnam with tropical imagery and a helicopter escape

Caddyshack (1980)

Comedy film where character mumbles lines from The Green Berets while trying to kill a tunneling gopher

Karate Kid (1984)

Film that conflated WWII in Japan and Vietnam as a parallel

Lan Cao (1961-), Monkey Bridge (1997), and Viet Thanh Nguyen (1971-), The Sympathizer (2015)

Novels on Vietnam published decades later

The Office of Public Safety in USAID (1962-1974)

Encouraged the militarization of policing, trained and fought in Vietnam

Daryl Gates (1926-2010), Chief: My Life in the LAPD (1992)

Characterized US citizens as foreigners due to protest. “The streets of America’s cities had become a foreign territory”

Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), “What’s Going On” (1971)

Anti-war, anti-capitalist, inspired after seeing cops beat protesters

The Chickencoop Chinaman (1972)

Play about a Chinese-American filmmaker Tam visiting his childhood friend Japanese-American Kenji. Themes involve struggling with identity, cultural conflict, and search for belonging

Smashing Pumpkins (1988-), “Rhinocerous” (1991)

Gen X band, alternative rock, related to college radio

James Iha (1968-)

Guitarist of Smashing Pumpkins, Japanese American, icon for Asian Americans

Chinatown (1974)

Film depicting how Asian American emerged initially as a fiction in culture, had nothing to do with a Chinatown

Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

Act banning quotas and requiring equal allowance by county, leading to a surge of Asian immigration. Restrictions still remained with only so many visas per country. Preference system based on family reunification and skills

Eden Center in Falls Church, VA (1984-)

Business district

Mayan Lin (1959-), Design for the US Vietnam Memorial (1981)

Chinese-American, design for the memorial was controversial because it was “cold and dehumanizing,” she was “unable to feel the pain of white families,” and she was “too close to the enemy”

Vincent Chin (1955-1982)

Chinese-American who was beat to death because he was thought to be Japanese, killers received no jail time, led to protests

Ronald Takaki (1939-2009)

Wrote the book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America which takes an in-depth look at the minority experience throughout American history

Christine Choy (1952-) and Renee Tajima (1958-), Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1989)

Documentary film, textbook for people identifying as Asian-American

The Third World Liberation Front at San Francisco State (1968-69)

Made up of African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos, and Indigenous students banding together to ask for a curriculum change, led to the creation of ethnic studies

The Yellow Identity Conference at UC Berkeley (June 1969)

Professors spoke on emerging topics in Asian American studies

Amerasia Journal (1971-)

Academic writing that came from college campuses

Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971)

Academic writing that came from the college campus

AIIIEEEEE! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers, co-edited by Frank Chin (1974)

Book outlining the history of Asian American literature

Gidra (1969-1974)

Newspaper started by students at UCLA as a platform to discuss Asian American interests, voice of the Asian American experience

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), The Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)

Depictions of Asian Americans as mysterious and foreign, oriental villains

Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)

Ridiculous racist caricature of Asian Americans as foreign

C.A.N. Charlie Chan (1980)

Movement of the coalition of Asians to Nix Charlie Chan

Bruce Lee (1940-1973), Enter the Dragon (1973)

Actor, found himself embodying Asian American stereotypes

Visual Communications (1970-)

One of the first Asian American media collectives, formed due to concern about the portrayal of Asian Americans in media, started in LA

Basement Workshop (founded 1969) and Asian American Arts Centre (1985-)

Community organization for Asian Americans to seek creative and new ways of intersecting artistic expression with politics and community activism

Wayne Wang (1949-) and Chan is Missing (1982)

Satire film that revisited the idea of Chinatown, plot was trying to find Chan who was never fully personified, allegory for Asian America-what is it?

Frank Chin (1940-), Donald Duk (1991)

Born in California, wrote the first play produced by an Asian American to be featured on Off Broadway, novel written about growing up Asian American, one of the most influential Asian American playwrights in the country and is considered to be a pioneer of Asian American theater

Richard Aoki (1938-2009)

Japanese American member of the Black Panther Party

Yuri Kochiyama (1921-2014)

Japanese American, held Malcolm X as he died

Trinh T. Minh-Ha (1953-), born in FF, Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)

Filmmaker and writer, documentary examining the status of Vietnamese women since the Vietnam War

Nikki S. Lee (1970-)

South Korea photographer, explored themes of identity in her work

Mitski (1990-) and “Your Best American Girl” (June 2016)

Japanese American singer, song on accepting that her racial identity and upbringing obstructed her from the goal of having a relationship with an American boy

New Order (1980-), “Bizarre Love triangle” (1986)

Song on a love situation that is unusual, complex, and possibly unsettling

Migration 3

Takes place post-1965 Immigration Act, increase number of immigrants in the United States

30 Years War in Asia

A period of war that involved violence in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, which can be understood as stages of the Vietnam War: 1945-1954, 1950s-1965, 1965-1968

Asian American

Identity arising from student activists at UC Berkeley in 1968, encompasses multiple ethnicities and nationalities into one identity group