Counterinsurgency

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to organise a panel titled 'Colonial (counter)insurgency as African Future Making' for the upcoming European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), which will be held from May 31 to June 3, 2023 in Cologne, Germany. The conference theme is 'African Futures'. 

Our panel abstract:

I would be more in agreement with the findings mentioned in the email[list post forwarded] that the draftee revolts over Vietnam were confined to the pre-Nixon era, since Nixon's election was largely won on basis of ending Vietnam- American war participation; this was his "Peace with Honor" plan and declaration as campaign and slogan.

Thanks to the H-Net readers (above) for sharing their experiences and their thoughtful observations on Bernard Fall. To Dr. Moise's point about the Hoa Hao: Fall wrote an insightful article on the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai for Pacific Affairs that was published in April 1955 (The Political Religious Sects of Vietnam). It is an article I dig into at length in Number One Realist. Fall was able to meet and interview Pham Cong Tac, the Cao Dai Ho Phap (Pope) for the article.

When I was a destroyer squadron medical officer in the South China Sea in 1970, the CO of one of our ships handed me a copy of Fall’s “Hell in a Very Small Place”; his attitude toward our involvement in the war was very clear: he thought it ill-advised and futile. I don’t know if he telegraphed this view to his crew, who revered him. Yet he ran a very tight ship which won all sorts of awards. The conundrum with which he lived moves me to this day.

I believe it was in 1964 that I heard Bernard Fall speak at my college. To a fairly small audience; not as many of us were interested in Vietnam in 1964 as were interested a few years later.

Fall was a great combat reporter and a fine writer. Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place make for gripping reading. I heard him speak at my college, back in 1966, and had the pleasure of meeting his widow several years ago.

I have read Bernard Fall's work published in the "Reporter" magazine at the time of Vietnam, His analysis and conclusions struck me as the most cogent and perceptive as to the meaning of Vietnam War and its needs, in terms of solutions for the West.