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Comparative Perspectives on the Local History of the Cold War in Asia
Organizer and Chair: Michael Szonyi, Harvard University
Discussant: Sheila A. Smith, University of Chicago
The Cold War is often seen as a story of international diplomacy and competition, largely the preserve of bureaucrats and generals. The papers on this panel all seek to challenge this view, by exploring how international geopolitics mattered to individuals and communities in different societies in Asia, and how traces of this interaction persist in the present. All of the papers seek to balance two objectives. First, influenced by the “cultural turn” in Cold War history, all of the papers consider how issues such as modernity, nationalism, race and gender both shaped and were shaped by geopolitical conflict. Second, the papers explore the quotidian consequences of geopolitical conflict: how the Cold War remade the social, economic and political lives of people in different parts of Asia. Rather than viewing these changes as inevitable responses to the perceived military threat from Cold War enemies; we propose that they must also be understood as processes of militarization rooted in local contexts, that operated dialectically with local agents, and that produced a wide range of consequences, many of them unanticipated. The papers cover Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam, and discuss groups ranging from Koreans serving as quasi-US forces to Taiwanese environmentalists and female militia to Vietnamese propagandists of Third World solidarity. Panelists are drawn from anthropology, sociology, history and international affairs. Our interest is explicitly comparative, so presenters will be asked to speak for no more than ten minutes on their individual papers, and the bulk of the panel will be devoted to discussion.
Militarization, Modernization and Gender in a Cold War Flashpoint
Chang-hui Chi, Nanhua University, Republic of China
At the height of the Cold War, the island of Jinmen (Quemoy) was simultaneously the actual front-line in the military standoff across the Taiwan Straits; a powerful symbol of anti-Communist resolve for the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan and its allies, and a site for the implementation of the modernizing agenda of ROC leaders. Using oral history and propaganda materials, this paper examines some of dramatic transformations of local society and culture that resulted from this confluence of roles. A universal militia was created, intended both to support regular military forces and to serve as a paragon of modern anti-communist citizenry, celebrated in domestic and international propaganda. The militarization of local society had profound consequences for gender, which followed a distinctive trajectory even from elsewhere in Taiwan. Our paper explores the paradoxes of this militarization of gender roles. On the one hand, women’s roles in the militia were strictly constrained by traditional ideas of womanhood. On the other, Jinmen’s “female soldiers” became widely celebrated as exemplars of modern militarized citizens. We also consider how these images and roles were understood and negotiated by militia members themselves, male and female. Last, we consider how the official military brothel system and the female militia system worked together as part of a larger taxonomic project of categorizing Quemoy women in terms of their specific contribution to perceived military and propaganda needs. NOTE: This paper is co-authored with Michael Szonyi (discussed with Cynthia Brokaw)
Contentious Democratization of Environment: Politics of Militarism, Conservation and Livelihood in a Southern Taiwanese Community
Ming-sho Ho, Nanhua University, Republic of China
Since the mid-1930s, authoritarian control in Taiwan has been constantly justified on the state’s need for war-making, first the Japanese preparation for Pacific War and then the Nationalists’ goal to retake mainland China. Militarism is environmentally-destructive due to its increased use of weaponry, construction of military facilities, and hasted heavy industrialization. However, an unintended benefit takes place when military cordoning of a strategic area by suppressing civilian usage incidentally helps to preserve its pristine qualities. Democratization in the mid-1980s lessens military control and consequently brings about new politics of environment. Two streams of collective actions are on the rise and embracing different approaches toward environmental issues. Middle-class professional conservationists broadcast the gospel of rediscovered natural beauty and at the same time support the existing regulations on development. On the other hand, local community sees the demise of authoritarianism as a long-waited opportunity to reclaim their livelihood right. Scenery restaurants and holiday resorts are mushrooming on the once-forbidden land. Conservationists denounce these phenomena as reckless greediness, while local residents justify them as a belated compensation of deprivation. Conflicts necessarily flare up as the former mobilize public opinion and media while the latter seek patronage from politicians. By a field case study of Chai-shan Li of Kaohsiung Municipality, this paper analyzes the conservation-versus-livelihood contention in the aftermath of de-militarization of Taiwanese society.
African and Arab Colonial Soldiers in the First Indochina War: Probing the Limits of Third Worldist and Cold War Narratives
Shawn F. McHale, George Washington University
The wars for Vietnam have achieved iconic status both in terms of Third World narratives of anticolonial struggle as well as in Cold War accounts of post-1947 history. Yet to what extent do Cold War accounts focusing on superpower rivalries, and Third Worldist accounts, emphasizing the solidarity of the anticolonial world, obscure developments on the ground? This paper addresses these issues through an investigation of Vietnamese perceptions of African and Arab soldiers during the First Indochina War (1945-54). First, I will first examine the communist led Viet Minh’s views of the world anticolonial movement from 1945 onwards. Second, I will turn to the Viet Minh’s practice of Dich Van, or proselytizing enemy soldiers to desert their companies and even join the resistance. This practice suggests that the Vi?t Minh saw a value in reaching out to (fellow) subjects of colonial rule. Finally, I will examine Vi?t Minh use of crude stereotypes about Blacks and Arabs to frighten Vietnamese. How can this practice be reconciled with other practices of inclusion? And how do such local understandings shed light on Cold War and Third Worldist views of Vietnam?
In the U.S. Army but not quite of it: Gender, Race, Class, and Nation in the Discourses of KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to the United States Army)
Seungsook Moon, Vassar College
Haphazardly created during the Korean War by an informal agreement between General Douglas MacArthur and President Syngman Rhee, the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) has existed for 56 years without any legal ground to support the smooth working of the U.S. military stationed in South Korea during the Cold War and its aftermath. Only written regulations on the KATUSA have been the Eighth U.S. Army Regulation 600-2 and the Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA). Yet these regulations contradict each other in their definitions of the identity of the KATUSA. The U.S. regulation states that while KATUSAs belong to the U.S. Army, they are not U.S. soldiers and therefore not subject to the U.S. Army Law. In contrast, the Korean regulation declares that KATUSAs are considered to be members of the U.S. Army. This ambiguous position of the KATUSA reflects the complex and contradictory alliance between South Korea and the United States that has survived beyond the end of the Cold War. In the post-military rule Korea, not only the size of the KATUSA has shrunken, but also the articulation of KATUSA experiences by former conscripts in the forms of memoir, guide book, and novel emerged. Using these texts and personal interviews I collected during the spring of 2006, the proposed paper examines the ways in which the Cold War and its aftermath shaped the understanding of gender, race, nation, and class in the liminal world of the KATUSA.