The United States engagement in Vietnam began during the Second World War. With military bases established in China, the U.S. took part in fighting the Japanese troops in the Pacific theatre. When France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940, Japan would take over the French Indochina and the war would spread to Vietnam as well. In order to collect intelligence on Japanese targets, the Americans needed to operate secret services on the ground. After the Japanese coup de main in 1945, they would eventually partner with Ho Chi Minh and his organization Viet Minh. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime predecessor of the CIA, provided intelligence training and equipment, while the Viet Minh would assist with valuable information on Japanese troops. To some extent, the OSS helped Ho Chi Minh and Viet Minh accede to power in Vietnam after the war.

As a result of the economic reforms that were introduced in Vietnam in 1986, the country has grown economically. However, due to a bias toward development policies which have been mainly concentrated in urban areas, the economic gap between rural and urban areas has rapidly widened over time. More job opportunities and better living conditions in the city, as well as low productivity in agriculture, have caused people to move to the major cities. Consequently, rural to urban migration has become one of the dominant flows of internal migration in the country in recent years. This migration stream not only has increased in scale but also in its complexity. Particularly, the age of the migrants has become younger as many young people, especially females, become involved in this flow. Moreover, this migration flow has become less selective in terms of education as both more and less educated people migrate. Also, not only the rich but the poor take part in this movement. This thesis considers the determinants of moving and the experiences of young migrants to Ho Chi Minh City in terms of their economic, social and cultural adjustment in order to provide deep insights into the lives of young people when they migrate. This thesis has used the migration model of Scharping (1997) as the theoretical framework to investigate the decision to move as well as their living experiences in the city. A multiple method approach has been used to the study as both quantitative and qualitative data were analysed. Quantitative data such as secondary data from censuses and data from large-scale surveys at the national and the city levels and primary data from the author’s survey with 300 young migrants were applied. Qualitative data from 25 in-depth interviews with young migrants, 5 with authorities and 5 with migrant returnees were used in this study, to provide detailed information on migrants’ lives. While the city has attracted a large number of youth from rural areas because of its development advantages, the city’s government has applied policies to limit this flow. Yet, this migration control policy has proved costly and ineffective in restricting the flows of people to the major cities. This policy has created many difficulties for migrants in the city. In addition, low levels of education and limited work skills force many young migrants to work in the informal sector where their human rights are heavily violated. Other young migrants work in cheap intensive-labour factories. Low pay and hard work, but without labour and medical insurance, lead these young migrants to live on the margins of urban society. These findings suggest that if the local people do not accept these migrants, and urban policies make no effort to assistance them, it is impossible for young migrants in the city to be successful in building new lives and careers. Instead of trying to limit rural to urban migration, the national government should put more effort into narrowing the rural-urban gap by improving development in rural areas. More jobs with better pay in rural areas may be the most effective and sustainable way of reducing rural to urban migration flows. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331422 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

En 1945, le génie militaire français est devenu l’arme des communications. À leur arrivée en Indochine, malgré la pauvreté de leurs effectifs, les formations du génie œuvrent donc au rétablissement des itinéraires. Cependant, la nature même de la guerre d’Indochine et les caractéristiques propres au milieu physique des pays de la péninsule indochinoise obligent le génie à s’adapter, tout en assurant de plus en plus de responsabilités. À partir de 1951, la menace chinoise comme le renforcement du corps de bataille viêt-minh font apparaître de nouvelles missions qui se traduisent par l’équipement du théâtre d’opérations, rendu possible par l’arrivée de l’aide américaine. En dépit de la montée en puissance du génie d’Extrême-Orient, la perte progressive de la liberté d’action du corps expéditionnaire se solde par la défaite des Français. Enfin, entre 1954 et 1956, les sapeurs accueillent les réfugiés et les unités du corps expéditionnaire en provenance du Nord-Vietnam puis, procèdent à l’évacuation de l’Indochine. / In 1945, French army engineers became the routes building branch. From the moment they arrive in Indochina, engineers reestablish itineraries, in spite of a limited number personnel. However the deep nature of the Indochina war and the particular of south-eastern Asian terrain force the engineers to adapt while they take more and more responsibilities. By 1951, the Chinese threat and the reinforcement of the Viet-Minh result in new missions which necessitate a development of infrastructures on the theatre, thanks to American support. Despite the increasing presence of the engineers, the French defeat is caused by a progressive restrain of the movement for the expeditionary corps. Eventually between 1954 and 1956, the engineers gather the refugees and the expeditionary corps units from North-Vietnam and manage the evacuation from Indochina.

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This thesis examines the American Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) sent to French Indochina, from 1950 to 1956, when the United States provided major monetary and material aid to the French in their war against the communist Viet Minh. MAAG observed French units in the field and monitored the flow of American materiel into the region. Relying upon primary research in the National Archives, the thesis departs from previous interpretations by showing that MAAG held generally positive assessments of France‟s performance in Indochina. The thesis also argues that MAAG personnel were more interested in getting material support to the French, than in how that material was used, to the point of making unrealistic assessments of French combat abilities. By connecting primary research with the greater history of Cold War American military assistance, the thesis contributes to the scholarship on American involvement in Vietnam.

Vietnam is a populous nation experiencing rapid social and economic transition. These changes, in combination with the spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, are compromising the reproductive health of young Vietnamese. Access to reliable reproductive health information is limited and social taboos prevent young people from talking openly about this topic. A huge number of young people living in Vietnam thus find themselves without access to relevant, accurate, non-threatening and unbiased information about sexuality and sexual health. The research outlined in this thesis approaches the issue of sexual health information provision for young people living in Vietnam from a participatory action research foundation. A key focus is investigation of the ways in which young people living in Vietnam can be included in the development of online sexual health communication tools by, for and about young Vietnamese. As part of this investigation, this thesis describes research conducted with young Vietnamese in Australia and Vietnam to identify and elucidate their reproductive health information needs, as situated within the contemporary Vietnamese socio-cultural context. The research was undertaken in order to determine how an online resource might meet these needs. This exploratory process involved the utilisation of a range of research methods to determine the website's optimal content, style, features and tone in relation to the Vietnamese context and requirements of its target users. It is hoped that the record of discovery resulting from this research journey will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on online health communication and participatory approaches to the development of context-sensitive health and behaviour-change communication.

Vietnam is a populous nation experiencing rapid social and economic transition. These changes, in combination with the spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, are compromising the reproductive health of young Vietnamese. Access to reliable reproductive health information is limited and social taboos prevent young people from talking openly about this topic. A huge number of young people living in Vietnam thus find themselves without access to relevant, accurate, non-threatening and unbiased information about sexuality and sexual health. The research outlined in this thesis approaches the issue of sexual health information provision for young people living in Vietnam from a participatory action research foundation. A key focus is investigation of the ways in which young people living in Vietnam can be included in the development of online sexual health communication tools by, for and about young Vietnamese. As part of this investigation, this thesis describes research conducted with young Vietnamese in Australia and Vietnam to identify and elucidate their reproductive health information needs, as situated within the contemporary Vietnamese socio-cultural context. The research was undertaken in order to determine how an online resource might meet these needs. This exploratory process involved the utilisation of a range of research methods to determine the website's optimal content, style, features and tone in relation to the Vietnamese context and requirements of its target users. It is hoped that the record of discovery resulting from this research journey will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on online health communication and participatory approaches to the development of context-sensitive health and behaviour-change communication.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-39).

This dissertation is a focused analysis of the origins, organization, training, politics, and combat capability of the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) from 1954 to 1963, the leading military instrument in the national counterinsurgency plan of the government of the Republic of Viet Nam (RVN). Other military and paramilitary forces that complemented the army in the ground war included the Viet Nam Marine Corps (VNMC), the Civil Guard (CG), the Self-Defense Corps (SDC) and the Civil Irregular Defense Groups (CIDG) which was composed mainly of the indigenous populations in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. At sea and in the air, the Viet Nam Air Force (VNAF) and the Viet Nam Navy (VNN) provided additional layers of tactical, strategic and logistical support to the military and paramilitary forces. Together, these forces formed the Republic of Viet Nam Armed Forces (RVNAF) designed to counter the communist insurgency plaguing the RVN. This thesis argues the following. First, the origin of the ARVN was rooted in the French Indochina War (1946-1954). Second, the ARVN was an amalgamation of political and military forces born from a revolution that encompassed three overlapping wars: a war of independence between the Vietnamese and the French; a civil war between the Vietnamese of diverse social and political backgrounds; and a proxy war as global superpowers and regional powers backed their own Vietnamese allies who, in turn, exploited their foreign supporters for their own purposes. Lastly, the ARVN failed not because it was organized, equipped, and trained for conventional instead of counterinsurgency warfare. Rather, it failed to assess, adjust, and adapt its strategy and tactics quickly enough to meet the war’s changing circumstances. The ARVN’s slowness to react resulted from its own institutional weaknesses, military and political problems that were beyond its control, and the powerful and dangerous enemies it faced. The People’s Army of Viet Nam (PAVN) and the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) were formidable adversaries. Not duplicated in any other post-colonial Third World country and led by an experienced and politically tested leadership, the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (DRVN) and the National Front for the Liberation of Southern Viet Nam (NFLSVN) exploited RVN failures effectively. Hypothetically, there was no guarantee that had the US dispatched land forces into Cambodia and Laos or invaded North Vietnam that the DRVN and NFLSVN would have quit attacking the RVN. The French Far East Expeditionary Corps (FFEEC)’ occupation of the Red River Delta did not bring peace to Cochinchina, only a military stalemate between it and the Vietnamese Liberation Army (VLA). Worse yet, a US invasion potentially would have unnerved the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which might have sent the PLAF to fight the US in Vietnam as it had in Korea. Inevitably, such unilateral military action would certainly provoke fierce criticism and opposition amongst the American public at home and allies abroad. At best, the war’s expansion might have bought a little more time for the RVN but it could never guarantee South Vietnam’s survival. Ultimately, RVN’s seemingly endless political, military, and social problems had to be resolved by South Vietnam’s political leaders, military commanders, and people but only in the absence of constant PAVN and PLAF attempts to destroy whatever minimal progress RVN made politically, militarily, and socially. The RVN was plagued by many problems and the DRVN and NFLSVN, unquestionably, were amongst those problems.