MOBILIZING A FRONTIER: DIEN BIEN PHU AND THE MAKING OF VIETNAM, 1945-1955 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Christian Cunningham Lentz January 2011 © 2011 Christian Cunningham Lentz MOBILIZING A FRONTIER: DIEN BIEN PHU AND THE MAKING OF VIETNAM, 1945-1955 Christian Cunningham Lentz, Ph.D Cornell University 2011 This dissertation offers a historical sociology of the making and unmaking of rule in a frontier borderland in Vietnam By thinking through the social processes accompanying the spatial expansion and configuration of state power, I argue that military conquest was a necessary but insufficient step towards an emergent nationstate‘s lasting consolidation of territorial claims Legitimating state claims to territory rested on mutually constitutive and spatialized processes of institutionalizing relations of rule; agrarian development and reciprocal exchange; constructing communities of nation and ethnicity; and social mobilization during, and for purposes of, warfare Because the first Indochina war ended dramatically in Dien Bien Phu, the past of what is now a national frontier is remembered and forgotten in particular ways In Vietnam, the site is celebrated as battle and setting for victory in 1954 of revolutionary ideals over foreign oppression What is not remembered in such nationalist histories has equal significance for understanding the sometimes contradictory outcomes of state making This dissertation analyzes human beings as complex, thinking persons with wayward agendas who did not always respond as intended Grounded in archival research, the dissertation attends to the ways in which state claims to territory and legitimate rule are contested and how outcomes are contingent and non-linear The narrative begins when colonial officers and mapmakers encountered the Sipsongchauthai confederation in the late 19th century, recognized a ruling Thai elite, incorporated them into French Tonkin, and, in so doing, remade the Black River borderlands into an imperial frontier After World War II, France organized the Thai Federation, created splits among local elites, and unintentionally generated support for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam‘s nationalist alternative Although cadres legitimized national rule by delegitimizing a neocolonial rival, Vietnam‘s emergent ―Northwest‖ region reproduced Tonkin‘s borders and underlying political configuration while political elites reproduced the colonial category of ―ethnicity‖ to regulate uncertain boundaries between community and territory, land and class The unsteady incorporation of Black River peoples into Vietnam illustrates an evolving—and ongoing—negotiation between highlands and lowlands, center and frontier, state and society, nation and ethnicity BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Christian Cunningham Lentz graduated summa cum laude in 1997 from Cornell University where he studied conservation and development in Southeast Asia After participating in a community resource management project in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia he worked for the US Department of State as an Indonesianlanguage interpreter He holds a Masters in Environmental Science from Yale University‘s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, completed in 2001 He earned a Master of Science in Development Sociology at Cornell University in 2004 with a thesis on cultural adaptation to environmental disturbance in Sumba, Indonesia While pursuing a PhD in Development Sociology at Cornell University and assisted by two Foreign Language and Area Studies awards, his interests expanded geographically and topically In 2006-2007, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam where he undertook fieldwork in Dien Bien Phu and archival research in Hanoi for his dissertation project His paper on social mobilization earned the Department of Development Sociology‘s Taietz Award in 2010 for outstanding work presented at a professional conference He is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at Duke University iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my dissertation committee—Shelley Feldman, Phil McMichael, Max Pfeffer, and Eric Tagliacozzo—for patient support, sharp insights, and steady guidance As my PhD advisor, Shelley gave crucial support at key moments and helped me balance the demands of academia and family My MS thesis advisor Paul Gellert as well as my fellow students in Development Sociology, including Jason Cons, Nosheen Ali, Alex and Dia Da Costa, and Karuna Morarji, kept me in step with my studies and sent me down new paths The students, faculty, and staff of Cornell University‘s Southeast Asia Program were a deep reservoir of intellectual resources, collegial camaraderie, and lasting friendships Thak Chaloemtiarana, Ben Anderson, and John Wolff were early teachers, and I am grateful for how they shaped my encounter with Southeast Asia Keith Taylor introduced me to Vietnam‘s history as an undergraduate and remained an invaluable resource during my graduate studies At Yale University, Kay Mansfield and participants in the Agrarian Studies Program as well as students and faculty of the Council on Southeast Asian Studies offered an intellectual home James Scott and Michael Dove encouraged me to think broadly about agrarian change and in depth about highland Southeast Asia Steve Rhee was and remains a dear friend and caring colleague Dirk Bonker, Jason Cons, and Bradley Davis were key participants in shaping this dissertation and improving its content Writing group members Adriane D LentzSmith, Kathryn Mathers, Bruce Hall, Phil Stern, Jehangir Malagam, Kat Charron, and Emily Burrill all provided feedback and insightful comments on chapter drafts Two dissertation workshops, one in Singapore by ChATSEA in 2006 and another in Atlanta by the Association for Asian Studies in 2008, both situated my work in larger iv debates and communities of scholars Hue-Tam Ho Tai and participants at Harvard University‘s space in Vietnam workshop helped to clarify how my work meshed and engaged with Vietnam studies Without the hard work, devoted interest, and sponsorship of Dr Trần Đức Viên, the staff of CARES, and other colleagues at the Hanoi University of Agriculture, my research would never have been possible Likewise, the staff of the National Archives of Vietnam Center steered me through their impressive collections and offered insightful readings of their own Philippe Le Failler and Andrew Hardy at the ẫcole Franỗaise dExtrờme-Orient in Hanoi not only shared documents and experiences but also provided early encouragement and lasting collegiality Support for this research came from a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, Cornell University‘s Southeast Asia Program and Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute, the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, and Duke University‘s Department of Sociology I am grateful to all for believing in and helping to realize this project‘s potential Finally, I reserve my deepest thanks for my loving wife and closest colleague, Adriane D Lentz-Smith She helped this budding sociologist to think like a historian and kept a steady hand on this dissertation ship‘s sometimes wavering rudder On this journey, we welcomed Zora Holloway Lentz who in addition to giving us daily joy also managed to discipline my working hours v TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Acknowledgments iv List of Tables vii Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: From borderlands to frontier 31 Chapter 3: Contesting a frontier 80 Chapter 4: Making the Northwest 147 Chapter 5: Militarization, Liberation, and the Politics of Calculation 240 Chapter 6: Mobilization in Places 329 Chapter 7: Conclusion 416 Bibliography 429 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Population estimate of Thái Federation in early 1950s 64 Table 1.2: Reported opium production in 4th Military Territory, 1933-1940 73 Table 4.1: Administrative divisions and estimated populations, 1952 186 Table 6.1: Food supplies mobilized at point of origin 352 Table 6.2: Supplies delivered to the front by point of origin 356 Table 6.3: Laborers and means of transportation by point of origin 357 vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Encountering past in present I visited Mr L for the second time on an August morning in 2006 before the rainy season clouds gathered for the customary afternoon shower.1 His wooden house sat in the village of Noong Nhai 2, situated in Thanh Xương Commune south of town among the irrigated rice fields of Điện Biên District‘s verdant plain When we arrived, the retired farmer and director of the Farmers‘ Association signaled for me to park my bike under his stilted house and beckoned us to mount the stairs and enter its living quarters I introduced my wife and he, in turn, introduced his wife, his infant grandaughter, and his elderly parents I explained that my wife and I were both interested in learning more about Điện Biên Phủ‘s local history He sat us at a table while his wife fetched a bottle of ricewine, the contents of which he then poured repeatedly into our three cups—performing a gesture, he told us, signaling welcome and good cheer On that day and others to come, he described events and pointed to processes significant to his home and its place in modern Vietnam Mr L responded patiently to my questions about the region‘s local history, its complex ethno-linguistic composition, and patterns of agrarian change Like virtually all Thái people in and around Điện Biên Phủ, he identified himself and his neighbors as Black Thái By contrast, the White Thái people lived to the north, clustered around the old regional capital of Lai Châu ―White Thái and Black Thái are really the same, really only one,‖ he explained, ―but because of fighting became two.‖ Before ―liberation‖ from French colonial rule in 1954, he said, there were very few Kinh people in the area, only those who worked with the French ―No one else Conversation, Noong Nhai 2, xã Thanh Xương, huyện Điện Biên, 22 Aug 2006 ...© 2011 Christian Cunningham Lentz MOBILIZING A FRONTIER: DIEN BIEN PHU AND THE MAKING OF VIETNAM, 1945-1955 Christian Cunningham Lentz, Ph.D Cornell University 2011... during, and for purposes of, warfare Because the first Indochina war ended dramatically in Dien Bien Phu, the past of what is now a national frontier is remembered and forgotten in particular... topically In 2006-2007, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam where he undertook fieldwork in Dien Bien Phu and archival research in Hanoi for his dissertation project His paper on social mobilization