ABSTRACT
In 1954, France withdrew politically and militarily from Vietnam after eight years of war and a historical defeat by the Vietnamese People’s Army at Ðiện Biên Phủ. The Geneva Agreements divided Vietnam into two separate states, the pro-communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North and the pro-Western State of Vietnam (later Republic of Vietnam) in the South. France passed the baton of the fight against communism in Southeast Asia to the Americans. The United States, which had largely underwritten the French war in Indochina, now provided military assistance
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to South Vietnam, and proceeded to transform the fledgling country into a strong state able to oppose North Vietnamese ambitions. A key element of this nationbuilding effort was the reform of the educational system in South Vietnam. The French, who had ruled Vietnamese education for 80 years, and were particularly attached to the “civilising” dimension of their colonial past, deeply resented the intrusion of the US into what they considered to be their private domain. Without directly confronting each other, the French and American educational missions competed for the favour of the Vietnamese throughout the Vietnam War.
