The social and political origins of the post 1974 exodus from Vietnam

Clifford, Robert J. (1980) The social and political origins of the post 1974 exodus from Vietnam. Honours thesis, Murdoch University.

Abstract

A central contention of this thesis is that the causes of the exodus of refugees from Vietnam cannot be viewed merely in terms of post 1975 events. It will be argued that the policies and activities of the post 1975 Socialist government of Vietnam are inextricably bound to the social, economic, political and cultural structure that placed them in power. It is thus proffered that an understanding of the causes of the refugee outflow is bound up in the development of these particular structures.

With this basic theme this paper will aim to achieve two major goals, firstly to link the post 1975 Vietnamese governments policies to the social, economic, political and cultural base of post 1975 Vietnamese society. The second goal will be to trace the development of these structures; analysing the reasons for their particular form.

To achieve these aims it will be argued that there has been three specific groups of refugees each with their own individual characteristics. It will be further argued that these three groups represent the development of three specific dichotomies within Vietnamese society. The first group represents a dichotomy between a peasant based rural sector and an urban middleclass based urban sector. The second group represents a dichotomy between a 'capitalist' based economic structure and a 'socialist' based economic structure. The third dichotomy is between the Vietnamese community and a substantial Chinese minority. The basis of this paper will be an analysis of the major iii components of these dichotomies with particular attention to those groups from which the refugees came.

Item Type:	Thesis (Honours)
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Arts
Notes:	Note to the author: If you would like to make your thesis openly available on Murdoch University Library's Research Repository, please contact: repository@murdoch.edu.au. Thank you.
Supervisor(s):	Robison, Richard, Warren, James and Stange, Paul
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/40879

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