ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Vietnam Applying the Cultural Trilogy

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Vietnam: Applying the Cultural Trilogy Purpose: To present a framework for analyzing Vietnamese culture. James K. Bruton (LTC - Ret, USAR) • Assistant Battalion Advisor: 18 th Infantry Division and the Airborne Division 1967 -69 • Battalion Civil Military Operations Officer, 173 rd Airborne Brigade, 1969

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Presentation Outline • Preface: Why Bother with Culture? • Cultural Trilogy Framework àPsychology: Individual Analysis àSociology: Time-Factored Activities àAnthropology: Primordial Sentiments • Three Levels of Cultural Impact

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Preface: Why Bother with This Culture Stuff? According to Pham Xuan An, former Time magazine reporter & covert Viet Cong Colonel, the biggest mistake Americans made in Vietnam was: “not understanding the Vietnamese history, culture, and mentality. They were so sure military strength would win the war, they never bothered to learn who they were fighting. ”

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Preface: What is Culture? National Culture says Dutch Sociologist Geert Hofstede is: “the collective programming of the mind acquired by growing up in a particular country. ” Culture = shared meaning: why a people think and act the way they do. But, a national culture should be seen as an organization of diversity, not an imposed uniformity.

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Psychology: Individual Analysis Surface Culture (What) Deep Culture (Why) Procedural Culture (How)

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Individual Psychology Comparison: US & VN Behavior Patterns American Tendency Vietnamese Tendency Individualistic outlook Collectivist outlook Diffused authority, decentralized decision-making Top-down decision making Speedy results – short-term perspective Patience – long-term view (May = rush to failure) (May = cautious action) Direct communication Indirect Communication Straightforward – “all cards on the table” Reticence Confrontational Harmony, face-saving (1)

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Individual Psychology Comparison: US & VN Behavior Patterns American Tendency Vietnamese Tendency Human agency as primary causality Role of fate, karma (Popular level belief) Truth is fixed, permanent Truth is strongly contextual Contract terms are binding Contract terms are circumstantial Overstatement of achievements Self-effacing Universalization of American experiences Particularistic outlook ( = Others should imitate American ways) (2)

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Interpersonal Culture Technical. Economic Culture Political Culture Future (Imagined)

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Future (Imagined) Interpersonal Culture Community-centered view: perhaps agrarian values Driven by physiological, security, and affiliative needs

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Technical. Economic Culture Future (Imagined) (1) Values of an advanced economic society: society-centered view Driving force: achievement motive & economic advancement Trust among experts derived from technical cooperation

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Technical. Economic Culture Future (Imagined) (2) Organizational culture characteristics (a subset of Tech-Economic Culture) vary from one nation to another: Dutch Sociologist Geert Hofstede pioneered study of how national culture affects work-related values

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Comparison: US strong economic culture vs. VN strong interpersonal culture Clashes between US advisors and VN over organizational differences Urban vs. rural clash within VN Communist organizational effectiveness during war Near-Future Orientation Technical. Economic Culture Future (Imagined) (3)

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Future (Imagined) Political Culture: Connects past to an imagined future Creates identity for individual within social body like community, ethnicity, or nation Retrieves heroes, victories, defeats, key events from the past and reconstructs these to offer vision of a future superior race or utopian society (1) Political Culture

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities Past Orientation Present Orientation Near-Future Orientation Future (Imagined) Political Culture (cont’d): Key VN event: struggle to win and maintain independence from China National Heroes: Trung Sisters, Ngo Quyen, Tran Hung Dao, Le Loi (2) Political Culture

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Sociological Analysis: Time-Factored Activities % (Unscientific Estimate of the Unquantifiable) Interpersonal Culture Political Culture Economic Culture

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture LANGUAGE REGION/ TERRITORY CUSTOMS/ TRADITIONS RELIGION ETHNICITY RACE

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture LANGUAGE: • Three regional dialects: Northern, Central, Southern. VN language not under threat. • Chinese minority may speak Chinese privately • Khmer minority may speak Khmer privately • Montagnard (Hill Tribesmen) languages may be endangered

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture REGION: • Yang North & Yin South cultural divide (or Prussians & Bavarians) • SVN more commercial and open to things foreign • Political differences: 1986 response to famine

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture CUSTOMS/TRADITIONS AND RELIGION: • Buddhism, Catholicism, and Taoism main religions • Cao Dai and Hoa Hao sects and Catholics were anti. Communist • Animist folk practices pervasive

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture CUSTOMS/TRADITIONS AND RELIGION: • Under President Ngo Dinh Diem, Buddhist clashes with SVN government • Catholics, Buddhists, and Cao Dai persecuted under Communist regime • Today Catholic and Buddhist leaders agitating for greater religious freedom

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture ETHNICITY AND RACE: • Defeating French and US, and repelling ‘ 79 Chinese invasion reinforced Vietnamese self-image as superior race of warriors • Government allows selective exposure to foreign influence • Chinese expulsion 1978 -80 • Tensions between Vietnamese and “primitive” Montagnards: evidence of persecution and “ethnic cleansing”

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE The Cultural Trilogy TRIAD I: PSYCHOLOGY TRIAD II: SOCIOLOGY SURFACE CULTURE Perception PROCEDURAL CULTURE Communication Habits/ Performance DEEP CULTURE Cognition LANGUA REGION/ GE TERRITORY TRADITION & RELIGION CUSTOMS ETHNICITY RACE TRIAD III. ANTHROPOLOGY Primordial Sentiments & Social Organization of Culture INTERPERSONAL CULTURE Present, Interior life TECHNICAL/ ECON. CULTURE Near Future, Work life POLITICAL/ SOCIAL CULTURE: Past & Far Future, Pub. life

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE 1 st Impact of Culture Impact of national cultures on manner of warfighting: VN • History of fortified villages and people’s defense • Use of 2 k years of Political Culture to unify and motivate • Mastery of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz: thought strategy US • Economic Culture Technocratic view of war • Very little “cultural preparation of battlefield” • Thought tactics

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE 2 nd Impact of Culture Impact of “mini-clash of civilizations” between Americans & South Vietnamese allies: • US predominant Economic Culture vs. VN’s predominant Interpersonal Culture • US organizational culture vs. VN’s style of organizational culture • Poor cross-cultural preparation of most US forces + GI misbehavior alienated populace

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE 3 rd Impact of Culture Impact of primordial sentiments & primordial discontent on Vietnamese national unity: • Vietnamese have a factious disposition in general, plus ® Northerner vs. Southerner tensions ® State vs. religious organizations ® VN vs. minority group tensions • VN government, more open or repressive, will have to manage particularist tendencies in the years to come.

ANALYZING VIETNAMESE CULTURE