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From: Judith Stowe
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 6:34 AM
Subject: [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
Following the sudden and sad death of Dr. Ralph Smith, Professor of SEAsian history at SOAS in December 2000, I was fortunate enough to be given access to his literary legacy including his computer files. I already knew that for various reasons he had abandoned the idea of writing a sequel to his 3 volumes of The International History of the Vietnam War. Instead he had embarked on a different project which he referred to as 'Decades' : a history of political & economic changes taking place from one decade to the next during the latter half of the 20th century in the Asia Pacific region . Before his untimely death, Ralph had done a lot of work on this subject and now with the help of the chapters retrieved from his computer plus notes from his personal diaries, Dr. Chad Mitcham (one of his PH.D. students) has compiled the history hopefully as originally intended. It has now been published posthumously under the title 'Changing Visions of East Asia, 1943-1993' by Routledge in its series of studies in the modern hisory of Asia.
The book starts with the conference of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere held in Tokyo in November 1943 more or less coinciding with the Cairo conference which brought together Roosevelt, Churchill & Chiang Kai-shek, all with their own different views of the future. But as this history shows from one decade to the next, it was totally unpredictable to the point where in 1993 President Clinton presided over the APEC conference in Seattle. Along the way, Dr Smith has of course a lot to say about Vietnam and how developments there affected the whole of East Asia.
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Meanwhile Routledge has expressed interest in publishing a volume containing reprints of some of Dr. Ralph Smith's most note-worthy lectures and articles. Any suggestions, especially about his work on early Vietnamese history, would be gratefully received.
Judy Stowe, London
Marc J. Gilbert <mgilbert@hpu.edu>
date Nov 29, 2006 3:27 PM
subject RE: [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
Ralph Smith gave a lecture on Viet Nam at the U. S. Air Force Academy, October 17-19th 1990 (14th Military Symposia) that was inhibited by his need to use an oxygen tank he told me he needed due to the high altitude (my wife and I hung out at SOAS, she got her degree there, so we were both acquainted with him).
His presentation was a brave effort to broaden the usual scholarship on the American War that was worth developing. I do not think his talk was published in the book derived from the conference (the useful but sadly titled An American Dilemma: Vietnam) or in a later collection. If not, it may be something to look for in his papers. It was an interesting conference featuring Bui Diem and William Bundy. It was there that Bundy became one of the first American leaders to call the war in Southeast Asia a mistake, but unlike the qualified mea culpas that were offered by his brother McGeorge Bundy and others, his was a humble heartfelt apology which, as I remember, ran “I was an architect of that war. And for that, I beg your forgiveness._.. Some might consider that yet another sin of failed liberal American leadership; my attention is drawn to its apparent failure to impress its officer-audience with the dangers of hubris.
Marc
Janet Hoskins <jhoskins@usc.edu>
date Nov 30, 2006 3:42 PM
subject [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
For Judith Stowe,
Raplh Smith's 1970 two part article on Caodaism is a classic and perhaps the first effort in English (and still one of the
only ones) to summarize the roots and religious content of this new religion. There are also two other articles of his
which are personal favorites of mine:
1970 "An Introduction to Caodaism 1. Origins and early History", Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies U Of London 33 (2): 335-349.
1970 "An Introduction to Caodaism 2. Beliefs and organization", Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 33 (3): 573-589.
Smith, Ralph B. (1972) The Development of Opposition to French Rule in Southern
Vietnam 1880-1940, Past and Present. No. 54 (Feb 1972) P. 94-129.
Smith, Ralph B. (1972) The Vietnamese Elite of French Cochinchina, 1943, Modern
Asian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1972) p. 459-482,
When news came of his death, the people at Thien Ly Buu Toa temple near San Jose, California, set up an "on line
memorial altar" for him, since he was----in their opinion---the only western scholar who made a sincere effort to
understand their beliefs and perspectives.
His breadth of knowledge and scholarship was extraordinary, and ranged well beyond the political histories he is better
known for writing.
So I would hope that you might think of reprinting some of these.
Janet Hoskins
Professor of Anthropology
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, Ca. 90089
Philippe Peycam <phpey@hotmail.com>
date Nov 30, 2006 5:25 PM
subject RE: [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
Dear Judith,
I am totally in support of Janet's remarks regarding Ralph's extremely
important contribution to the history -cultural, religious, social as much
as political- of southern Vietnam. These articles, those two on Caodaism
and the two other superb pieces she is referring to, need to be made much
more widely available, because they are great examples of scholarly
mastership. His capacity to extract the historical substance of one-single
documents (Coulet's 'Societes Secretes' for his article on Opposition to
French Rule, or 'Souverains et notabilites d'Indochine' official directory)
are classic examples of historical craftmanship. Ralph was an historian of
medieval England, and he always kept a very acute sense of the way to
extract meaning from the most bizarre texts.
I would also add his first book on Vietnam: 'Vietnam and the West' and his
piece on Bui Quang Chieu, which is largely used for his book (‘Bui Quang
Chieu and the Constitutionalist Party in French Cochinchina, 1917-1930’,
Modern Asian Studies, III, 2, April 1969, Cambridge). Also his latest
article on the period: ‘The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist Party,
1929-1930’, Modern Asian Studies, volume 32, 4, 1998, Cambridge, p. 769-805.
One may say that some of these pieces have aged a bit, especially Vietnam
and the West -with his
comparison between the Constitutionalist Party initiative and the Congress
Party in India. But the very fact that he managed to approach these
sensitive political subjects without being caught in the prevailing cold
war-related historical determinism, his fresh attempt to draw comparisons
with other colonial contexts, and his strong sense -and respect- of the
cultural and social environment of southern Vietnam (Ralph spent quite a bit
of time in war-torn Saigon for his historical research; there, he mingled
quite deeply into the Saigon intellectual society; when I was there, I often
met people who remembered him vividly), this when many political colonial
materials were not yet accessible, all this makes it more than worthwhile to
have his early publications re-published. I know it is easier to say than to
do, but I think today's students would greatly benefit from reading them.
Philippe Peycam,
Center for Khmer Studies, Cambodia
Tuan Hoang <thoang1@nd.edu>
date Dec 1, 2006 11:53 AM
subject RE: [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
For something different, I've always thought Prof. Smith's eleven-pager review essay of Fredrik Logevall's
_Choosing War_ should be included in some anthology or collection of his works. It's very different from
most suggestions thus far in being (1) about late instead of early Vietnamese history; (2) US- instead of
Vietnam-centered; and (3) recently published instead of years ago.
Upon publication, Logevall's book was instantly recognized for its deep reseearch and methodological
originality, esp. on internationalizing the history of the war. Yet, unusual of the many reviews on this
book, Prof. Smith's essay was virtually alone in saying that it is *not* international enough, a judgment
backed up with typically penetrating Smithian perspectives. Agree or not with his judgment, one can't escape
feeling that he used the occasion towards excellent ends: in effect, one of his last pitches (if not indeed
his
last) on methodology. In some ways, it is a fine coda to his multi-volume international history.
The citation is: Ralph B. Smith, "Choosing War in Vietnam," The Journal of Military History, vol. 64, no. 2
(April 2000), 503-513.
~Tuan
ANG Cheng Guan (HSSE) <chengguan.ang@nie.edu.sg>
date Dec 5, 2006 4:55 PM
subject RE: [Vsg] Professor Ralph Smith
I fully share the sentiments of Tuan's below. It is one of his best book reviews that I have read/in my collection if his writings. Anyone attempting to write an international history of the war should read this piece for the period it covers. It is more than just a book review. From it, one can distil Smith's methodology.
Guan
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