Social and Economic Conditions in Saigon: 1954-1965

From: Haydon CHERRY <haydon.cherry@yale.edu>

Date: Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:24 AM

Subject: [Vsg] Social and Economic Conditions in Saigon, 1954-1965

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Dear List,

I am in search of accounts of the social and economic conditions in Saigon during the First Republic and the next few years of increasing American involvement in the south (~1954-1965). Does anyone know about the social science going on in Saigon during this period, carried out either by Vietnamese or Americans? I am interested in a broad range of conditions including the changing demography of the city, the labour market, income levels, cost of living, and so forth. Were there studies of Saigon or its districts akin to Hickey's study of Khanh Hau? Published sources (in Vietnamese, English, or French) would be most helpful to begin with but I would also be very grateful for archival leads.

With many thanks,

Haydon Cherry.

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From: Hy Van Luong <vanluong@chass.utoronto.ca>

Date: Sat, May 17, 2008 at 5:30 AM

Subject: [Vsg] Social and Economic Conditions in Saigon, 1954-1965?

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Hello Haydon,

Two items come to my mind that deal with local social conditions in Saigon

and Gia Dinh in the 1960s and early 1970s:

1. Marilyn Hoskins and Eleanor Shepherd, Life in a Vietnamese Urban

Quarter (Southern Illinois Univ., Center for Vietnamese Studies, 1965) (a

poor neighborhood, now in district 1 of HCMC)

2. Claude Balaize, Villages du Sud Vietnam (L'Harmattan, 1995) (4 villages

in the then Gia Dinh, now a part of HCMC).

Hy V. Luong

Univ. of Toronto