|
Editor: Seth Ford,
Fords@grinnell.edu
Web pages maintained by pricel@grinnell.edu |
History Student Lectures
Spring Student Lectures
Ben Jenkins, '00, spoke on "Characteristics of Afrikaner
Nationalism.” His research comprised of both historical
sources and a contemporary anthropological survey. He argued
that Boer identity became, essentially, Afrikaner identity during
the events of the Boer War (1896-1902). Opposition to England,
and the development of a national identity based on ethnicity
and race defined what it meant to be an Afrikaner. The separation
of Afrikaners from British residents of South Africa and from
Black Africans was an essential element in how they imagined
their nation and themselves.
The emergence of the National Party in
1948 further consolidated this identity as an ethnically and
racially distinct, non-British people. Jenkins' survey of contemporary
Afrikaners reveals much the same attitude. Nearly all of the
contemporary Afrikaners surveyed expressed a very strong belief
in a common language, common historical struggle, common religion,
common ethnicity, and common destiny. The research also explored
the source of current radical separatist Afrikaners. "They
wanted Apartheid in 1899, they wanted it in 1948, and they still
want it now,” Jenkins asserted.
Student Honors Talks
Greta Bliss: "Dien Bien Phu and France in Indochina:
A Paradigm for America's Vietnam"
Greta Bliss described how France's disastrous
last stand in Vietnam (what France called Indochina) set an example
for the United States to avoid. The United States, however, failed
to learn from France's lesson, and repeated many of the mistakes
that had led to France's failure.
Greta began by detailing the mistakes made
when French generals resolved to make the defense of the fort
at Dien Bien Phu France's "last great hurrah.” Located
in a low point and surrounded by mountains, the French soldiers
in the fort were trapped.
Like other colonial powers, the French
were convinced of the superiority of the white race in general
and the French in particular. The French also experienced considerable
frustration at the Viet Minh’s guerrilla tactics. Indeed,
the last stand at Dien Bien Phu was designed to force the Viet
Minh into attacking the fort and into western-style combat.
The French got what they wanted, but the
result was not what they had expected. "Reality well and
truly raised its ugly head,” but the generals refused to
change strategies. Outnumbered five to one, the French were defeated
on their own terms. In the ensuing fall-out, as historians, politicians,
and generals argued over "who had lost Indochina,”
Americans could have reflected on the scenario that they might
(and indeed did) face when the U.S. took up the war in Vietnam.
Greta argued that the French and American
outlooks were surprisingly similar because of the similarities
between the two cultures. The Americans, however, discounted
the lessons of the immediate past: "nations, like people,
have the tendency to want to do things their own way and to think
that their way is unique and correct.” |
