Life December 29, 1947 – Introduction of Ho Chi Minh
Photos from Life magazine, and others, that featured stories about the Vietnam War. Shared here in chronological order, along with some historical background for context. They are interesting artifacts of the time period. The ads are memory inducing too.
For people of my generation who grew up in the 1960s the war in Vietnam was, along with the Civil Rights Movement, the biggest ongoing news story of our youth. A substantial portion of popular culture, music, literature, movies etc, developed in reaction to these events. Much has been made of the role of TV media in influencing public opinion during the war, ultimately turning the majority of Americans against it. The war has been called the first living room war.
Less has been made of the role of the print media in leading the country into the war. No entity was more prominent in that role than Henry Luce’s Time and Life magazines. By 1950 nearly half of all college educated men in America regularly read these magazines, a number which grew throughout the 50s and 60s before ultimately fading in the late 60s under competition from television. Luce was immensely influential in political circles. Life introduced American readers to Ho Chi Minh in the December 29, 1947 issue.
By late 1947 the French had concluded that they weren’t going to take back their former colony without a substantial amount of military aid. Unfortunately for them they also knew that most Americans were staunch anti-colonialists. Truman was facing a tough re-election in 1948 and did not want to be seen as supporting colonialism. The French then hit on a brilliant strategy. They rehabilitated the son of a former emperor and installed him as the nominal “sovereign.” They then re-branded the war, not as a colonial reacquisition, but as a fight for Vietnamese nationalism versus Ho Chi Minh’s communists, ergo a crucial front in the life and death struggle between the west and soviet-directed communism. Life Magazine was quick to take up the cause. The ploy worked, the U.S. waded waist deep into the big muddy…
Parallel Narratives 