Reforming Higher Education in a Society at War: Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point's Advisory Mission in South Vietnam, 1967-1974
Date
2009Author
Reich, Thomas
Publisher
Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study explores an important but little known facet of America’s war in Vietnam: the United States effort to reform the South Vietnamese system of higher education as part of the broader “nation-building” process in the fledgling Republic of Vietnam (RVN). Specifically, it examines the interaction between Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point (WSU-SP) now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Government of South Viet Nam (GVN), to implement educational change.1 In 1966, USAID recruited President James H. Albertson of WSU-SP to head a group of educators, the original “Wisconsin Team,” to survey and report on colleges and universities in the RVN. Albertson and other members of the Wisconsin Team were killed in a plane crash near Da Nang in March 1967. Other WSU-SP personnel completed the survey, and later that year the university signed a contract umbrella with USAID and the South Vietnamese government to continue the collaboration. This contractual agreement launched a six-year program by which WSU-SP was the principal institutional adviser to the South Vietnamese system of higher education. Over time, some fifty different consultants worked under the banner of the Wisconsin Team, producing thirty-eight major reports and surveys.
Subject
Education, Higher -- Vietnam (Republic) Vietnam -- Politics and government -- 1945-1975 United States -- Foreign relations -- Vietnam
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/79564Citation
T. Reich (2009) “Reforming Higher Education in a Society at War: Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point's Advisory Mission in South Vietnam, 1967-1974.” Journal for the study of peace and conflict. 2008-2009 Annual Ed., p.1-23, 2009.