Block, Herbert, Artist. Diem-Nhu Regime / Herblock. Republic Vietnam, 1963. November 4. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013646635/.
Political cartoons are included on the New York State Regents Exams for both American History and Global History. This source could be included across multiple subject areas of study for students to examine the cartoonist’s message about the Diem-Nhu Regime and general sentiments from the West about Vietnam in the early 1960s. This cartoon provides a rich context for Western sentiments prior to the height of American involvement in the Vietnam War and the height of the counterculture, anti-war movement that would come to define the latter portion of the 1960s.
This political cartoon from 1963 provides an early glimpse into American sentiments regarding the need to fight communism across the world, namely in Vietnam. The image portrays a military officer with “Diem-Nhu Regime” written on his uniform being chased by a wall of fire.
Diem-Nhu Regime/Herblock is, according to the description on the Library of Congress website, a political cartoon from 1963. It is an “Editorial cartoon [that] shows a military officer labeled ‘Diem-Nhu Regime,’ the back of his uniform on fire, running away from the billowing smoke of the fire-storm of the Vietnam war. In the wake of the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, this may depict the immolation of the Diem-Nhu regime” (https://www.loc.gov/item/2013646635/).
- What tone and mood are present in this political cartoon, and how do these shape viewers’/readers’ opinions on Vietnam?
- What does this political cartoon reveal to readers about American society’s political view of Vietnam in the early 1960s?
- How does this image’s political messaging about Vietnam compare to later political cartoons on the same subject that appear in other Western publications?
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards for ELA
9-10W1: “Write arguments to support claims that analyze substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 9-10W1a: Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from counterclaims, establish and organize clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaim(s), reasons, and evidence.”
- Students can analyze the political cartoon’s composition, subject(s), setting, and description to formulate claims about the creator’s intended message about America’s role in Vietnam during the 1960s.
New York State Next Generation Standard: 11-12R9: “Make connections to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, and personal experiences. (RI&RL)”
- Students can view this image and compare it to other primary source images of political cartoons from early in America’s involvement in the Vietnam War to its end.
- This image would pair well with Tim O’Brien’s text, The Things They Carried. Students can view the cartoon and compare it to the various sentiments that the characters express about their role in the war, as well as their perspective(s) on Vietnamese military and civilian populations.
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This image can also work well with Ocean Vuong’s text, On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Students can view the cartoon and read it alongside Vuong’s descriptions of the way his mother and grandmother grapple with their Vietnamese identities in post-Vietnam America.
- The image could be challenged for its connection to the atrocious history of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Additionally, it raises concerns about negative stereotypes of Vietnamese people.
Links to resources for approaching those topics:
- The Library of Congress has an entire page dedicated to framing political cartoonists’ creation and messaging of their political cartoons during the Vietnam War Era. It is called Pointing Their Pens: Herblock and Fellow Cartoonists Confront the Issues .
- “Pointing Their Pens: Herblock and Fellow Cartoonists Confront the Issues.” Library of Congress article that examines political cartoonists during the Vietnam Era. n.d. Library of Congress. Pointing Their Pens: Herblock and Fellow Cartoonists Confront the Issues.
- The Pritzker Military Museum and Library has a featured section of their website dedicated to another political cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, which explains how Mauldin’s personal experiences in the military during WWII as well as his son’s active military status during the Vietnam War shaped his own political cartooning.
- “Bill Mauldin | Political Cartoons | Vietnam War.” n.d. Pritzker Military Museum & Library. Accessed December 17, 2024. https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/node/3035.
- Students can view the "You think you can get my bandwagon going again" Herbert Block political cartoon that depicts Uncle Sam speaking to President John F. Kennedy. Though this is an earlier political cartoon (1960), it echoes the critique and questioning of American leadership in the early 1960s, which will later begin to center the United States’ involvement with the war in Vietnam.
- Block, Herbert, Artist. "You think you can get my bandwagon going again?" / Herblock. United States, 1960. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008678315/.
- Herbert Block’s 1968 cartoon "Spirit of second session" offers students a later view of President Johnson’s falling out of favor with citizens of the United States as the US involvement in the war in Vietnam creates more nationwide division among Americans.
- Block, Herbert. 1968. “Spirit of second session.” Editorial cartoon drawing shows President Johnson marching with two other men, reminiscent of Archibald Willard's "Spirit of '76," as part of the fife and drum corps; drums are labeled "'Anti-Riot' Proposals" and "The War," and one man is labeled "The Election." The smoke of battle is behind them as they march past a broken wagon wheel and a fallen soldier labeled "Great Society."
- TIME Magazine printed an article that frames the history of another famous image–a photograph–of immolation from 1963, “The Burning Monk.” This can help frame the context of the differences in opinion regarding immolation and its political purposes when imposed upon a subject and when self-inflicted.
- Witty, Patrick. 2012. “Malcolm Browne: The Story Behind the Iconic Burning Monk | TIME.” Time, August 28, 2012. https://time.com/3791176/malcolm-browne-the-story-behind-the-burning-monk/.