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ASIAN STUDIES / HISTORY / POLITICS / ANTHROPOLOGY
A groundbreaking book that looks at bureaucratic documents
as a major history-shaping force
Focusing on the creation and misuse of government documents in
Vietnam since the 1920s,
The Government of Mistrust
reveals how
profoundly the dynamics of bureaucracy have affected Vietnamese
efforts to build a socialist society. In examining the flurries of paper-
work and directives that moved back and forth between high- and
low-level officials, Ken MacLean underscores a paradox: in trying
to gather accurate information about the realities of life in rural
areas, and thus better govern from Hanoi, the Vietnamese central government
employed strategies that actually made the state increasingly illegible to itself.
MacLean exposes a falsified world existing largely on paper. As high-level offi-
cials attempted to execute centralized planning via decrees, procedures, question-
naires, and audits, low-level officials and peasants used their own strategies to
solve local problems. To obtain hoped-for aid from the central government, locals
overstated their needs and underreported the resources they actually possessed.
Higher-ups attempted to re-establish centralized control and legibility by creating
yet more bureaucratic procedures. Amidst the resulting mistrust and ambigu-
ity, many low-level officials were able to engage in strategic action and tactical
maneuvering that have shaped socialism in Vietnam in surprising ways.
Ken MacLean
is assistant professor of international devel-
opment and social change at Clark University, where he is
also the director of Asian studies. His scholarship on Viet-
nam and Burma has appeared in the
Journal of Vietnamese
Studies
and
Comparative Studies in Society and History
.
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Edited by John Day Tully, Matthew Masur,
and Brad Austin
“This collection makes good on what it
sets out to do: help high school and col-
lege teachers think about understanding
and teaching the Vietnam War in new and
innovative ways. There is a clear need for
this kind of hands-on volume.”—Mark
Philip Bradley, author of
Vietnam at War
PUBLISHED AUGUST 2013
LC: 2012040084 DS 264 PP. 6 × 9
22 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $19.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-29413-7
The Harvey Goldberg Series for
Understanding and Teaching History
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
DECEMBER
LC: 2013015051 HN
240 PP. 6 X 9
10 B/W ILLUS., 4 TABLES, 1 MAP, 1 CHART
E-BOOK $34.95 S ISBN 978-0-299-29593-6
New Perspectives in Southeast
Asian Studies
Alfred W. McCoy, R. Anderson
Sutton, and Thongchai Winichakul,
Series Editors
“A highly original book with an
unusually innovative methodology.
MacLean describes policy and
political processes in human
terms.”
—Oscar Salemink, University
of Copenhagen
