The Vietnam War : Ethnic minority, Conflicts, and Legitimacy

Khang Do
PhD Candidate, University of Leeds (UK)

19 December 2025, 5:30pm - 7pm (Vietnam Time, UTC +7)
Hosted by EFEO at Ho Chi Minh City
113 Hai Bà Trưng, quân 1

This research project explores the Republic of Vietnam’s policies toward ethnic minorities from 1955 to 1975, examining how successive regimes sought to incorporate, control, and militarize minority populations within the framework of nation-building. Using extensive archival sources from the Vietnam National Archives II, the study argues that state approaches were fundamentally dual : minorities were mobilized as strategic assets for counterinsurgency yet simultaneously treated as potential threats to national security. Policies under Ngô Đình Diệm’s First Republic, the Interregnum, and the Second Republic revealed recurring contradictions that fueled unrest, desertions, and resistance movements such as FULRO. By situating ethnic politics at the center of South Vietnam’s turbulent history, this project highlights how the failure to institutionalize minority inclusion weakened state legitimacy, deepened social divisions, and shaped the broader trajectory of the Vietnam War.

Khang Do is a PhD Candidate in History and Politics at the University of Leeds. His research focuses on ethnic minorities, state formation, and conflict in twentieth-century Vietnam. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in History and International Studies, and a Master’s in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of California, Irvine. He later completed a second Master’s in International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego.