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5 - Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2023

Salar Mohandesi
Affiliation:
Bowdoin College, Maine
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Summary

Although the North Atlantic was plunged into crisis in the early 1970s, radicals proved unable to seize the opportunity as they entered a crisis of their own. In France, to a degree unparalleled elsewhere, prominent former radicals not only disavowed anti-imperialist internationalism but rallied behind the rival human rights internationalism. In so doing, they brought with them a set of experiences, which strengthened human rights activism. Despite their fading fortunes, and the growing strength of their rivals, radicals struggled to reinvent anti-imperialist internationalism. But they found themselves trapped in an uphill battle facing one obstacle after another. One of the most devastating blows was the internecine war between China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Revolutionaries in all three countries had developed a revolutionary strategy based in Leninism, joined hands in the struggle against imperialism, and claimed they were transitioning to communism together. Now they slaughtered each other in the name of national self-determination. Although the Third Indochina War did not destroy radicalism, it severely destabilized radical politics. While much of this failure can be traced to deeper histories of colonialism, imperialism, and American intervention in the region, revolutionaries, and the ideas that guided them, played a role as well. In this context, the idea of the right of nations to self-determination specifically, and the Leninist problematic more generally, suffered a terrible blow. The horrific events in Southeast Asia deepened the gnawing crisis of Leninism, which would ultimately bring down the project of anti-imperialist internationalism as such, creating a perfect opportunity for the rival human rights internationalism to take the stage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Red Internationalism
Anti-Imperialism and Human Rights in the Global Sixties and Seventies
, pp. 195 - 227
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Crisis
  • Salar Mohandesi, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: Red Internationalism
  • Online publication: 05 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009076128.007
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  • Crisis
  • Salar Mohandesi, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: Red Internationalism
  • Online publication: 05 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009076128.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Crisis
  • Salar Mohandesi, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: Red Internationalism
  • Online publication: 05 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009076128.007
Available formats
×