title: The last stand of the psychocultural cold warriors: military contract research in Vietnam.
abstract: In 1966, the social scientists of the Simulmatics Corporation arrived in Saigon. Tasked by the Pentagon with helping to pacify South Vietnam, they conducted political and social psychological research on Viet Cong defectors, government soldiers, and Vietnamese villagers. This essay argues that Simulmatics's work captures some of the ironies of Cold War social science: its tendency to mask militarization behind the rhetoric of peaceful nation-building, its blurring of data collection and intelligence gathering, and its ambitious dedication to revealing the unseen contents of hearts and minds while remaining ignorant of the historical, cultural, and linguistic contexts in which its subjects lived.
authors: Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
authors: Joy
authors: J
authors: Rohde
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D003284:Contract Services; D003625:Data Collection; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011057:Politics; D011583:Psychological Warfare / Q000266:history*; D011593:Psychology, Social / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D012424:Rural Population; D012922:Social Change; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D014481:United States; D047829:Vietnam Conflict