Evolution of World Orders

Over the centuries, the global order has shifted at regular intervals. With the rise of Third World powers, the post-Cold War US hegemony may have to face consequences

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

In French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 work La Chinoise (The Chinese), a group of students influenced by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s thoughts gather at an apartment in Paris and start living like a commune. One day, they sit down to discuss the events unfolding in Vietnam—the US got involved in the conflict between communist-controlled North Vietnam and pro-capitalist South Vietnam, siding with the latter.

The discussion revolves around the split in the communist bloc. The US started bombing and deploying ground troops in North Vietnam in 1965, polarising the world amidst the tense Cold War years. In addition, the Sino-Soviet split that happened in the early 1960s also left the communist camp divided.

In Godard’s film, the setting emulates a classroom complete with a blackboard, table and chair for the teacher. Guillaume, one of the protagonists, sits on the table and faces his comrades sitting on the floor. He elaborates on how the US is fighting communists in Vietnam but not fighting communism in European countries “at all.” He points out how Washington signs agreements with Moscow, invites swimmers from Hungary and violinists from Czechoslovakia—both countries under communist rule—and is building factories in Romania and Poland in a bid to increase association and involvement with the Soviet bloc—that covered much of the central-eastern Europe—but, on the other hand, is also destroying factories in Vietnam.

“This proves that there are two kinds of communism—the dangerous one and the one that is not dangerous,” Guillaume tells his comrades. “The Russians and their friends have become revisionists that Americans can get on with, while the real communists, who haven’t changed, need to be kicked in the face. That’s what Vietnam is about.”