国際政治
Online ISSN : 1883-9916
Print ISSN : 0454-2215
ISSN-L : 0454-2215
ベトナム戦争終結と日本外交-戦後秩序をめぐる経済大国としての外交-
現代史としてのベトナム戦争
田中 康友
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ジャーナル フリー

2002 年 2002 巻 130 号 p. 143-159,L14

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It is wildly believed that Japan conducted an “autonomous” diplomacy during 1970's and it was well demonstrated in its foreign policy toward Vietnam. At the same time, Japan sought to contribute to the peace and security in Southeast Asia by using its world's second largest economic power as a carrot for Vietnam. Thus, I would like to characterize this movement as the “diplomacy of an economic power” and would like to demonstrate how Japan played a political role to balance the enlargement of China and Soviet powers on Vietnam by satisfying its economic needs.
After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the US became indifferent to Indochina. In contrast, China and the Soviet Union had begun to seek to gain a hegemonic power. Both of them regarded Vietnam as a key factor to formulate their foreign policies in this region as it took a relatively neutral position in the Sino-Soviet conflict. The Soviet Union aided Vietnam both military and financially with the expectation that Vietnam could bring great pressure on China from the south. In the same manner China aided Vietnam in order to encourage Hanoi to avoid the development of Soviet-Vietnamese relations, especially their security cooperation against China. At the same time, China also supported the Pol Pot regime, an anti-Vietnamese government in Cambodia, to be a friendly “buffer state” to block complete Soviet-Vietnamese security cooperation in Indochina.
Japan was concerned about who would fill the “power vacuum” in Southeast Asia. If Vietnam tilted towards China or the Soviet Union, then ASEAN countries might align with the other in order to counter-balance its power in the region. As a result, the influence of communist powers on Southeast Asia would be inevitable. That is what Japan feared the most.
Vietnam needed economic assistance for post-war reconstruction, not only from communist countries but also from Western and ASEAN countries. Vietnam also demanded the US to make war reparations pledged by Nixon, which was a prerequisite condition for the normalization of ties with the US. Under these circumstances, Japan took two major foreign policies toward Vietnam. One was to offer ODA. Another was to play an intermediary role to normalize the diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam.
Japan encouraged Vietnam to maintain a neutral position toward the Sino-Soviet conflict. Since the outbreak of the Sino-Vietnamese conflict made Vietnamese dependency on the Soviet Union, Japan discourage Vietnam to depend on it. Japan regarded itself as a “counterweight” to the powers of China and the Soviet Union.

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© 一般財団法人 日本国際政治学会
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