This is a guest post by Marc A. Reyes, a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. His research interests include foreign relations history, economic and political development, South Asian studies, and histories of science and technology. He is spending 2019 in New Delhi, India, as a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow conducting dissertation research.

“I continue to feel that the Vietnam situation, to put it mildly, is a dead-end street…”

Don Corsetti, autographed pencil sketch of Chester Bowles, accompanying letter dated 22 July 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 328, Folder 47.

In 1968, Ambassador Chester Bowles finally expressed what he had been thinking for years: the Vietnam War would not end well for the United States. In an April 2, 1968, letter to former aide and future U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Celeste, Bowles asserted that the war had cost the U.S. dearly. Two days earlier, President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement that the United States would halt its bombing campaign to start negotiations to end the war had stunned everyone, and Bowles confided to Celeste that such talks would be “extremely difficult.” The U.S.’s options were not likely to produce a favorable outcome. Like many Americans, Bowles had serious concerns about the war, but initially he sincerely believed the war would produce a stable government for South Vietnamese citizens and eventually a more just South Vietnamese society. Now Bowles concluded the war was “a dead-end street.”

Chester Bowles would readily admit he was the Ambassador to India, not Southeast Asia, but his second stint as the U.S.’s Ambassador to India, from July 1963 to April 1969, allowed him a greater opportunity to better understand India and its evolving role in a wider range of Asian affairs. His first term, in the Truman administration, had been only for eighteen months and focused primarily on obtaining U.S. economic aid for India. Given the chance to return to New Delhi, Bowles threw himself into all matters of U.S.-Indian relations, and worked to understand one of the larger issues facing Asia during this period: the Vietnam War. Bowles thought deeply about the war and how it affected U.S. foreign policy in Cold War Asia.

U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles at the American Embassy in New Delhi, India, cover of Span magazine, Volume VIII, number 4 (April 1967). Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 327.

Reading through the Chester Bowles Papers at Manuscript and Archives, researchers discover how much Vietnam weighed on Bowles. His personal papers provide glimpses into his thinking about nationalism, Third World revolution, and the balance of power in Asia. When he was not working on US-Indian issues, such as food aid to India and negotiating a settlement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, Bowles analyzed India’s role in Asian affairs. He believed India could lead a coalition of non-Communist Asian nations, serving as a bulwark against the expansion and influence of China. Bowles specifically argued that India itself had seen up close the threat of Communist aggression (in its 1962 war with China) and the fight in Vietnam was another example of a non-Communist country resisting Communist domination.

Bowles’ Vietnam War concerns did not appear out of nowhere and steadily grew during the course of his second stint as ambassador. His papers document his disillusionment with the U.S.’s campaigns to repel North Vietnam forces and their South Vietnamese sympathizers and to build up a functioning South Vietnam. Mirroring a process similar to that experienced by many Americans, Bowles went from supporter to critic of the war, speculating what the war was costing the U.S. and what a post-Vietnam War world should look like for India, Asia, and the United States.

Chester Bowles, “What Hope for Peace in Vietnam?”, American Reporter, issue of December 21, 1966, reprint. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 341, Folder 342.

As early as 1964, before the United States’ Rolling Thunder campaign and massive deployment of American troops, Bowles doubted that Vietnam could be resolved through purely military means. In a February 1964 letter to New York Times reporter James Reston, Bowles claimed that since his visit to Southeast Asia in 1952, “it was evident that the military approach would never work unless it was supported by a sensitive political effort to deal with the people.” Bowles lamented that since 1950 the U.S. had spent an “unbelievable” $6 billion dollars in Southeast Asia and had little to show for it. He recognized history repeating itself in that the Republic of China’s leadership, before its defeat by Mao Zedong’s Communist Army, had also believed a military victory had to precede any political and state-building reforms. Bowles recognized that these breakthroughs had to be connected, and were not separate issues to be dealt with in the future. Bowles’ reference to earlier mistakes was not a one-time occurrence, either. In a 1966 letter to Senator George McGovern, Bowles said the U.S. had failed when it allowed the French to resume control of their Southeast Asia colonies, and speculated that if FDR had lived to see the end of the war he would have challenged France’s colonial rule.

Hoping to receive some kind of Indian support for the U.S.’s war effort in Vietnam, Bowles traveled to Thailand, Laos, and South Vietnam in August 1966. While there, he met with government leaders, ambassadors, and military commanders to learn more about the U.S.’s Vietnam mission. If Bowles, a trusted voice to Indian leadership, witnessed and reported back signs of U.S. progress, perhaps India could offer moral support for the U.S. mission or at least refrain from criticizing the war.

First page of the itinerary outline for Ambassador Bowles’ trip to Southeast Asia, 5-12 August 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 343, Folder 360.

During his week-long visit, Bowles heard of South Vietnamese villages pacified, of schools built, and markets reopened. It was apparent, however, that the security situation was still fraught. Armed guards were posted throughout supposedly safe villages and U.S. officials described areas as unsafe at night, even in places without much of a North Vietnamese presence. In his reporting, Bowles acknowledged that there were U.S. military successes worth celebrating, but his analysis also revealed concerns about the growing costs of the war and the effectiveness of the U.S.’s North Vietnamese bombing campaign. While Bowles thought U.S. military successes were important, he placed a lot of faith in South Vietnam’s September 11th, 1966, Constitutional Assembly elections. He reasoned that successful elections like these would help win over skeptical South Vietnamese citizens and propel momentum for a favorable settlement to the war.

Within a year though, Bowles’ Vietnam anxieties returned. Writing to Vice President Hubert Humphrey in May 1967, Bowles remarked that it was “impossible for the United States to win a ground forces numbers game in Southeast or East Asia.” Bowles’ past support for the war rested on his conviction that the fight would be limited, but would also produce a functioning government that represented the best interests of the South Vietnamese people. What Americans saw, including Bowles, was just the opposite: a wider war and a corrupt South Vietnamese government. Bowles grumbled that the 1966 South Vietnamese elections had not produced any political breakthroughs and the ruling government had taken no steps to establish “a stable, just and peaceful society.”

Bowles reached his breaking point on Vietnam in April 1968. Not long after the Tet Offensive, and two days after President Johnson’s announcement of immediate peace talks, Bowles lamented that the war had cost the U.S. too much. In his April letter to Richard Celeste, Bowles called years of U.S. military reports “dismally wrong.” The retreating and weakened North Vietnamese enemy described in such reports did not match the one American soldiers found on the battlefield. Bowles’ biggest worry, though, was that the United States had “no realistic way out” of their Vietnam impasse.

Ernie Newhouse, photographer. Chester Bowles and other panelists on the set of the WRC-TV show Meeting of the Minds, Washington, D.C., 17 April 1966. Chester Bowles Papers (MS 628), Box 334, Folder 145.

As much as Chester Bowles wrestled with the Vietnam War and its immediate impact on U.S. foreign relations, he also imagined a world after the war. Bowles, in two 1966 letters, hoped that once the fighting stopped funds once earmarked for war could be utilized for development work abroad. Besides increased funds, Bowles thought future U.S. foreign policy would be different, even peaceful, because the true takeaway of the Vietnam War was that the U.S. could not kill its way out of trouble. Bowles declared: “every American military man and civilian, from generals and ambassadors down to privates and office boys, has witnessed at first hand the limitation of military power in a revolutionary situation.” Speculating what the United States could do with just half the money set aside for wars, Ambassador Bowles believed those financial resources “could create a new world.” If a third of the funds went overseas for development, and the other two-thirds went to develop American cities, Bowles thought the future, both for the U.S. and the world, “would look a lot less bleak.”

Chester Bowles’ second stint as the U.S. Ambassador to India coincided with his breaking point on the Vietnam War. He wrestled with uncomfortable facts until it was clear to see that the war’s costs were too great. The ambassador feared that the war harmed the United States’ ability to influence Asian nations and exercise power in the developing world. What the U.S. was losing – in lives, money, and respect – was far greater than what could be earned by continuing the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. Bowles represented a generation of diplomats who truly believed the U.S. had the power to remake the world into something better and more just. Bowles’ voice was ignored and his post-war vision never realized, instead the tragic reality resembled what Bowles had feared all along.

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description. Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

Catalunya Independence Movement Ephemera (MS 2099)

The collection (totaling 5.75 linear feet) contains ephemera related to the 2017 Catalan Independence Referendum, Declaration of Independence, and related elections. Ephemera includes cloth banners and bags, newspapers, pamphlets, stickers, and posters.

New Blue, Yale University, Records (RU 1160)

The records (totaling 10 linear feet) consist of tour records, performance events, scrapbooks, photographs and musical recordings from New Blue, the first women’s a cappella group at Yale University. Access to the records requires permission from the archivist of New Blue.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2016-M-0089 of the Harold C. Conklin Papers (MS 1956)

This accession (totaling 50.75 linear feet) comprises Yale University administrative and teaching files, topical files, professional service files, and correspondence documenting Harold Conklin’s professional responsibilities at Yale University and in professional organizations. The Yale University files document Harold Conklin’s tenure at Yale University, including trips with the Association of Yale Alumni, teaching and research records from the Anthropology and Linguistics departments, and curatorial files from the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The records also document Conklin’s professorial and administrative responsibilities at Yale, particularly in the Department of Anthropology, such as his chair and committee service, courses and exhibitions, the Agrarian Studies Program, Southeast Asia Studies activities, and the development of Human Relations Area Files. The bulk of the collection is open for research. Access to Yale University administrative files is prohibited for 35 years from creation of the records. Access to student and personnel files is prohibited for 75 years or life plus five years (whichever is longer).

Accession 2018-M-0030 of the Hadley Family Papers (MS 985)

This accession (totaling 3.58 linear feet) consists of correspondence between members of the Hadley and Morris families and includes letters by and to Helen Hadley, Arthur Twining Hadley, and their children. Also includes studio portraits of family members and memorabilia, including documentation of academic achievements and family finances.

Accession 2018-M-0058 of the Louis H. Pollak Papers (MS 1989)

This accession includes a notebook of mementos prepared for the twentieth anniversary of Judge Louis H. Pollak’s appointment to the federal bench as judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Also includes other documentation related to his anniversary celebration.

Accession 2018-A-0082 of the Yale University Press Records (RU 554)

This accession comprises acquisition files for the Yale University Press, 1982-2016. Access to the materials is restricted until January 1, 2052.

Accessions 2019-M-0004 and 2019-M-0024 additions to the Duncan Chaplin Lee and John Lee Papers (MS 2062)

Accession 2019-M-0004 contains the personal papers of Duncan Chaplin Lee and includes personal and family photographs and albums; correspondence between Duncan Chaplin Lee, family, friends, and colleagues; and clippings. Accession 2019-M-0024 consists of the personal papers of Duncan Chaplin Lee, including correspondence with his son John Lightfoot Lee and other family members, and biographical material of the Lee family, including written accounts by Duncan Chaplin Lee. Accession 2019-M-0024 also contains a photograph album documenting Duncan Chaplin Lee’s time in Burma during World War II.

Accession 2019-A-0017 of the Ravi D. Goel Collection on Yale (RU 1081)

This accession (totaling .5 linear feet) consists of letters and legal documents, 1726-1799, documenting Yale affiliated individuals and organizations, collected by Ravi D. Goel.

Accession 2019-M-0020 of the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Papers (MS 649)

This accession (totaling .25 linear feet) comprises correspondence to and from G. Evelyn Hutchinson, including letters written by Hutchinson to Yemaiel Oved Aris, who resided with the Hutchinsons in New Haven during World War II. It also includes letters between Hutchinson’s colleagues regarding Hutchinson, class lecture notes taken in Fall 1953 by Estella B. Leopold (born 1927; Yale PhD 1955) for Hutchinson’s Ecological Principles class, and photographs of Hutchinson family members.

Accession 2019-M-0025 of the Henry Lewis Stimson Papers (MS 465)

This accession is a guest book for Highhold, Henry L. Stimson’s house in West Hills, Huntington, New York, 1905-1937.

Accession 2019-A-0025 of the Employee Unions and Strikes, Yale University, Records (RU 105)

This accession (totaling .25 linear feet) contains correspondence, promotional material, and ephemera documenting faculty and graduate student support of the 1984 Yale University clerical and technical employees strike.

Accession 2019-M-0033 addition to the John Glines Papers (MS 1895)

This accession (totaling 1.92 linear feet) consists of the writings of playwright John Glines, including scripts of productions performed at The Glines Theatre in New York City, personal and autobiographical writings, and a daily journal. The papers also include correspondence and recordings of author Erlo Van Waveren and production materials from Glines’s play Butterflies and Tigers, including video and audio recordings.

Accession 2019-A-0031 of the Yale University Buildings and Grounds Photographs (RU 703)

This accession contains a photogravure of a circa 1906 bird’s-eye view of Yale University, drawn and signed by Richard Rummell (1848-1924) and published by F. D. Nichols of Boston.

Accession 2019-A-0032 of the Yale Diploma Collection (RU 150)

This accession contains the 1856 BA, 1859 MA, and 1863 PhD diplomas of Lewis Richard Packard, classics scholar and Yale professor of Greek.

Accessions 2019-A-0034, 2019-A-0035, and 2019-A-0050 additions to the Yale Course Lectures Collection (RU 159)

These small additions to the Yale Course Lectures Collection include art history course materials and notebooks of Susan P. Casteras (1973 MA, 1975 MPhil, and 1977 PhD); course notes, examinations, and papers of Mark Hubert Curtis (1942 Yale College, 1953 PhD); and a 1966-1967 Math 131 lecture notebook titled “Natural Function Algebras” of professor Charles E. Rickart.

Accession 2019-A-0048 of the Whim ‘n Rhythm, Yale University, Records (RU 210)

This accession consists of a diary written by Charlotte Juergens during the 2016 Whim ‘n Rhythm world tour.

Accession 2019-A-0054 of the Yale Events and Activities Photographs (RU 690)

This accession comprises a New York Graphic article depicting four Yale secret society buildings: Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Upsilon, 1886 June 19.

Accession 2019-A-0055 of the Yale College records of Classes (RU 491)

This accession contains a photograph album for the Yale College class of 1865.

The following information on recently acquired and processed collections was assembled by Alison Clemens, assistant head of arrangement and description.

Manuscripts and Archives has recently acquired and made available the following collections and additions to existing collections:

New collections

Edison Price Papers (MS 2015)

• The collection is comprised of business and design records generated by the two lighting design, manufacturing, and consulting companies founded by Edison Price in New York, New York: Edison Price, Inc. (founded in 1952) and Nulux, Inc. (founded in 1990). Papers include both project and product records, as well as research files, patent documents, and general documentation about the firms. Project records consist of drawings, correspondence, and notes relating to lighting designs, including such projects as the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles. Product records consist of drawings, photometric reports, and other information for a range of fixtures designed and manufactured by Edison Price, Inc. and Nulux, Inc.

James F. Ahern Papers (MS 2086)

• The collection (totaling 11.34 linear feet) consists of the personal papers of James F. Ahern, documenting his position as chief of police for New Haven, Connecticut. Included are materials related to student and police activities during May Day 1970 at Yale University, wiretapping by the New Haven police, and Ahern’s role as a member of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest in 1970. Also included are photographs of Ahern, posters, magazine articles authored by and concerning Ahern, audio and visual recordings of Ahern’s media appearances, scrapbooks with speeches and news clippings, correspondence by Ahern and family, and Rolodex cards with names and contact information for Ahern’s colleagues in police administration.

Arthur Bostwick Van Buskirk World War I Diaries (MS 2091)

• Collection consists of two diaries by Arthur Botswick Van Buskirk documenting his military experience during World War I. Newspaper clippings, correspondence, tickets, and other ephemera were originally inserted between diary pages. Several pages in volume II detail the Armistice of November 11, 1918 in Paris, France.

John Lewis Gaddis Papers (MS 2092)

• The collection contains the personal diaries of John Lewis Gaddis. Subjects include his academic and publishing activities, events in his personal life, his transition to Yale University from Ohio University in the late 1990s, and the founding of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University. The majority of the diary entries are typed; some are handwritten.
• Access to the collection is restricted until 1 January 2050 by donor request.

Felipe Lorenzo Famoso Diary (MS 2100)

• Diary covering the career of Felipe Lorenzo Famoso, a Spanish soldier in Morocco and Spain, from 1923-1949.

Mas Yebra Family Correspondence (MS 2101)

• Correspondence of the Mas Yerba family, a prominent political family in Barcelona. The correspondence includes one hundred thirty-three letters exchanged among the family members and their associates during the Spanish Civil War. Also includes a small amount of the family’s legal and financial papers.

Ramon Llado Correspondence (MS 2102)

• Eleven letters between Ramon Llado, a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War, and his family. Seven letters are from Ramon to his wife, Concepcion. Three letters are from Concepcion to Ramon, and one letter is to Ramon from his sister, Dionisia, and his brother-in-law.

Additions to existing collections

Accession 2017-M-0002 addition to the David Brion Davis Papers (MS 1970)

• This accession (totaling 42.58 linear feet) comprises teaching and research files, writings, correspondence, and program files documenting David Brion Davis’s work as a historian of slavery and abolition in the western world and professor of history at Yale University. The teaching files document Davis’s teaching activities and lectures at Yale University and other educational institutions. Writings document Davis’s monographs and short writings, particularly his essays and reviews for the New York Review of Books, as well as scholarly and popular writings of others that were sent to Davis for review or comment. Correspondence primarily documents Davis’s professional and research activities, and correspondence is also present throughout the research files, writings, and program files groupings. Program files include material documenting conferences Davis attended and contributed to and activities Davis undertook in the professional organizations to which he belonged. The program files also document Davis’s activities as founding director of Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition and as a Yale history professor working with researchers, undergraduate students, and graduate students at the university. The accession also contains Davis’s personal papers, which document his early academic work as a student at Dartmouth College and Harvard University, his written reflections on his life and work, and his professional activities and retirement.

Accession 2018-M-0051 addition to the Richard Benson Sewall Papers (MS 1413)

• This accession (totaling 14.25 linear feet) comprises lecture notes and course materials documenting Sewall’s tenure as a Yale University professor of English; writings and research files on Emily Dickinson, the Strong family of Rochester, New York, and other areas relating to Sewall’s research interests; and correspondence regarding Sewall’s research and work at Yale. Also includes personal materials documenting Sewall’s professional life and family history.

Scrapbooks of William Bacon Bailey, Yale Class of 1894: Accession 2018-A-0063 of the Yale Student Scrapbook Collection (RU 138)

• Three scrapbooks documenting reunion activity and related events of the Yale College Class of 1894, of which Bailey was a member, as well as Bailey’s professional life as an economist, professor, census worker, statistician, and employee at Travelers Insurance Companies.

Accession 2019-M-0007 addition to the Charles Hill Papers (MS 2070)

• The accession (totaling 3.42 linear feet) consists of the personal papers of Charles Hill. Materials include Hill’s correspondence, including correspondence with former United States secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The accession also consists of writings, including book reviews and commentary articles on United States foreign policy, and course material from Hill’s class “Oratory in Statecraft” taught at Yale University, 2006-2018.

Accession 2019-M-0042 addition to the Spanish Civil War collection (MS 2058)

• The accession (totaling .42 linear feet) includes children’s materials, publications, and postcards documenting the Spanish Civil War.

The following post was written by Camila Tessler, Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives.

Clippings relating to Dorothy Hadley’s marriage Malaku Bayen, circa 1931. Dorothy Hadley Bayen Papers (MS 1570), Box 1, Folder 3.

In 1931, Dorothy Hadley of Evanston, Illinois, married Prince Malaku Bayen of Ethiopia, Nephew of Haile Selassie I. Malaku Bayen was studying to be a doctor at Howard University, and upon the completion of his degree, he returned with Dorothy Hadley Bayen and their son Chip to Ethiopia.

Dorothy’s work was not just of a housewife and a mother, but also as an activist for the Ethiopian and black communities, both abroad and locally. During various times in her life she acted as a fundraiser for the Haile Selassie Fund, working in New York to raise money both from the black and white community. In one letter, she stated that she could easily raise funds in the black community, while the white community was never very generous, leading her to conclude that the natural home for black Americans would be Africa, and that Ethiopia held the future of the unity and the redemption of black people.

Letter from Dorothy Hadley Bayen to her sister, Leora Hadley, page 2, undated but circa 1935. Dorothy Hadley Bayen Papers (MS 1570), Box 1, Folder 1.

Dino Robinson has written an article about Bayen, summarizing her work for the Ethiopian community and the movement that became the Rastifarian religion here. The Dorothy Hadley Bayen Papers at Manuscripts and Archives do cover this facet of her life, but they also demonstrate some of the culture shock and cover the adaptation of a woman who grew up in the Midwest to a life in Ethiopia. In several letters, she chronicles everything from the purchase of furniture (expensive in Ethiopia, but of good quality) and the personalities of her servants (from good to bad to drunkards) to life as a newly minted member of what was the oldest royal dynasty on the planet.

Her letters paint a very vivid and detailed picture of life in Ethiopia in the 30s, but the most refreshing part of her letters is her bubbling personality. She chides to Toots and Sam, in a letter dated December 27^th 1935, “Why don’t you all write to me and let me know if you are living or dead?” In another letter, this one to her family, she admits that either she, or someone in their family, named her husband’s human skeleton (presumably for anatomy) Mussolini, and laments that her husband bought two rugs that they will be paying off “for twenty years hence!”

Letter from Dorothy Hadley Bayen to her family, page 1, 2 October 1935. Dorothy Hadley Bayen Papers (MS 1570), Box 1, Folder 1.

What her letters also give us is an outsider-insider view of the Ethiopian Empire. As a member of the royal family, Bayen had access into a place where most people did not, but as an American, she also had a perspective that allowed her to wonder, question, and describe customs and practices that she was not familiar with. She describes meeting the Emperor Haile Selassie:

There are two palaces, or as they are called “gibbee”, the upper, and the lower. The lower is the old palace that was Menelik’s and the new one is that built I think around 1930 when this present ruler was made emperor. It is in the new one that they receive all the important foreign visitors. It is a large two-story gray stone building inside a very huge compound, and there are soldiers and guards standing all around. Her Majesty and Sahai (her daughter) met us in a room furnished with gold and brocaded furniture, Louis XIV style (I think) […] I felt foolish bowing and backing out and so forth, seein’ as I have had so little practice in this sort of thing, and every minute I was afraid I would get my feet all tangled in my long skirt and go sprawling out on the floor. Wouldn’t that have been something? (Dorothy Hadley Bayen to her family, page 2, 2 October 1935. MS 1570, Box 1, Folder 1.)

Through her correspondence with her family in the Evanston, we get a good picture of a person in an extraordinary situation, and a witness to the beginnings of a movement that formed the basis of a new religion. But we also are given the perspective of an outsider to a new culture, a new life, and a new way of thinking.

See the online finding aid for the Dorothy Hadley Bayen Papers in Manuscripts and Archives for additional information about this collection.