A Narrative Cartography of the French Indo-China War: A Journalistic Perspective

Abstract

While cartography continues to be a major form of geographic study, an important line of cartographic research has moved away from the “scientific” framework of cartographic inquiry, and instead studies the narratives and social construction of maps. This article seeks to understand the visual representation of the French Indo-China War using journalistic maps from the New York Times. In doing so, it hopes to reconstruct how the policies and events of this conflict were visually represented to the American public. It draws upon critical cartographic frameworks to deconstruct the visual narrative and interpret the assumptions that were inherent within the maps. The overall visual impact of the conflict suggests an attempt to simplify the conflict into a Western narrative of national emergence without a deeper discussion of identity, ethnicity, and sovereignty at a subnational level.