Joseph Buttinger (30 April 1906, Reichersbeuern,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

– 4 March 1992,

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n politician and, after his immigration to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, an expert on East Asia. He co-founded the American Friends of Vietnam, a

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

lobbying group.

Biography

Buttinger was born into a working-class family and left school at age 13 to help support his family. He became a youth movement leader in Austria and, by the age of 24, was secretary of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. After being imprisoned for several months in 1934, he became chairman of the Socialist underground and a leader of the anti-Fascist movement. When Germany occupied Austria in 1938, he and his American-born wife

Muriel Gardiner Muriel Gardiner Buttinger (née Morris; November 23, 1901 – February 6, 1985) was an American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Early life and career Gardiner was born on November 23, 1901 in Chicago, the daughter of Edward Morris, president of ...

fled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he was chairman of the exiled Socialists. In 1939, several months before the fall of France, the couple moved to the

with Gardiner's daughter from a previous marriage, Connie, whom Joseph later adopted. In 1941, he and his wife arranged US visas for his brother Alois Buttinger and his family; one of the references for the visa application was signed by

Alfred Einstein Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for b ...

. During and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Buttinger helped establish many of the refugee programs for the

International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 19 ...

(IRC). His personal actions helped smuggle thousands of anti-Fascist refugees out of Europe. For over 40 years he served as director of the IRC's Paris office and European division, and as an IRC board member and vice president. Under Buttinger's tenure, the Committee became covertly involved with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. In the 1950s, the IRC made an agreement with the CIA that they would take on projects which the US government did not want to openly be associated with in Vietnam. IRC official Harold Oram operated as a secret liaison between Buttinger and

Allan Dulles Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he ...

. In the 1950s, Buttinger and his wife subsidized the democratic socialist magazine '' Dissent'', edited by

Irving Howe Irving Howe (; June 11, 1920 – May 5, 1993) was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America. Early years Howe was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York. He was the son o ...

. He also wrote "In the Twilight of Socialism", which was a history of Austrian Socialism in the years 1934–38.

American Friends of Vietnam

During the 1950s, he aided North Vietnamese refugees in South Vietnam and took an abiding interest in the history and culture of that country. Initially a friend and supporter of

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

's founder, Ngo Dinh Diem, Buttinger became disillusioned with Diem's dictatorial ways and renounced him. Buttinger was originally introduced to Diem by

Edward Lansdale Edward Geary Lansdale (February 6, 1908 – February 23, 1987) was a United States Air Force officer until retiring in 1963 as a major general before continuing his work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Lansdale was a pioneer in cl ...

of the CIA, and under Lansdale's encouragement Buttinger formed the American Friends of Vietnam (AFVN). AFVN lobbied for increasing US funding of South Vietnam and the escalation of military action against communism. It also covertly coordinated

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

efforts directed at the American public, such as Lansdale and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's controversial pro-CIA film adaptation of

The Quiet American ''The Quiet American'' is a 1955 novel by English author Graham Greene. Narrated in the first person by journalist Thomas Fowler, the novel depicts the breakdown of French colonialism in Vietnam and early American involvement in the Vietnam W ...

. Buttinger became a prominent scholar of that country's culture and politics, producing a two-volume work entitled ''Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled''. He also produced several other books on Vietnam and on the history of socialism. In opposition to early critics of US intervention like

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

, and the later conclusions of the Pentagon Papers, Buttinger refused to concede that Ho Chi Minh's popularity in the South, and the unpopularity of the Saigon government, had created a civil war situation.

Later life

In 1972 the Austrian Government awarded him its Golden Order of Merit. According to the New York Times, the then-Chancellor of Austria,

Bruno Kreisky Bruno Kreisky (; 22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest Ch ...

, observed that `Mr. Buttinger was such a hero that if he had returned he would have become Chancellor.' The Mina Rees Library of the CUNY Graduate Center owns the �
Joseph Buttinger Rare Book Collection on Utopias
”

Works

*"In the Twilight of Socialism" (1953) *"The Smaller Dragon -- A Political History of Vietnam" (1958) *"Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled" (1967) *"Vietnam: A Political History" (1968) *"A Dragon Defiant: A Short History of Vietnam" (1972) *"Vietnam: The Unforgettable Tragedy" (1977).

References

*

, ''New York Times'', 8 March 1992

External links

, Gerald Sorin, ''Forward'', 16 January 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Buttinger, Joseph Austrian politicians 1906 births 1992 deaths Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Morris family (meatpacking) Austrian emigrants to the United States