In fact, it influences nearly every Western character in M. Gallimard believes that Asians are passive and unable to protect themselves, and simply “want to be associated with whoever shows the most strength and power.” This Orientalist mindset is not unique to Gallimard. His diplomatic analysis is heavily influenced by what the literary theorist Edward Said termed “Orientalism” - the tendency of Western people to depict Asian and Middle Eastern countries as being underdeveloped, backward, exotic, passive, and feminine compared to the supposedly enlightened and powerful Western nations that seek to colonize them. Yet the advice Gallimard offers is disastrous and misguided, based on ignorant stereotypes about “Orientals” rather than real understanding of the Chinese or other Asian cultures. Gallimard’s job is to predict how the Chinese will react to an American invasion in Vietnam, and suggest ways for the American military to win public support among the Vietnamese people. Gallimard’s involvement with the war in Vietnam seems to be an effort to redeem this embarrassment and promote Western dominance in this former French colony. As the Vietnam War begins, Toulon asks Gallimard to advise American military officials about the disposition of Asian people toward Western military and government power. Toulon, Gallimard’s superior at the embassy, describes the loss of French Indochina as a national embarrassment for France. China was a Communist nation by this time, and invested in helping the Vietnamese partially because independence would lead to the installation of a Communist government in Vietnam. The Chinese government assisted the Vietnamese in their struggle for independence, supplying modern weapons from the Soviet Union that helped the Vietnamese resist the French more effectively. The three nations together were known as French Indochina. By the time the Indochina War ended in 1954, the French had maintained colonies in Vietnam, and the neighboring nations of Laos and Cambodia, for almost seventy years. During this war, Vietnamese military forces under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh successfully fought for independence from the French, who had installed a colonialist government in Vietnam in the late nineteenth century.

As a French diplomat living in China in the 1960s, Gallimard lives in the shadow of the Indochina War. Butterfly occur during a time of turmoil in Southeast Asia, as imperialist European nations that had established colonies throughout Southeast Asia were facing threats to their imperial control by native uprisings.

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