Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (53 page)

• Powerful memory: antiwar and peace movements and, 265–67; casualties of war and, 254–60; compassion and empathy in, 267–78; forgiveness and, 262–65; low ground and high ground of, 253–54; poverty and, 260–61; prisons and, 254–60
  
• Prisons, 172–74
  
• Prosthesis, 25
  
• Puerto Rico, 7
  
• Pure forgiveness, 292, 296
  
• Quang Tri province: memorials in, 24–25; unearthed casualties in, 45
  
• The Quiet American
  (Greene), 51, 142–43
  
• Racism, 63–66, 124–25, 130; vs. ethnicity, 199, 201; Koreans and, 140–41, 142; patriotism and, 153
  
• Raimi, Sam, 118–19
  
• Rape, 31–32, 227–28
  
• Recognition: of capacity for inhumanity, 72–73; of humanity vs. inhumanity, 97–98; importance of, to remembering, 71–72; of other as victim, 73–79; of power, 81–83; resignation and, 83–93; retribution and, 83–93; visual dimension of, 79–80; in war machine, 112–14
  
• Reconciliation, 45, 69, 295–96
  
• Refugees.
  See specific refugee groups
  
• Remembered War.
  See
  Korean War
  
• Remembering Heaven’s Face
  (Balaban), 295
  
• Requiem
  (Faas and Page), 183
  
• Resentment, 292
  
• Resignation, 83–93
  
• Restorative nostalgia, 43
  
• Retribution, 83–93
  
• Revolutions, 205
  
• Ricoeur, Paul, 17, 18, 56, 60, 68, 73–74, 185, 262, 294–95
  
• Roh Tae Woo, 139
  
• Romero, George, 174
  
• Rosler, Martha, 225
  
• Round characters, 28–33
  
• R-Point
  (film), 145, 148
  
• Rubins, Nancy, 165
  
• Russ, Martin, 130
  
• Said, Edward, 240
  
• Saigon: capitalism in, 41; cemeteries in, 33, 35–39; fall of, 42, 163; museums in, 29
  
• Scarry, Elaine, 264, 272, 277
  
• Screen memories: description of, 104–5
  
• Sebald, W. G., 92, 103
  
• Secondhand memories, 103–5
  
• Secret War, 44
  
• Self-sacrifices, 108
  
• Seoul, 132–35
  
• Shacochis, Bob, 5
  
• The Shadow of Arms
  (Hwang), 139–41
  
• Shallow Graves: Two Women and Vietnam
  (Larsen and Nga), 209
  
• Shawcross, William, 7
  
• Slavery, 60
  
• “Small Wars” (Lê), 266–67
  
• Sollors, Werner, 3
  
• Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, 71–72
  
• Sông I Sing
  (Phi), 217
  
• Son My Museum, 30, 112–13, 177
  
• Sontag, Susan, 183, 218–19, 268, 269
  
• Sorrow of War
  (Ninh), 30, 39
  
• Souls of Black Folk
  (DuBois), 53
  
• Southern Vietnamese: exiles from, 9
  
• South Korea: commofidication of war in, 15; fashioning of war memories by, 134; Forgotten War vs. Remembered War, 129–30; hired soldiers from, 142; origin of, 129; transformation of, as depicted in film, 148–49; war memorials in, 134–38
  
• Spiegelman, Art, 87, 304
  
• Spielberg, Steven, 109
  
• Spivak, Gayatri, 124
  
• Story cloth, 281–83
  
• Strategic hamlets, 40–41
  
• Sturken, Marita, 49, 66, 104
  
• S-21 death camp, 83–86, 89–90, 98, 254–55
  
• Sunny
  (film), 145, 147–48
  
• Surname Viet, Given Name Nam
  (film), 214
  
• The Surrendered
  (Lee), 249
  
• Swofford, Anthony, 51–52, 119
  
• The Tale of Kieu
  (classic story), 203
  
• Ta Mok, 299
  
• Tanks, 163–65
  
• Tatum, James, 54
  
• Terrorism, 70, 95, 174, 273
  
• Tet Offensive, 105, 110
  
• Tham Phiu, 187–89
  
• The Dinh, 183, 184
  
• The Things They Carried
  (O’Brien), 225–26, 244, 247
  
• Thich Nhat Hanh, 281, 291, 295
  
• Thich Quang Duc, 105, 108
  
• To Huu, 26
  
• Tourism, 178, 181, 298–99
  
• Tran, GB, 212–13
  
• Tran, Ham, 233–34
  
• Tran Thi Nga, 209
  
• Transformers 2
  (film), 169, 171
  
• Translations, 204
  
• Treachery, 60–61
  
• Trinh T. Minh-ha, 122, 214, 214, 218, 253
  
• Truong, Monique, 206, 209–10
  
• Truong Son Martyrs Cemetery, 24
  
• Tunnels, 180–83
  
• Tuol Sleng, 254, 255, 258, 259, 269
  
• Tuong Niem
  (Cuong), 175
  
• 2 Live Crew, 179–80
  
• Um, Khatharya, 256
  
• Uncle Ho memory, 28–29
  
• United Nations, 84, 89, 289
  
• United States: affinity for “others” in, 59–60; American character in, 198; cemeteries in, 23; criticism of, by Koreans, 151; culture wars in, 249–50; ethics of remembering for, 9; expansion of, 7; exportation of arms by, 135; hiring of Korean soldiers by, 142; homeland of, during Vietnam War, 231–32; Korean immigrants to, 130–32; in Korean War, 6; lieux de memoire in, 42; memory industry related to, 177–78; others’ depictions of, 112–14; patriotism in, 48–49, 54, 152–53, 274, 275; in Philippine-American War, 5–6; poverty in, 215–17; pro- and antiwar factions in, 8; profit incentive of, 140; race riots in, 130, 153; responsibility for war atrocities by, 288; Vietnam casualties of, 7, 156; Vietnamese immigrants to, 9, 40–45, 69–70; view of Vietnam War by Americans in, 199–200; war machine of, 104–28
  
• University of Southern California, 109
  
• Vang, Mai Der, 281
  
• Vang Pao, 44
  
• Vann Nath, 255
  
• Veterans, of war: American citizens’ rejection of, 48–51; cemeteries for, 23–27, 35–39, 44; forgiveness for, 262, 295; in logistics service, 229–30; love of war by, 51–52; minorities as, 44, 56–59; rebuke of Vietnamese soldiers as, 44; recognition of, in Cambodia and Laos, 66–67; truthful depictions of, in war stories, 224; at Vietnam memorializations, 42–43, 47–49; war stories from point of view of, 225–27.
  See also
  Casualties, of war
  
• Victims, 218–19, 221, 280, 291
  
• Video games, 109–10
  
• Vieng Xai, 186–87
  
• Viet Cong, 218
  
• Viet Minh, 169–70
  
• Vietnamerica
  (Tran), 212–13
  
• Vietnamese language, 15
  
• Vietnamese refugees, 9; American dream and, 204–7; as anticommunist witnesses, 205–6; cultural depictions of, 43–44; family photos of, 193–94; heroic mode of memories of, 43–44; literature of, 197–218; in Little Saigon, 40–44; mourning the dead by, 194–98; remembering by, 302–4; sense of loss of, 43, 45; War on Terror and, 69–70
  
• Vietnamese Women’s Museum of Hanoi, 185, 260
  
• Vietnam syndrome, 48–51
  
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 24, 44, 47–49, 52–56, 66–68
  
• Vietnam War Monument, 42
  
• Vinh, 24
  
• Vinh Moc, 181
  
• Virilio, Paul, 122, 227
  
• Vo Thi Sau, 172
  
• Voting rights, 60
  
• Walcott, Derek, 283
  
• Walken, Christopher, 110
  
• Wandering Souls
  (Karlin), 295
  
• War crimes, 112, 288–89
  
• War machine: vs. arms industry, 106; art and, 269–78; breakdown of, 128; collective vs. individual memories and, 115; of Communist Party, 158; compassion and empathy and, 267–69; ethical vision and, 121; justification of, 108; of Korea, 135–36; logistical support in, 229–30; media’s role in, 105–6, 108–28, 144–45; in photographs, 263–64; power of memories in, 115–16; propaganda in, 114–15; shock of misrecognition and, 112–14; tunnels and, 180; in war stories, 224–25, 229–30
  
• War Memorial of Korea, 134–39
  
• War on Terror, 70, 174
  
• War Remnants Museum, 29, 112, 113, 158, 255
  
• War stories: aesthetic qualities of, 223, 227, 244–45; civilians in, 227–32; content of, 223–24; critics’ judgment of, 236–42, 246–49; individual and national identity and, 245; inhumanity in, 233–36; from memory of Southeast Asians, 232–35; by minority authors, 248–49; patriotism in, 224; rape in, 227–28; of refugees, 242–46; selective humanism of, 240; soldier’s point of view in, 224–27; veterans’ true story in, 224; war machine in, 224–25, 229–30; Westernized authors of, 246–47; Western values and, 240–41.
  See also
  Literature
  
• Waters, Mary C., 201
  
• Wayne, John, 125, 126
  
• Wealthy memory, 259–60, 261
  
• Weapons: displays of, 162–66; in industry of memory, 166–67; vs. terrain, 170
  
• Weigl, Bruce, 295
  
• Welfare state, 131
  
• We Should Never Meet
  (Phan), 206
  
• When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
  (Hayslip), 203
  
• When the Tenth Month Comes
  (film), 168
  
• Where the Ashes Are
  (Duc), 212
  
• White Badge
  (film/novel), 142–45, 149
  
• “White Man’s Burden” (Kipling), 251
  
• Whiteness, 221
  
• White War
  (Ahn), 141–42
  
• Williams, Raymond, 107
  
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 205
  
• Woman Native Other
  (Trinh), 214–15
  
• The Woman Warrior
  (Kingston), 194–95
  
• Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia, 203
  
• World War II: commodification of, 13; memory of, 5; museums of, 261; rape in, 227–28
  
• Yamashita, Karen Tei, 156
  
• Yang, Kao Kalia, 237, 241–43, 245–46, 250
  
• Young, James, 10, 186
  
• Zelizer, Barbie, 15
  
• Zero Dark Thirty
  (film), 14
  
• Zippo lighters, 177–78
  
• Žižek, Slavoj, 234, 235
  

Table of Contents

Prologue

Just Memory

ETHICS

1. On Remembering One’s Own

2. On Remembering Others

3. On the Inhumanities

INDUSTRIES

4. On War Machines

5. On Becoming Human

6. On Asymmetry

AESTHETICS

7. On Victims and Voices

8. On True War Stories

9. On Powerful Memory

Just Forgetting

Epilogue

Notes

Works Cited

Acknowledgments

Credits

Index