Cultural Legacies of Vietnam: Uses of the Past in the Present

Not until the early 1980s did Americans collectively redirect their attention to Vietnam. Coincident with the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. came a returban to emotions and issues that had been repressed since the end of the war. These are manifested, for example, by the growing attention paid to the war by the mass media, especially television and film. Each essay in this volume in some way examines how the past is organized and construed to give shape and meaning to the present and the future. Each speaks to consequences of how Vietnam is and is not remembered. Each also reports that the Vietnam War did not end with the cessation of combat. Diverse forms of symbolic expressions- speeches and argument, prose and poetry, films, TV programs, memorials, private conversations- all strive to give shape and significance to the war.