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Acknowledgments

After writing a book about being haunted by memory, it is a pleasure to conclude with remembering what I owe to others. To begin with, various institutions granted significant financial assistance that allowed me time to research and write, starting with the University of Southern California and its consistent support for my travel and sabbaticals. A Suzanne Young Murray Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and another fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, gave me the opportunity to think through difficult problems. The Southeast Asian Summer Studies Institute funded my study of Vietnamese at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, an experience that I furthered through trips to Southeast Asia that were supported by a Luce Foundation Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council, a Grant for Artistic Innovation from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and a grant from the Center for International Studies at USC. An Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital and the Warhol Foundation encouraged me to write about the role that visual culture played in memories of the war, while the Japan–United States Friendship Commission afforded me the chance to present early arguments before Japanese audiences. Many years later, I returned to Asia as a fellow of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, which provided a stimulating environment for sharing the final version of this book.

Unlike the audience at ARI, most people who heard me talk about this book listened to my ideas in more nascent form. I appreciate their generosity and intellectual engagement. From the most recent to the earliest, the individuals and institutions who invited me to discuss my work are: Eliza Noh, Tu-Uyen Nguyen, and California State University, Fullerton; Wafa Azeem, Kent Baxter, and California State University, Northridge; Prasenjit Duara, Chua Beng Huat, and the Asia Research Institute; Bruce Solheim and Citrus College; Mayumo Inoue and Hitotsubashi University; Elaine Kim and the Chinese American Literature Research Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University; Akitoshi Nagahata and Nagoya University; Otto Heim, Kendall Johnson, and the University of Hong Kong; Hyungji Park and Yonsei University; Youngmin Kim and the English Language and Literature Association of Korea; Kent Ono, Gordon Hutner, Mimi Thi Nguyen, Fiona I. B. Ngo, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Hsinya Huang and National Sun Yat-Sen University; Chih-Ming Wang and the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica; Guy Beauregard and National Taiwan University; Lawrence Buell and Harvard University; Yuan Shu and Texas Tech University; Viet Le, Yong Soon Min, and the Arko Art Center of Seoul; Edward Park and Loyola Marymount University; Frederick Aldama and Project Narrative at The Ohio State University; Stefano Catalani and the Bellevue Arts Museum; Yasuo Endo and the Center for Pacific and American Studies at the University of Tokyo; Satoshi Nakano and the Center for the Study of Peace and Reconciliation at Hitotsubashi University; Juri Abe, the Japanese Association of American Studies, and Rikkyo University; Celine Parreñas Shimizu and UC Santa Barbara; Lan T. Chu and Occidental College; Iris Schmeisser, Heike Paul, and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; the Center for Black Studies and UC Santa Barbara; Charlie Bertsch and the University of Arizona; Ruth Mayer, Vanessa Künnemann, and the University of Hannover; and Rachel Lee and UCLA.

Although I traveled far and wide to discuss the book in progress, much of it was shaped at my home campus of USC, where the graduate students of my two seminars on War and Memory challenged me to sharpen my thinking on that topic. My research assistants, Tiffany Babb, Yvette Marie Chua, Ninalenn Ibrahim, and Cam Vu (as well as Kathleen Hale at Harvard), proved invaluable as they took care of things small and large. In the English Department, Joseph Boone has been a great friend and supportive department chair, while Emily Anderson gave me a space to share my work with colleagues. Two of them, John Carlos Rowe and Rick Berg, pushed me to think more radically. At the book’s completion, my dean, Peter Mancall, provided a subvention that paid for many of the images. And while I took a long time to write this book, it would have taken even longer without Heather James and Dorinne Kondo, whose generous advice helped me greatly in winning fellowships. Finally, I am delighted to have worked with Janet Hoskins to develop our concepts about transpacific studies, many of which inform this book.

In Phnom Penh, Kok-Thay Eng of the Documentation Center of Cambodia was generous with his time. So was Chuck Searcy of Project RENEW in Hanoi, and his colleague Ngo Xuan Hien in Dong Ha. My travels through Vietnam were enriched by the assistance of Tran Minh Duc and through my collaboration with photographer Sam Sweezy, who took several of the photos for this book. I am grateful to him for their use, as I am to all the other artists, photographers, and institutions who are listed in the credits. I am especially thankful to Andrew Kinney and the staff at Harvard University Press for ushering this book to publication, as well as to Zoë Ruiz, whose editing was crucial.

If these acknowledgments have run on for a considerable length, that reflects the thirteen years I spent accruing debts as I worked on this book, and the many years before that during which I engaged with war, memory, and art-making. Through more than two decades, I have benefited immeasurably from a community of like-minded scholars and artists devoted to Southeast Asia and its diasporas, including Chuong Chung, Tiffany Chung, Yến Lê Espiritu, Dinh Q. Lê, Viet Lê, Nguyen Qui Duc, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Thy Phu, and Cathy Schlund-Vials. Among these scholars and artists, the most important interlocutor and collaborator has been my partner, Lan Duong. Without her patience and support, this book would not exist. Neither would our son, Ellison, whose life has left its subtle imprint on all that I do and write. While he will not grow up in a world without war, I hope that he will work for peace.

His grandparents, my father and mother, have known too many years of war. Their sacrifices for my brother Tung and me, as well as for our partners and children, have been enormous. Born in the 1930s in a poor northern village, they have traveled an immense distance in space and time from their homeland. My father and mother are the ones to whom I owe the most, and I dedicate this book, insufficient as it might be, to them.

Credits

Truong Son Martyrs Cemetery. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs Cemetery. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Mourning soldier, statue, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Gregory Farris

Defaced tombstone, National Cemetery of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall,
Maya Lin. Washington, DC. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Three Soldiers,
Frederick Hart. Washington, DC. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Vietnam Women’s Memorial,
Glenna Goodacre. Washington, DC. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Photographs of faces, S-21, Phnom Penh. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

“No laughing” sign. S-21, Phnom Penh. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Defaced photograph of Duch. S-21, Phnom Penh. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Missing Picture,
film still, dir. Rithy Panh. © CDP/Bophana Center

Pens and necklaces supposedly made from American bullets. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Rusted tank, Doc Mieu firebase, near the demilitarized zone. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Helicopter diorama, War Memorial of Korea, Seoul. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

R-Point,
film still, dir. Gong Su-chang. 2004 CJ Entertainment / Cinema Service

Sunny,
film still, dir. Joon-ik Lee. 2008 Tiger Pictures / Achim Pictures

Ha My Memorial, near Hoi An. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Dien Bien Phu Martyrs Cemetery Memorial. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Mosaic, Cu Chi tunnels. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Russian jet, B-52 Victory Museum, Hanoi. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Thich Quang Duc’s car. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Dien Bien Phu of the Air,
Military History Museum, Hanoi. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Nancy Rubins,
Chas’ Stainless Steel, Mark Thomson’s Airplane Parts, about 1,000 lbs. of Stainless Steel Wire & Gagosian’s Beverly Hills Space at MOCA
, 2002. Airplane parts, stainless steel armature, stainless steel wire cable, 25 x 54 x 33 feet. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, purchased in honor of Beatrice Gersh with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee; the Broad Art Foundation; Linda and Bob Gersh; David, Susan, Steven, and Laura Gersh; and Eugenio López. © Nancy Rubins. Photo by Brian Forrest

Frieze, Dien Bien Phu Martyrs Cemetery, 2009. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Diorama, Con Son Island Prison Complex, Con Dao Islands. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

In Every Neighborhood,
Dang Duc Sinh. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Commemoration,
Nguyen Phu Cuong. Photo by Sam Sweezy

Zippo lighters, Ho Chi Minh City Museum. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Vinh Moc tunnels, 2009. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Dinh’s only surviving photo. Courtesy Viet Nam News Agency (VNA) Photo Department. F.8420

Tham Phiu Cave, Plain of Jars, Laos. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Graphic novel excerpt from
Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey
by G. B. Tran, copyright © 2011 by Gia-Bao Tran. Used by permission of Villard Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Homeless man, Philadelphia
.
Photo by Linh Dinh

“Cleaning the Drapes,” from the series
House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home
, c. 1967–1972. Martha Rosler

Photo, in
American Sports, 1970: Or How We Spent the War in Vietnam
(Aperture Press, 2008)
,
Tod Papageorge. Yale University Art Gallery.

“The White Man’s Burden (Apologies to Kipling),” Victor Gillam. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Choeung Ek stupa skulls. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

29 Palms: Night Operations III
, 2003–2004. © An-My Lê, courtesy Murray Guy, New York

Small Wars (sniper I),
1999–2002. © An-My Lê, courtesy Murray Guy, New York.

“Untitled Cambodia #4,”
Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness
, Dinh Q. Lê

Story cloth, Chue and Nhia Thao Cha. All rights reserved. Bailey Archive, Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Pol Pot tomb, near Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Photo by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Index

• The Abandoned Field: Free Fire Zone
  (film), 119, 120, 168
  
• Acosta, Oscar Zeta, 219
  
• Adams, Eddie, 105
  
• Affirmation, 204
  
• Afghanistan, 2, 6–7, 14
  
• African Americans, 53, 153, 200, 218
  
• Agamben, Giorgio, 244
  
• Agent Orange, 230
  
• Aguilar-San Juan, Karin, 40
  
• Ahn Junghyo, 141–42
  
• Air America
  (film), 123, 124
  
• Air Defense Museum, 165
  
• Aki Ra, 172
  
• American PX, 140
  
• American Sniper
  (film), 14
  
• American Sports, 1970: Or How We Spent the War in Vietnam
  (Papageorge), 231–32
  
• American War, 4, 6–7
  
• American Way: exclusivity of, 10
  
• Angkar (Organization), 84, 89
  
• Angkor Wat, 269
  
• Anlong Veng, 297–99
  
• Antiwar movements, 265
  
• Apocalypse Now
  (film), 13–14, 64–65; power of, 127; as secondhand memory, 103; in U.S. war machine, 116–21; worldview of, 120
  
• Apostol, Gina, 111
  
• Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 271–72, 274
  
• Appy, Christian G., 50–51
  
• Arendt, Hannah, 96
  
• Arlington National Cemetery, 44
  
• Army of the Republic of Vietnam: memorials to, 335
  
• Art: acknowledgment of dead through, 175; commodification of, 13; as gifts, 296–97; of Hmong trauma, 281–83; of Ho Chi Minh, 160–62; importance of, in ethics of memory, 12–13, 87; inequities of memory industry in, 184; in just forgetting, 286–87; of Khmer Rouge era, 87; to memorialize Korean forces, 137–38; recognition of human and inhuman in, 99; in shock of recognition, 113; and the war machine, 269–78
  
• Asian Americans: as model minority, 131, 153
  
• Assman, Jan, 50
  
• Augé, Marc, 25–26
  
• Balaban, John, 295
  
• Baldwin, James, 218, 219
  
• Ban Me Thuot, 163
  
• Ban Vinai refugee camp, 242–43
  
• Bao Ninh, 30, 37–38, 55
  
• Bars, 179
  
• Barthes, Roland, 183
  
• Bataille, Christophe, 84
  
• Battambang, 188
  
• Battle Hymn
  (film), 130
  
• Baudrillard, Jean, 64–65, 116–17, 127
  
• Bercovitch, Sacvan, 10
  
• Bergson, Henri, 109
  
• The Betrayal
  (
  Nerakhoon;
  film), 292–93
  
• B-52 Victory Museum, 165
  
• Bhabha, Homi, 248
  
• The Birth of a Nation
  (film), 117
  
• Black April, 42
  
• Blackness, 141
  
• Black Ops
  (video game), 109, 110
  
• Black Panthers, 218, 219
  
• Black Virgin Mountain
  (Heinemann), 295
  
• Bombings, 276–77
  
• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
  (Kundera), 94
  
• The Book of Salt
  (Truong), 206, 208, 209–10
  
• Borges, Jorge Luis, 19
  
• Boym, Svetlana, 43
  
• The Bridges at Toko-Ri
  (film), 130
  
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
  (Díaz), 220
  
• Buddhism, 295
  
• Bui Thac Chuyen, 171
  
• Bush, George H.W., 49
  
• Butler, Judith, 75–76
  
• Butler, Robert Olen, 209
  
• Call of Duty
  (video game), 109
  
• Cambodia: acknowledgment of conflict in, 7, 288; commodification of war in, 15; extension of war into, 6; under Khmer Rouge regime, 7, 83–100, 129; memorials to, 260; prosecution for war crimes in, 289–90; recognition of veterans in, 66–67; war casualties in, 7, 8, 156; war photographers from, 184
  
• Cambodian refugees, 234
  
• Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness
  (Lê), 268–69
  
• Cao, Lan, 203, 212
  
• Capitalism: industrialization of memory in, 13–16; just memory and, 18; in Korea, 130–31, 149–50, 151–52; Korean immigrants’ effect on, 131–32; in museum gift shops, 175, 177–79; national power and, 15–16; perpetual war and, 285; reconciliation and, 295–96; success of South Korea in, 129; of tourist industry, 178; of Vietnam refugee communities, 40–41
  
• Carter, Jimmy, 114
  
• Casualties, of war: art as acknowledgment of, 175; burial of, 23–25; as depicted in war stories, 229; forgiveness for, 287–88; industry of memory and, 156–57; in Korean War, 129; in Korean war films, 145, 146, 147–48; memorials to, 24–27, 35–36, 42–43, 44, 49, 52–56, 66–68, 153–55, 187, 258–59; memories of, 25–33, 50–51; museums related to, 29–30, 39–40, 112–13, 254–61; natural affinity for, 28–29; number of, in Vietnam War, 8, 156; otherness of, 68–69; personal mourning of, 194–98; photographers as, 183–84; as result of Korean soldiers, 145, 146, 147, 150–51, 155; shock of recognition and, 112; unearthing, 45; Vietnamese refugees’ memories of, 45; women and children as, 30.
  See also
  Veterans, of war
  
• Catfish and Mandala
  (Pham), 206, 208
  
• Caves, 186–89
  
• Cemeteries, 23–27, 35–39, 44, 45
  
• Chang, Juliana, 235
  
• Chan, Jeffery Paul, 124
  
• Cheah, Pheng, 90–92
  
• China: in Korean War, 6
  
• China Gate
  (film), 125
  
• China Men
  (Kingston), 225
  
• Chin, Frank, 124
  
• Choeung Ek, 254, 255, 256, 258
  
• Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey, 65
  
• Chow, Rey, 74
  
• Chum Mey, 255
  
• Chun Doo Hwan, 139, 143
  
• Cimino, Michael, 109–10
  
• Cinematography, 122
  
• The Circle of Hanh
  (Weigl), 295
  
• Class inequality: just memories and, 17
  
• Close Quarters
  (Heinemann), 64, 235
  
• Collective memories: definition of, 10
  
• Collective memory: definition of, 10
  
• Colonialism, 84, 93, 197
  
• Commemoration
  (Cuong), 175
  
• Communist Party, 26–30, 41, 158, 205–6
  
• Con Son, 172
  
• Coppola, Francis Ford, 116–18, 119, 137
  
• Cosmopolitanism, 266, 270–72, 275–76
  
• Cotter, Hollan, 269
  
• Cuba, 7
  
• Cu Chi, 181
  
• Cumings, Bruce, 143
  
• Dachau concentration camp, 258
  
• Dang Duc Sinh, 175
  
• Dang Nhat Minh, 167–69, 183
  
• Dang Thuy Tram, 168–69, 212, 274–75
  
• de Antonio, Emile, 119, 137
  
• Debord, Guy, 14
  
• The Deer Hunter
  (film), 109–10
  
• Demilitarized Zone, 133
  
• de Palma, Brian, 77
  
• Derrida, Jacques, 287–88, 290, 291
  
• The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram
  (
  Nhat Ky Dang Thuy Tram;
  Tram), 274–75
  
• Díaz, Junot, 219–20
  
• Didion, Joan, 27
  
• Dien Bien Phu, 169–70
  
• Dinh, Linh, 43, 215, 216, 218
  
• Disremembering, 63–68
  
• Documentation Center of Cambodia, 259
  
• Dominican Republic, 6, 219–20
  
• Dong Ha, 24, 45
  
• Don’t Burn
  (film), 168
  
• “Don’t Cry in California”; (“Khong Khoc O California”; Thiep), 280
  
• Downey, Robert Jr., 123
  
• DuBois, W. E. B., 53
  
• Duch, 84–86, 89, 93, 98–100, 256
  
• Dunlop, Nic, 299
  
• Duong, Lan, 211
  
• Duong Thu Huong, 61–62, 80
  
• Eastwood, Clint, 123, 124
  
• The Eaves of Heaven
  (Pham), 212
  
• Education, 206–8, 276
  
• Ehrhart, W. D., 295
  
• Eichmann, Adolf, 95–96
  
• The Elimination
  (Panh), 84–85, 88, 100
  
• Ellison, Ralph, 63
  
• “The Emergence of Vietnamese American Literature” (Truong), 209
  
• Enemies: as flat characters, 28–29; lack of affinity for, 28
  
• Engels, Friedrich, 107
  
• English language: of ethnic literature, 198–99; in industrial memories, 15
  
• The English Patient
  (Ondaatje), 276–77
  
• Enlightened forgetting: definition of, 18
  
• Entertainment Weekly
  (magazine), 237, 241–42
  
• Espiritu, Yen Le, 124, 195–96, 206
  
• Ethical vision, 121
  
• Ethics of remembering: of American Vietnamese, 40–44; artistic works and, 160; characterizations of people in, 28–33; description of, 9–19; heroic vs. antiheroic mode in, 43–44; humanity vs. inhumanity and, 96–100; injustice of forgetting and, 68; of minority people, 43; natural affinity and, 27–29, 59–60; otherness and, 68–69; thick relations in, 54–56, 59
  
• Ethnicity, 199, 201
  
• Ethnocentrism: influence of, in memory industry, 13
  
• Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, 289
  
• Faas, Horst, 183
  
• Family bonds, 55
  
• Farocki, Harun, 105
  
• The Fifth Book of Peace
  (Kingston), 277
  
• Filkins, Dexter, 284
  
• Films: about Korea’s role in Vietnam, 143–49; of horror genre, 174; importance of, 87; of Khmer Rouge era, 86–89, 97; most vivid war images from, 105; power of American cinema in, 171; power of voice in, 214; role of, in war machine, 108–28, 144–45; as secondhand memories, 103–4; on war and memory, 168
  
• Fine Arts Museum, 29, 160, 175–77
  
• First person shooters, 110–11
  
• Flat characters, 28–33
  
• The Forever War
  (Filkins/Haldeman), 284
  
• Forgiveness, 262–65, 279–80, 287–95
  
• Forgotten War, 129
  
• Forster, E. M., 28, 29, 277
  
• Foucault, Michel, 91
  
• French colonialism, 197
  
• French troops, 169–70, 172, 173
  
• Freud, Sigmund, 16, 55
  
• From Vietnam to Hollywood
  (Lê), 233, 268
  
• Fuller, Samuel, 125
  
• Full Metal Jacket
  (film), 145, 179
  
• Fussell, Paul, 62–63
  
• The Gangster We Are All Looking For
  (thuy), 194, 208, 213
  
• The General Retires
  (Thiep), 238–39
  
• Genocide, 83–100
  
• Ghost stories, 195–96
  
• Gibson, Mel, 123
  
• Gillam, Victor, 252
  
• Gilroy, Paul, 68
  
• Ginzburg, Natalia, 8
  
• Giving, 296–97
  
• Going Back
  (Ehrhart), 295
  
• A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
  (Butler), 209
  
• Gooks, 62–64, 140–41
  
• Gordon, Avery F., 195
  
• Gran Torino
  (film), 123–25, 126
  
• The Green Berets
  (film), 125–26
  
• Greene, Graham, 51, 142–43
  
• Grenada, 6
  
• Griffith, Philip Jones, 66
  
• Griffiths, D. W., 117
  
• Griswold, Charles L., 292
  
• Guevara, Che, 3
  
• Gulf War, 14, 49, 118
  
• Gustafsson, Mai Lan, 157
  
• Haeberle, Robert, 30
  
• Halbwachs, Maurice, 10
  
• Haldeman, Joe, 284
  
• Hallyu,
  132
  
• Ha My memorial, 153–55
  
• Hanoi: cemeteries in, 26; museums in, 29–30
  
• Hanoi Hilton, 173
  
• Haunting: of defeated people, 40
  
• Hawaii, 7
  
• Hayslip, Le Ly, 150–51, 195, 203, 207–8, 228, 262, 264, 266
  
• Heinemann, Larry, 64, 235, 295
  
• Helicopters, 117–20, 137–38
  
• Herman, Judith Lewis, 228