University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2010 Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam Susan L. Eastman Susan L Eastman, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Eastman, Susan L., "Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/792 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Susan L. Eastman entitled "Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. La Vinia Delois Jennings, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Chuck Maland, Ben Lee, Kurt Piehler Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Susan Lyn Eastman entitled Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam.‖ I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy with a major in English. La Vinia Delois Jennings We have read this dissertation And recommend its acceptance: Chuck Maland Ben Lee Kurt Piehler Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of The Graduate School (Original signatures on file with official student records) Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee Susan Lyn Eastman August 2010 ii Copyright © 2010 by Susan Eastman All rights reserved. iii Acknowledgements I am indebted to more people than I can name for their encouragement and patience through the challenges and successes of this endeavor. I would first like to express my appreciation for the support and guidance of my dissertation committee: Dr. La Vinia Delois Jennings, Dr. Charles Maland, Dr. Benjamin Lee, and Dr. G. Kurt Piehler. I am filled with gratitude for Dr. Jennings who tirelessly molding me into a sharper thinker and writer. Thank you for sharing your time with me so generously and for believing in the import of the project. I would like to thank Dr. Maland for making a crucial impact on the possibility of this project when, during my Master‘s Thesis defense, he acknowledged and championed the personal significance the subject holds for me. I also appreciate Dr. Lee for enthusiastically joining the project and endorsing my approach. Finally, Dr. Piehler, has been more important than any ―outside reader‖ I have ever heard of. Thank you for the conversations that always left me ready to write, for challenging me to consider if and when the war might be forgotten, and for guiding me through the process of professionalization. I would also like to recognize my students in my ―Remembering the American War in Viet Nam‖ courses who showed a sincere interest and revealed new modes of remembering the war. Here, I especially want to acknowledge Sarah Jones who thanked me for ―giving‖ her ―a way to understand [her] father better.‖ I will always remember and cherish your thank you card. This dissertation would not be possible without my family, my childhood experiences, and my father, Bruce Eastman. You are, to borrow the title of Tom Bissell‘s novel about his iv father who also served in the war, ―The Father of All Things.‖ Thank you for showing me how to persevere. To my mother, Karen Eastman, whose loving support and constant understanding helped me survive so much more than just this process, thank you for seeing me as I am. I would also like share my affection for ―the girls‖ in my life, Jennifer (Eastman) Garrison and Hannah Garrison. My brothers, Matthew Eastman and Bryan Eastman, also played a significant role in shaping my childhood. Last, I am especially indebted to Scott Henshaw for sharing my passion, the popular culture of our childhoods, and being most intimately involved with the emotional challenges of the project. Thank you for ―putting up‖ with me, and ―all Vietnam, all the time.‖ Finally, I want to recognize all who endured the war as well as their families and those among them who chose to share their memories through representation and silence. v Abstract ―Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam‖ examines shifts in American, Viet Namese, and Philippine memorial, literary, and cinematic remembrance of the war through the cultural lenses of later wars: the Gulf War (1990-1991) and the ―War on Terror‖ that began in 2001. As opposed to earlier portrayals of the American War in Viet Nam (1964-1975), turn-to-the-twenty-first-century representations engage in an ever-broadening collected cultural memory—a compilation of multifaceted, sometimes competing, individual and group memories—of the war. ―Beyond the Battlefield‖ begins with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) because it serves as the impetus for active participation in the reception and creation of memory. It traces a multifaceted collected cultural memory pattern through the stages of recognition for servicewomen, American women, Viet Namese Women, and reconciliation between soldiers and civilians as well as between Americans and the Viet Namese—veterans and civilians alike. Ultimately, a collected cultural memory of the war encourages prosthetic memory— memories of the war acquired via mediated representation by those with no direct experience in or hereditary connection to the war. Prosthetic memory permits an ongoing memory of the war that refuses to relegate the war to the forgotten past. vi A Note on Nomenclature ―Vietnam‖ is an American term used in the United States, and elsewhere, to signify an American ―experience.‖ However, most Viet Namese words have one syllable. Therefore, the name of the country is not ―Vietnam,‖ but Viet Nam according to appropriate bifurcated rendering. For all words—places, names, groups, organizations, and memorials—I adopt the usage appropriate to their language of origin. Therefore, because they are American terms, ―Vietnam Veterans Memorial,‖ ―Vietnam Women‘s Memorial,‖ ―Vietnam veterans‖ and all other American titles of American memorials, groups, and organizations appear in the fused American spelling. For most Viet Namese cities and place names, save the most recognizable, Saigon and Hanoi, I employ the Viet Namese syllabic divisions. The choice is not merely a matter of syntax; it is also political. Viet Nam is more than a war; it is a country. Thus what is commonly known in America as the ―Vietnam War,‖ and in Viet Nam, the ―American War,‖ is designated throughout the dissertation as ―the American War in Viet Nam.‖ Moreover, Viet Nam has experienced and engaged in many wars. To term the American War in Viet Nam, the ―Vietnam War‖ privileges the American experience and ignores the very history of Viet Nam. vii Table of Contents Chapter One: Remembrance „Beyond the Battlefield‟……………………………...…1-27 Chapter Two: Reflections of Memory: Past Presence and Present Absence at The Vietnam Veterans Memorial……………………….……………….…………..…28-67 Chapter Three: Remembering Women: Servicewomen and Civilian Women, American and Viet Namese……………...……………………………………..……..68-110 Chapter Four: Private Sites of Memory and Reconciliation in Viet Nam…..……111-153 Chapter Five: Forgetting the American War in Viet Nam: We Were Soldiers.…..154-199 Chapter Six: Unfinished Remembrance: Beyond the United States and Viet Nam, Jessica Hagedorn‟s Dream Jungle…..…………….…………………….200-223 Chapter Seven: „Exit Strategy‟……………...………………………………………224-236 Afterword ……………………………………..………………..………………...…..237-238 Works Cited ………………………………………..………………………………...239-251 Vita……………………………………………………..……………...………………..….252 viii List of Figures Fig. 1. Chronological Listing at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial…………...……..………40 Fig. 2. Vertex: Vietnam Veterans Memorial……..…………………………..……………..42 Fig. 3. Night View of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial………………................................46 Fig. 4. Glenna Goodacre‘s Vietnam Women‘s Memorial, Washington D.C…....……..…...74 Fig. 5. Michelangelo‘s Pietà at St. Peters Basilica, Rome………………………..……..….86 Fig. 6. U.S. Evacuation of Saigon………………………..…………………………..…….103 Fig. 7. Battlefield Memorial Cross.………………………..…………………….……..….130 Fig. 8. First Cavalry Division Insignia……………………………………………..……....170 1 Chapter One Remembrance Beyond the Battlefield The American War in Viet Nam (1961-1975) was and remains a national crisis ripe for expressing both profound disillusionment and the emergence of American mythic identity and memory. The war