Vietnam Generation Volume 3 Number 2 Australia R&R: Representation and Article 10 Reinterpretations of Australia's War in Vietnam 1-1991 Dismembering the Anzac Legend: Australian Popular Culture and the Vietnam War Jeff oD yle Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Doyle, Jeff (1991) "Dismembering the Anzac Legend: Australian Popular Culture and the Vietnam War," Vietnam Generation: Vol. 3 : No. 2 , Article 10. Available at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration/vol3/iss2/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vietnam Generation by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Dismembering the Anzac legend: Australian Popular Culture and the Vietnam W ar J eff Doyle The longevity and continuity of a particular strand of its popular mythology mark a culture’s deepest concerns, reflecting the repeated and continuing attempts to formulate that culture’s responses to, and its interpretations and evaluations of. particular social and political crises. Development of new narratives, or substantial modifications to existing myths, signal areas of active ideological concern where crises or ruptures within the cultural structures and their valuation may be occurring. The representation of Australian involvement in Vietnam, and its often uneasy conflation with aspects of the Anzac legend and its surrounding myths, provide just such locations of rupture in Australian culture. For both Australia and the US, the Vietnam war has challenged the dominating popular imagery of their fighting men.