UoB University Graduate School
Those Gentle Heroes:” The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is one of America’s most popular memorials, receiving over 3 million visitors each year. The memorial seeks to recast the memory of this unpopular conflict by framing US soldiers as victims whose conflict trauma was exacerbated by the lack of support on the home front. Plans are well underway to establish an $85 million visitor centre for the memorial, which aims to give a human face to the veterans and will include their biographies and photographs. Yet to present the veteran as traumatised victims is seen by some to deny culpability for the well documented atrocities which were carried out by some US troops against women, children and the elderly. My research into contemporary memorialisation processes questions the appropriateness of continuing to memorialise soldiers in this way, with no engagement with the consequences of their actions for ‘enemy’ civilian populations. Continued construction of memorials which present soldiers as heroes raises questions as to whether it will it ever be possible to bridge the empathy gap that exists between combatants and their ‘enemy’ victims?
Emma Login
PhD
College of Arts and Law
ELL310@bham.ac.uk
Those Gentle Heroes:” The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is one of America’s most popular memorials, receiving over 3 million visitors each year. The memorial seeks to recast the memory of this unpopular conflict by framing US soldiers as victims whose conflict trauma was exacerbated by the lack of support on the home front. Plans are well underway to establish an $85 million visitor centre for the memorial, which aims to give a human face to the veterans and will include their biographies and photographs. Yet to present the veteran as traumatised victims is seen by some to deny culpability for the well documented atrocities which were carried out by some US troops against women, children and the elderly. My research into contemporary memorialisation processes questions the appropriateness of continuing to memorialise soldiers in this way, with no engagement with the consequences of their actions for ‘enemy’ civilian populations. Continued construction of memorials which present soldiers as heroes raises questions as to whether it will it ever be possible to bridge the empathy gap that exists between combatants and their ‘enemy’ victims?
Emma Login
PhD
College of Arts and Law
ELL310@bham.ac.uk