Recombinant History: Transnational Practices of Memory and Knowledge Production in Contemporary Vietnam

Abstract

In the early dawn hours of April 30, 2000, I quickly made my way through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, still commonly known and referred to as Saigon. The city was beginning to stir as street vendors heated large pots of pho broth and residents slowly jogged through the nearly empty streets. I hurried past the neighborhood park, already filled with badminton players, on my way to the official commemoration about to take place at the Reunification Palace, formerly the Presidential Palace during the Saigon regime. This is also the site where tanks from the People's Army of Vietnam came crashing through the gates on April 30, 1975, signaling the liberation or, as many would have it, the fall of Saigon. The roads were barricaded, but I managed to convince a policeman to let me through to join the various onlookers gathering outside the palace. At 7 a.m., the gates opened and the parade began. Although thousands of participants had been bussed in from neighboring provinces and outlying city districts, there were only about 200 bystanders in attendance-mostly journalists, photographers, and curious tourists who had come to Vietnam for the 25th anniversary of the end of the war. The armed forces led the procession, with men and women segregated into different military units. Army troops first marched past in unison, followed by the air force, the navy, and then a women's militia unit dressed in conventional "guerilla" uniforms of loose-fitting black garments, checkered scarves, and widerimmed, floppy green hats. A group of young male cadets carrying the flag of the National Liberation Front of Southern Vietnam (NLF) followed in step. 1 After this display of the nation's military might, the parade moved into a more jovial "civil society" phase represented by members of various organizations, such as the Fatherland Front. The Farmer's Association, the Women's Union, youth pioneers, gymnasts, postal workers, Buddhist and Catholic organizations, and even children dressed as bumblebees marched past waving and smiling to the crowd. Marchers

Remains of the Soviet Past in Estonia

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Does tourism illuminate the darkness of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

“…When dark sites become branded, death, tragedy, trauma and pain become part of the brand image, as reflected in tourism to Auschwitz in Poland (Cole, 2000) and war tourism in Vietnam (Schwenkel, 2006). Tragic narratives of death and suffering become a discourse embedded in the tourism framework of the place (Miles, 2002).…”

War Tourism and Reconstruction of Memory: Korean Veterans' Battlefields Trip in Vietnam

“…In Vietnam, the symbols of war are preserved or reproduced, and reused for "national prosperity and development." Tourists to Vietnam experience not only Vietnam's "genuine tradition" and "romantic colonial heritage" but also the memory and history of the war as a reproduced "past without pain" (Kennedy and Williams 2001;Schwenkel 2006). Although foreign visitors to Vietnam are not all war tourists, they cannot easily avoid the scenes where the war is turned into images and commodities.…”

“…In the United States, the Vietnam War has long become commercialized and consumed (Rowe and Berg 1991;Alneng 2002;Schwenkel 2006). After the U.S restored diplomatic relationships with Vietnam two decades after the war, American veterans began to actively travel to the former battlefields.…”