Third Edition Spring 2013 - Institute of East Asian Studies, UC ...

and its people through many historical ups and downs.” 15 Amongthe numerous images, the book contains famous photos taken byWestern photojournalists. The Ministry of Culture has taken theseimages and has explicitly re-captioned them in order to promotethe Vietnamese government’s constructed cultural memory of thewar. 16Walter Cronkite wrote in LIFE, “correspondents and photographersin Vietnam could, accompany troops to wherever theycould hitch a ride, and there was no censorship . . . That system—or lack of one—kept the American public well informed of our soldiers’problems, their setbacks and their heroism.” Capturing imagesthat highlighted the factors Cronkite mentioned was a maingoal for American photojournalists. An example of this type ofpowerful imagery that came out of the Vietnam War is the photo“Reaching Out” taken by Larry Burrows. This iconic photo has beentaken by the Ministry of Culture and re-captioned with the message“US troops died at the battlefields in Central Vietnam”. Thiscaption demonstrates a stark contrast with the interpretation ofthe war offered in the original LIFE caption that reads “a woundedMarine desperately trying to comfort a stricken comrade after afierce firefight.”Purposes of Constructed Cultural MemoryThe combination of the circulation of chosen images and their captioningby the Vietnamese government serves as a visual insightinto the strategies and workings of constructing the cultural memoryof a people’s war. 17 Through a strategy of publicizing imagesthat capture citizens of different ages and genders participatingin the war effort, the government helped legitimize its claims towaging a “people’s war.” After the war, the re-captioning of famous15 Lê, Phức, and Thành, Chi. Ảnh Việt Nam Thế Kỷ XX = Vietnamese Photographyin the 20th Century = La Photographie Du Vietnam Au 20e Siècle. Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất BảnVăn Hoá Thông Tin, 2002.16 Ibid17 Schwenkel, Christina. Exhibiting War, Reconciling Pasts: Photographic Representationand Transnational Commemoration in Contemporary Vietnam. Journal ofVietnamese Studies 3.1, 2008.photos helped the government hold on to this inherited right topower. The constructed historical narrative promotes the idea thatthe government in the past had fought and won the “people’s war,”and that the current government now continues to uphold its pastgoals and aspirations. The stake in maintaining this cultural memoryof a “glorious war” lies in the power the memory has in legitimizingthe government. Legitimacy is the main concern for thecommunist government of Vietnam.The government’s concern with legitimacy manifests itselfin the severe curtailment of civil and political rights in the hopeof maintaining the one-party system that is seen as essential forthe unity and prosperity of the country. 18 These limitations stemfrom general anxieties about state independence, territorial integrity,and social cohesion. 19 Vietnam extends this curtailment of civiland political rights to photographers and their photographs. Thetension between government anxieties and the photographer’sartistic expressions are encapsulated in the significant changes inculture production following the Doi Moi reform periods.The Doi Moi Reforms and Culture ProductionAfter political reunification in 1975 the Communist leadershipof Vietnam decided to pursue a second five year plan whichaimed to integrate the North and South Vietnam economies as rapidlyas possible with the socialist transformation of Vietnamese societybeing the ultimate goal. 20 The term ‘‘socialism’’ held a particularmeaning in Soviet-type economies, basically consisting of (i)allocation of resources through central planning and eliminationof markets for goods and labor; (ii) ownership of all major meansof production by the state, representing the whole society, and theelimination of private enterprise; and (iii) distribution of income18 Logan, William. Protecting the Tay Nguyen gongs: Conflicting rights in Vietnam’scentral plateau. Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Human Rights, 2010.19 Ibid20 Duiker, William J. “Vietnam: the challenge of reform.” Current History 88, no.537 (1989): 177-178.33 Mark Portillo Constructing “Culture” 34