Messages from the Heart: Agent Orange and Narrative Conflict in Contemporary Vietnam

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Blattenberger, P. (2016). Messages from the Heart: Agent Orange and Narrative Conflict in Contemporary Vietnam. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

For six months in 2014 the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam hosted a temporary exhibition on Agent Orange. Entitled "Agent Orange: A Message from the Heart," the exhibit’s politically benign narrative tone featured reconciliatory rhetoric and active calls for an altruistic international approach to aiding Vietnamese victims. This exhibit stood in stark contrast to the permanent display on Agent Orange one story above in the same museum, which maintains a decades-old accusatory tone that moralizes resistance, sanctifies victory, and demands penitence from American aggressors. This stark narrative conflict in the War Remnants Museum is a reflection of a broader division in Vietnamese society: between the witnesses to the American War who stake a claim to a particular historical memory of it, and the post-war generations who vocalize increasing apathy toward the war and its relevance to their ideology and national identity. As an institution of knowledge production and the "officialization" of historical memory, the War Remnants Museum leads, reflects, and has become a primary locus of divergent commemorative practices in contemporary Vietnam.

Details
Author

Blattenberger, Philip

Title

Messages from the Heart: Agent Orange and Narrative Conflict in Contemporary Vietnam

Physical Description

1 online resource (64 pages) : PDF

Date

2016

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

For six months in 2014 the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam hosted a temporary exhibition on Agent Orange. Entitled "Agent Orange: A Message from the Heart," the exhibit’s politically benign narrative tone featured reconciliatory rhetoric and active calls for an altruistic international approach to aiding Vietnamese victims. This exhibit stood in stark contrast to the permanent display on Agent Orange one story above in the same museum, which maintains a decades-old accusatory tone that moralizes resistance, sanctifies victory, and demands penitence from American aggressors. This stark narrative conflict in the War Remnants Museum is a reflection of a broader division in Vietnamese society: between the witnesses to the American War who stake a claim to a particular historical memory of it, and the post-war generations who vocalize increasing apathy toward the war and its relevance to their ideology and national identity. As an institution of knowledge production and the "officialization" of historical memory, the War Remnants Museum leads, reflects, and has become a primary locus of divergent commemorative practices in contemporary Vietnam.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Social sciences--Research
Museums--Study and teaching
History

Subjects--Places

Asia

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Agent Orange
Dioxin
Identity
Memory
Museum
Vietnam

Subject Area

Anthropology

Advisor(s)

Starrett, Gregory

Committee Members

Levy, Janet
Wayland, Coral
Shapiro, Aaron

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2016.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Blattenberger_uncc_0694N_11113

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:777