“First they bomb as much as they please, then they film”: The Politics of War Ruins in Two Vietnam War Documentaries
In 1965, the Department of Defense released Why Viet-Nam, a propaganda documentary aimed at justifying the involvement of US troops in Vietnam. The film opens on images of (unidentified) destruction and ruins as the voice of President Johnson begins to answer the question raised by its title. A litt...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Transatlantica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/18733 |
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| Summary: | In 1965, the Department of Defense released Why Viet-Nam, a propaganda documentary aimed at justifying the involvement of US troops in Vietnam. The film opens on images of (unidentified) destruction and ruins as the voice of President Johnson begins to answer the question raised by its title. A little less than a decade later, Peter Davis also included ruins in Hearts and Minds, a scathing indictment of the Vietnam War, which was drawing to a close. This time, the ruins were clearly the result of the US war effort, if not its overt aggression, and they even questioned the very possibility of adequately representing the destruction caused by war. The purpose of this article will be to address the political and aesthetic implications of war ruins in Vietnam documentaries. When they are inserted in a coherent but misleading historical narrative, ruins justify the continuation of the war effort; when they seem to be logically disconnected from their decisional causes, they point at the inanity of war. |
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| ISSN: | 1765-2766 |