Raymond Trinh
ASA 150E
Prof. Valverde
In the Epilogue: Remembering and Forgetting, Viet Thang Nguyen presents that the United States military and the Republic of Vietnam lost the protracted civil war in the Indochinese Peninsula, the Americans seems to have won the second war, the memory war. Viet Thanh Nguyen elaborates on the memory war, which is in fact fought after any war, and may continue for decades upon decades after the original conflict has ended. It involves the the transformation of gravesites into memorials, the construction of monuments, the building of museums, the creation of photography and history exhibits, the publication of works of literature and production of films. Nguyen argues “If we repeat a history of violence, then we have not addressed the root causes of that violence”. Therefore, this leads to our current predicament in America: we are caught in a time warp of perpetual violence. America’s wars have seemed to go on forever, at least for Americans, who live eternally in the present. The wars in the Middle East are known as “The Forever War”.
How do we continue to help war veterans dealing with post traumatic disorder?
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