Ghosts of War in Vietnam

This is a fascinating and truly groundbreaking study of the Vietnamese experience and memory of the Vietnam War through the lens of popular imaginings about the wandering souls of the war dead. These ghosts of war play an important part in postwar Vietnamese historical narrative and imagination and Heonik Kwon explores the intimate ritual ties with these unsettled identities which still survive in Vietnam today as well as the actions of those who hope to liberate these hidden but vital historical presences from their uprooted social existence. Taking a unique approach to the cultural history of war, he introduces gripping stories about spirits claiming social justice and about his own efforts to wrestle with the physical and spiritual presence of ghosts. Although these actions are fantastical, this book shows how examining their stories can illuminate critical issues of war and collective memory in Vietnam and the modern world more generally.

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Ghosts of war	p. 10
The ghosts of the American War	p. 13
Dealing with strangers	p. 19
Ghosts and the state	p. 24
Mass excavation	p. 28
The exodus of the dead	p. 32
Apparitions in Cam Re	p. 36
The ghost of an American officer	p. 39
Vietnam-American joint venture	p. 40
Missing in action	p. 44
Politics of home burial	p. 45
New MIA program	p. 51
Brotherly conflict	p. 57
Two ways to end the cold war	p. 62
The phantom leg	p. 64
The network of war	p. 67
The infrastructure of revolution	p. 69
Tiger Temple	p. 71
Same, same	p. 75
Lap the amputee	p. 77
The hidden history of the missing leg	p. 80
Death in the street	p. 83
Intimacy with displaced souls	p. 85
Mother of the home-place	p. 90
Homesickness	p. 92
Distant reciprocity	p. 96
One man's ghost is another man's ancestor	p. 99
Transforming ghosts	p. 103
The taste of phantom salt	p. 104
Lien Hoa	p. 109
Intrusive ghosts	p. 113
Mobility	p. 115
The network of spirits	p. 117
The spirit of a born-and-bred communist	p. 124
Letters from the prison	p. 126
Liberation	p. 128
Making kinship	p. 130
Money for ghosts	p. 133
Death and wealth	p. 136
Old money and new money	p. 139
Heads and tails	p. 144
Money's two destinations	p. 145
Money and liberty	p. 152
Conclusion	p. 156
Notes	p. 167
References	p. 197
Index	p. 214
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Ghosts of War in Vietnam

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