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Summary Nothing Ever Dies - Chapter 4

In this chapter, Nguyen argues that the U.S. has created a dominant "industry of memory" around the Vietnam War through films, photos, and memorials. This shapes global remembrance of the war in a way that privileges American perspectives and downplays Vietnamese views. Nguyen cites examples like the famous "napalmed girl" photo and the reach of films like Apocalypse Now to show how American media has influenced collective memories worldwide. In contrast, Vietnam's smaller memory industry has less global influence. Nguyen asserts that America uses its military and media power not just to inflict harm in wars, but also to justify its actions through controlling public memory on a global scale.

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215 views2 pages

Summary Nothing Ever Dies - Chapter 4

In this chapter, Nguyen argues that the U.S. has created a dominant "industry of memory" around the Vietnam War through films, photos, and memorials. This shapes global remembrance of the war in a way that privileges American perspectives and downplays Vietnamese views. Nguyen cites examples like the famous "napalmed girl" photo and the reach of films like Apocalypse Now to show how American media has influenced collective memories worldwide. In contrast, Vietnam's smaller memory industry has less global influence. Nguyen asserts that America uses its military and media power not just to inflict harm in wars, but also to justify its actions through controlling public memory on a global scale.

Uploaded by

Rajni
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Summary on Nothing ever dies – Vietnam and the memory of war by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Chapter 4: On War Machines

In this chapter Nguyen emphasizes on the American “industry of memory“ and American war
machine in the context of Vietnamese war which, in his view, are so powerful to create and
control collective memories of human beings and their understanding of history and war. In that,
his main claim is that war memories are unequal on global stage as they are formed by the global
domination of war and memories by the United States. Whereas the others are often prevented
from having power or influence. Nguyen describes this phenomena as a “worldly memory
(which) is neither democratic nor fair“ (85).

He uses the terms “secondhand memory“ and “screen memories“ to show the power of the
American industry of memory. Secondhand memories, as he points out, consist of memories
that are passed to us either by families and friends or more impressively by Hollywood fantasies
such as Apocalypse Now and many others. When describing screen memories, he refers to
afterimages focusing on the screen memories from Vietnam: Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the naked,
napalmed girl or Quang Duc, the Buddhist monk immolating himself. These images show the
suffering of Vietnamese around the world it which reflect the global power and reach of the media
apparatus possessed by Americans. In contrast, the Vietnamese images and views are limited
having a memory industry with a less powerful apparatus including memorials which are largely
considered as propaganda by Americans. Thus, the Vietnamese memory industry tries to
confront the mind of visiting tourists by portraying the war crimes of Americans, at least in their
smaller memorials and museums in a way trying to spread propaganda.

To support this argument, Nguyen writes “The world pays attention to the feelings of the wealthy
and the powerful . . . , so it is with an industry of memory, where the memories of the wealthy
and the powerful exert more influence because they own the means of production“ (Nguyen 87).
Nguyen claims that how America remembers the war is in some way how the world remembers
it by foregrounding that countries such as United States use their massive war machines to not
only inflict harm on weaker countries, but even justify it to the world though the global reach of
their industry of memory.

Moreover, he writes that the American industry of memory includes even more, „a set of
technologies or cultural forms through which memories are fashioned, like the novels, movies,
photographs, museums . . . “ (87). Here Nguyen unites the industry of memory with the American
arms industry and Hollywood with the American armed forces, arguing that due to the global
domination of America´s arms and memories other countries are dominated by Hollywood`s
american morality and american memories of war.

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In addition, by presenting video games, such as the first person shooter, or Hollywood movies,
as Apocalypse Now, Nguyen seeks to show the success of the American industry of power in
influencing people to identify with the war machinery thereby subordinating the other. Thus, the
first person shooter is a game where the player enjoys the slaughter of others as the other is
conceived as nonhuman. Taking the example of the helicopter assault on a Viet Cong village in
Apocalypse Now, Nguyen further attempts to show that the power of Hollywood is used to glorify
war and American war machinery on the one hand and on the other hand personify America as
terryfying, which affect memories. The argumentation for that glorification is supported by the
description of the scene “the fusion and confusion of lust and killig, sex and death, murder and
machinery, resulting in homicides that were illegal at home but encouraged overseas in the war
zone“ (94). What he also criticizes in American movies, is that the roles of American tend to be
heroic while he shows by presenting other movie examples that Vietnemese Characters are
often displayed as savages, though the heroic character comes to acknowledges his own
savagery. Ultimately, he emphasizes the end of the movie saying that its machiney scenes are
more remembered by the world than what happened to the supposedly savages.

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