硕士论文：越战纪念碑—愈合越战老兵心灵创伤的地方(英文版).pdf

摘 要 摘 要 越南战争是美国历史上耗时最多、争议最多，也是美国第一次战败的一场战争，给美国 国民造成了深重的灾难。而作为这场战争的直接参与者那些曾经在越南战场上出生入 死、奋战到底的美国军人更是受到了严重伤害。他们不仅在越南战场上身体受到伤害，回到 国内后也由于打了败仗而被国人瞧不起。这一现象引起了众多学者的关注。 传统上， 对越战老兵的研究主要是基于采访记录和调查取证， 观察视角主要是社会学和 传染病学。国外学者主要研究了老兵的健康问题，重新融入社会的问题。而国内学者在越战 问题上， 只在一些社会保险制度中提及美国越战老兵。 近年来部分学者也对越战纪念碑做了 一些研究，然而，迄今为止的研究缺乏系统性和专门性。鉴此，本文主要从大众媒体及其越 战书籍中获取关于越战纪念碑及老兵的资料入手， 研究越战纪念碑是如何对越战老兵起到疗 伤作用的。 本文分五部分。第一部分是研究背景的简介。第二部分阐释在越战纪念碑建成前，越战 老兵回国后受到的伤害。他们不仅是战争失败的替罪羊，而且是大众媒体的受害者，甚至在 自己家里也成了陌生人。 第三部分主要论述了越战纪念碑前摆放的贡品对越战老兵的疗伤作 用。人们摆放贡品在纪念碑前，证明了碑让人们意识到越战士兵付出的代价，从而他们开始 尊敬老兵。第四部分分析了越战纪念碑对美国民众，美国政府及老兵自己的影响，让他们都 改变了以前对老兵的敌对态度，老兵自己也不再自卑。越战纪念碑愈合了老兵的伤口。第五 部分总结全文并进一步阐述本文意义。 关键词：关键词： 越战纪念碑；越战老兵；疗伤作用; 贡品 abstract vietnam war is the longest, the most controversial and the first lost war in the history of the united states of america. it was a disaster to the americans. american vietnam veteransthe direct participants of the war, who risked their lives to bravely fight in vietnamese battlefields, suffered most. not only did they suffer in the battlefields but also they were discriminated against by their fellowmen after they returned home. their sufferings caught many scholars attention. traditional study of vietnam veterans are mainly based on interviews with the veterans and investigations of the vietnam veterans lives from epidemiological or sociological perspectives. scholars at abroad mainly did researches on vietnam veterans health problems and their reentering of the main society. at home, our chinese people did not do research on the veterans, who were only mentioned in the studies which focused on american social security system. recently, some scholars come to discuss the vietnam veterans memorial, but they tend to view the vietnam veterans memorial as only architecture and lack intensive and systematic study on its impact on the veterans. this thesis concentrates on how the vietnam veterans memorial healed those veterans mainly through the materials from washington post. the thesis consists of five parts. the first part serves as an introduction, which briefly presents the background of this study, including literature review on vietnam veterans studies, the significance and layout of this thesis. then follows the main body, which proves the vietnam veterans memorial healed the wounds of those american vietnam veterans. chapter i analyses the wounds those vietnam veterans received after their return from vietnam war. chapter ii elaborates on the offerings left by american public and veterans themselves, which serve as a proof that the vietnam veterans memorial healed the veterans. chapter iii focuses on how the vietnam veterans memorial affected american public, its government and vietnam veterans to realize their veterans tremendous sacrifices in vietnam and to make them realize their previous attitudes towards the veterans had been wrong. thus they changed their views on vietnam veterans and began to pay respect to them, which of course healed those vietnam veterans. the last part is the conclusion, which reaffirms the argument of this thesis and furthers the analysis of this researchs significance. key words: the vietnam veterans memorial; vietnam veterans; healing impacts; offerings acknowledgements first and foremost, i would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, professor zhang tao, both for his intellectual guidance and for his warm and constant encouragement during the process of writing this thesis. with patience and prudence, he labored through drafts of this thesis and pointed out defects in my theorizing. therefore, i owe all the merits in this thesis, if any, to him, though i am fully aware that the thesis might still contain some mistakes, for which i bear the whole responsibility. my cordial and sincere thanks go to professor li zhenzhong, fei xiaoping whose interesting and informative lectures on discourse analysis lead me to a challenging yet fascinating domain of academic research. the profit that i gained from their profound knowledge, remarkable expertise and intellectual ingenuity will be of everlasting significance to my future research. i am also deeply indebted to professor zhao chun, chen xirong who kindly offered me relevant materials and whose innovative perspectives greatly assisted me in conceptualizing the present thesis. i am also very grateful to my classmates, whose careful and microscopic scrutiny of the manuscript resulted in the elimination of many inconsistencies. last but not the least; big thanks go to my family who has shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this thesis. table of contents introduction1 chapter one vietnam veterans wounds in the post-vietnam war era7 1.1 scapegoats of the loss of vietnam war8 1.2 victims of the mass media11 1.3 strangers at home14 chapter two offerings left at the vietnam veterans memorial.19 2.1 offerings left by the american public19 2.2 offerings left by vietnam veterans themselves26 chapter three vietnam veterans psychologically healing by the vietnam veterans memorial.32 3.1 american publics changed view on vietnam veterans 32 3.2 american governments healing impact on vietnam veterans.39 3.3 vietnam veterans changed view on themselves42 conclusion .47 works cited.49 1 introduction the vietnam war, americas first lost war, which was a military conflict that took place in vietnam, laos and cambodia from 1959 to april 30, 1975 when the last american troop withdrew from saigon, was the longest and most divisive and controversial war in the history of the united states of america. it was fought between the south vietnam with the support of the united states and other capitalist countries and north vietnam, backed by u.s.s.r and the peoples republic of china. it was fought to decide whether the south vietnam should be independent as a nation or it should be absorbed by north vietnam. it ended up with the victory of north vietnam and the south and north unified although the united states devoted so many years to the war with americas sending more than three million military staffs to serve in vietnam. owing to the war, the u.s lost 58183 lives, wounded 30, 3713 and it also dropped three times the total bomb tonnage which was used in all of world war ii, and made the u.s economy get into hyperinflation.(michalowski and dubisch 10 ) as the defeat of the united states, the direct participants of the war, namely, those vietnam veterans tragically became the scapegoats of the loss. “twenty percent of those who had served, nearly 500,000 received less-than-honorable discharges, a measure of the desertion rate, drug usage, strength of antiwar sentiment in the military, and immaturity of the troops.” (boyer et al. 690)they were even described as “the nigger of 1970s” （(boyer et al. 690). when they returned, what was waiting for them was not hero welcome like their world war ii fathers. they were spat upon, discriminated against, and thought of as losers and baby killers without any human nature. thus, the war brought a great number of sufferings to the vietnam veterans. for some of them, the horrible memories of combat experiences or their physical disabilities shattered their lives. also, most of the returned veterans psychologically suffered a lot. to the veterans, reconciliation into their pre-war normal lives was not easy; they were strangers at home. the american vietnam veterans special situation caught many an experts 2 attention. in the united states, american academia pays much attention to those vietnam veterans. with various research ways and angles, american scholars have made a lot of achievements, including stress disorders among vietnam veterans: theory, research, and treatment (1978) edited by charles r. figley, wounds of war: the psychological aftermath of combat in vietnam(1984) by ann pollinger, shook over hell: post-traumatic stress, vietnam, and the civil war (1997) by eric t. dean, jr. these publications are mainly from the perspective of what the soldiers psychologically suffered in the post-vietnam era. there is a war, there are casualties. the health problems of those vietnam veterans have attracted much attention. over three decades has passed since the last american troop withdrew from vietnam. during this period, the u.s government spent considerable resources investigating the health problems claimed by those vietnam veterans, congress, and the public at large. in 1988, the column “health status of vietnam veterans” appeared in journal of the american medical association. a number of epidemiological studies of vietnam veterans have been completed and reported by u.s investigators. several important health studies of american vietnam veterans cases are still going on. among the health problems of the veterans, the most conspicuous one is the health problem of those veterans who exposed to agent orange, which was used to clear jungle and destroy enemy crops. agent orange has caused rare forms of cancers, nerve damage, liver disorders and skin problems. the veterans also claimed it has resulted in miscarriages by their spouses and birth defects in their children. works on the impacts of agent orange on vietnam veterans include veterans and agent orange (2006) by institute of medicine of the national academies, agent orange: “collateral damage“ in viet nam (2000) by philip jones griffiths, agent orange and vietnam: an annotated bibliography (1995) by caroline d. harnly, agent orange and its associated dioxin : assessment of a controversy(1988) by a.l. young and g.m. reggiani, dioxin, agent orange : the facts (1986)by michael gough, agent orange on trial : mass toxic disasters in the courts (1987)by peter h. schuck and waiting 3 for an army to die: the tragedy of agent orange (1999)by fred a. wilcox. all of those books focus on the tragedies those vietnam veterans and their families suffered in the post vietnam era. monographs on the vietnam veterans readjustment into the society also appeared a lot in the united states. for instance, the books include vietnam veterans: the road to recovery (1985) by joel osler brende and erwin randolph parson, the scar that bindsamerican culture and the vietnam war (1998) by keith beattie, the spitting image, myth, memory, and the legacy of vietnam (1998) by jerry lembcke, the house of purple hearts: stories of vietnam vets who find their way back (1995). all of these books first make a deep research on what the trouble vietnam veterans meet , what treatment they receive in the post-vietnam period and what the reasons are; then they slowly analyze the arduous process of the those vietnam veterans reconciliation into the main society. those materials better our understanding of the pains of those vietnam veterans. there still exist some dissertations about vietnam veterans. at home, monographs on how to solve the vietnam veterans does not come into being; veterans are only mentioned in some books of american social security system, such as huang annians the society security policy of modern america1945-1996(1998), deng dasongs the research on the social security policy of the united states (1999) and yang guanqiongs the modern social security system of the united states (1997). dissertations on veterans are researched by a few people. there is shi qinghuans the historical evolution of the preference of veterans in civil service recruitment, xu runhua and ning guixings the promulgation and historical significance of veterans bill of rights of the united states, wang jians the basic conditions and characteristic of the placement of the u.s veterans, min youzhangs a glance at the special care of the u.s veterans. still, some dissertations are on vietnam war from the angle of media. one is the influence of american mass media on vietnam war by yu guishuang and the other one is mass media and dealing with the international crises -research on vietnam war and “september 11 attacks”. 4 from above, we can find that there is still much room for us to do research on vietnam veterans and their reentering the civilian society, especially the healing impacts of the vietnam veterans memorial on the vietnam veterans. vietnam veterans memorial, which is a national war memorial, located in washington d.c. it honors the members of american forces who fought in vietnam war, who died in vietnam and who was still missing in the war. at home, the vietnam veterans memorial attracted no special attention. up to now, no books and no dissertation have appeared on the research of the vietnam veterans memorial. this situation is more or less in the united states. only a few works are on vietnam veterans memorial, like to heal a nation: the vietnam veterans memorial (1986) by jan c. scruggs and joel l. swerdlow, which mainly introduced the arduous process of building the memorial and also gave a detailed introduction of the designers background. the book just recorded what happened and how it happened; it did not do a deep research on the vietnam veterans memorial, such as the symbol and the status of the vietnam veterans memorial in american society, its impacts on vietnam veterans and its influence on the change of american peoples attitude towards those vietnam veterans. there is little reflection and some of the minutiae of the infighting will lose the casual reader. uninteresting black-and-white photos of the men who played a part in the struggle are unnecessary. but this books strength comes from the photos of people at the memorialmen in wheelchairs, mothers faces shattered by grief, a solider in combat fatigues sobbing against the wall. run for the wall: remembering vietnam on a motorcycle pilgrimage (2001) written by raymond michalowski and jill dubisch tells the story of how some people search for peace, understanding, and personal healing through a motorcycle pilgrimage to the vietnam veterans memorial. this book is written as a social analysis of the run for the wall and those who participate in it. it gives meaning to and interprets events and actions happened in the pilgrimage in ways that are often different from the way those being written about would describe them. besides those two books, there still exist other works, which include always to remember: the story 5 of the vietnam veterans memorial (1992), the last firebase: a guide to the vietnam veterans memorial (1987). generally speaking, these works share the following limitations. on the one hand, what these works deal with is mainly too general. the books just describe what happened and how it happened chronologically and they do not make deep researches on the vietnam veterans memorial, thus what are common to the monographs is lack of content analysis. on the other hand, they tend to view the war as a whole but lack direct, intensive and systematic analysis of the vietnam veterans and the vietnam veterans memorial. this thesis concentrates on the healing role of vietnam veterans memorial play on the vietnam veterans. it systematically changed the attitudes of american public and those who served in the war towards the american vietnam veterans. this research is put in the historical and social context. as a consequence, to study the status and symbol of the vietnam veterans memorial in the post-vietnam era can help us to better understand the special groupamerican vietnam veterans. the establishment of vietnam veterans memorial changed vietnam veterans tragic situation. it made people realize that veterans should not be the scapegoats of the failure; they sacrificed their youth, their health and even their lives in the remote area and they were the true victims of the war. as a result, those non-veterans should respect veterans. among those contributions the united states made to those veterans, the vietnam veterans memorial was the most conspicuous. the vietnam veterans memorial, which was designed by maya lin, a 21-year-old chinese american who was still a student at yale university when she won the design competition, was dedicated on november 13, 1982. thanks to the appearance of the vietnam veterans memorial, vietnam veterans felt that their tragic lives were totally changed, for the monument itself served as a platform to honor all veterans of vietnam war, soothe and inspire veterans still living, conciliate the dissidents and put the country at long last at peace with its past. its location on the washington mall, which is the spiritual heart of the nation, indicates its significance in the history of the united states. it points to the most important 6 memorialswashington monument and lincoln memorial. its shape, color and its names are very reasonable and symbolic. thus, it is easy to find that the scholars in the past either did researches on the vietnam veterans memorialthe architecture itself or vietnam veterans reconciliation into the main society. up to now, no scholar has directly studied the relationship between vietnam veterans and the vietnam veterans memorial. as a result, i do research on the relationship between those two, to be more specific, the healing effect of the vvm on vietnam veterans. this dissertation argues that the vietnam veterans memorial, which is the symbol of gratitude and reconciliation, healed the inner wounds of the american vietnam veterans. this dissertation will be developed as following: the thesis consists of five parts, an introduction, the main body which is made up of three chapters and the conclusion. this first part serves as an introduction, which briefly presents the background of this study, including literature review on vietnam veterans studies and the significance and layout of this thesis. then follows the main body, which proves the vietnam veterans memorial healed the wounds of those american vietnam veterans. chapter i analyses the wounds those vietnam veterans received after their return from vietnam war. chapter ii elaborates on