Memory, remembrance and nostalgia in Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War

Abstract

This essay examines how society and culture constructs differing responses to memory and remembrance in producing documentary series that look back at the American War in Indochina. Drawing upon studies of memory, nostalgia, and remembrance, the primary focus is on the recent documentary series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War. That series can be seen as a remembrance rather than an example of historical memory. The essay provides a close analysis, therefore, of The Vietnam War and compares it, in particular, to an earlier series, Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War. Also under discussion are documentaries contemporary with the war, In the Year of the Pig and Hearts and Minds. What ultimately can be seen is a shift from active memory and advocacy in human behavior and perspective within the contemporaneous documentaries to an institutionalized construct focusing on remembrance and nostalgia in The Vietnam War.