{"id":10751,"date":"2016-04-26T07:45:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T06:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/?p=10751"},"modified":"2016-04-26T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T06:51:11","slug":"will-tourism-transform-way-australians-remember-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/04\/will-tourism-transform-way-australians-remember-vietnam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Will tourism transform the way Australians remember the Vietnam War?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chiby\u00a0Brad West<\/a>, University of South Australia<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/span>n 1990, when the Hawke government flew 58 first world war veterans<\/a> to Turkey for the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, Australia\u2019s Anzac commemoration was transformed.<\/p>\n

The subsequent emergence of the Gallipoli pilgrimage directly provided thousands of Australians with an alternative way<\/a> of experiencing and understanding the Anzac legend. Indirectly, it altered the way Australians understand Gallipoli.<\/p>\n

The internationalising of its remembrance and the accounting of former foes facilitated a more inclusive historical culture and a resurgence of popular interest and participation in Anzac Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Historians and social commentators typically explain<\/a> this cultural transformation by emphasising the distinctive social and political circumstances around Gallipoli. But might the rise of heritage tourism and the increasing ease of international travel lead to more of Australia\u2019s foreign military experiences being better understood?<\/p>\n

Sites of war tourism<\/h2>\n

The Vietnam War is an interesting example to consider in regard to this question. This is particularly so with 2016 marking the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan<\/a>. Various veteran and battlefield tours<\/a> are set to take place.<\/p>\n

My soon-to-be-published research<\/a> on war tourism in Vietnam can provide insights into what the effect of tourism on Australians\u2019 remembrance of the war might be.<\/p>\n

As Vietnam began to open itself up to tourism and foreign investment in the 1990s, the Vietnamese ambassador to the United States, Le Van Bang, felt compelled to emphasise<\/a> that:<\/p>\n

Vietnam is a country, not a war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Vietnamese are eager for their country to be known for more than its military conflict. But the Demilitarised Zone<\/a>, the \u201cHanoi Hilton\u201d prison<\/a> for captured enemy soldiers, and the War Remnants Museum<\/a> are among the most popular places to visit for international tourists.<\/p>\n

Western tourists travelling to Vietnam today for the first time also express their surprise at how welcoming locals are and at their lack of antagonism in relation to the war. This is similar to Gallipoli<\/a> in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Among the various war tourism sites, the Cu Chi tunnels<\/a>, located less than an hour\u2019s drive from Ho Chi Minh City, are perhaps the most popular. Much like the pilgrimage experience at Gallipoli, a visit to Cu Chi offers tourists a way of engaging with history that is vastly different to the austere museum genre that dominates in Western countries.Part of the reason Western tourists are welcome in Vietnam is related to social memory. The conflict is understood within a romantic narrative in which sacrifices are seen as contributing to a united and modern country.<\/p>\n

Rather than being a hands-off experience, visitors at Cu Chi get to move through the tunnel network, walk in the jungle, see where booby traps were hidden, view how the Viet Cong reused American bombs and, for those who desire, shoot the rifles used in the war.<\/p>\n

Developing memory<\/h2>\n

It is tempting to interpret the Cu Chi tour as catering for tourists and trivialising bloodshed. But this reading fails to comprehend the high level<\/a> of domestic tourism and the serious historical significance that Cu Chi has as part of North Vietnam\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Approximately 41% of Vietnam\u2019s population is under the age of 25<\/a>. The memory-building here is seen as a way to establish national unity.<\/p>\n

For Western tourists, Cu Chi is also far from a war \u201ctheme park\u201d. Interviews I have conducted with Americans, Australians and Europeans clearly show that they overwhelmingly come to a greater appreciation of the lived experience of soldiers on both sides.<\/p>\n

Imagining themselves where Vietnamese and Western soldiers died forces them to rethink their prior understanding of the conflict \u2013 particularly from films, commemorations and memorials where the Vietnamese are mere backstage actors.<\/p>\n

More than 300,000 Australians visit Vietnam<\/a> annually. With the ongoing growth of tourism, it is likely that tourists\u2019 experiences at Cu Chi and other war-related sites in Vietnam will increasingly influence how we commemorate this conflict, and encourage Australians to see it from both sides of the frontline.<\/p>\n

\"TheBrad West<\/a>, Associate Professor, School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South Australia<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the ongoing growth of tourism to Vietnam encourage Australians to see the conflict from both sides of the frontline?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,535],"tags":[953],"yoast_head":"\nWill tourism transform the way Australians remember the Vietnam War?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the ongoing growth of tourism to Vietnam encourage Australians to see the conflict from both sides of the frontline?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/04\/will-tourism-transform-way-australians-remember-vietnam-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will 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