Leslie Smith
Washington, DC, USA | Photo Submission
I was born in 1967 and felt the spectre of Vietnam throughout my childhood. I
think I felt a collective feeling of despair and disappointment over our involvement
in the conflict. I laid on my stomach for hours pondering a collection of Life
magazine photographs from the war. I also recall the acute absence of history
lessons about Vietnam in school and I remember one high school teacher in my college
town in Western Pennsylvania who was summarily fired for his leftist teachings
on the war. In college I spent six months researching a thesis about media coverage
of the Tet Offensive and woke up in nightmares after watching Walter Cronkite
documentaries. In 1996 I traveled throughout Vietnam, marveling at the gorgeous
countryside and studying the people as respectively and thoroughly as possible.
It troubled me to hear self-centered Americans obsessing over war history, the
DMZ for example or the Cu Chi tunnels, and asking repeatedly, Are you still angry?
Do you hate the Americans? I strongly suggest that we read Vietnamese literature,
like the wonderful novel, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, to understand
the mentality of a people who have undergone a history of independence movements.
They believe in a cycle of renewal and hardly dwell on past offenses. I don't
profess to understand their perspective entirely, but I think if presumptuous
to play out my guilt and expect or demand their forgiveness and redemption.
I have a couple of photos I would like to submit with this
account, if you don't mind. Please let me know if it is possible to do so. Thank
you for the opportunity to write,
Sincerely,
Leslie Smith
Photo: Leslie Smith
Photo: Leslie Smith
Photo: Leslie Smith