How History Is Shaped, Controlled, and Contested in Modern Vietnam

This book offers an analysis of the inner workings of the Vietnamese "memory machine." In four case studies it shows which tools the Vietnamese one-party state uses to disseminate a "correct" outlook on history, manage the representation of the past and suppress dissenting historical views. While emphasizing the role of the Vietnamese Communist Party in memory-making the study also highlights that in the last two decades non-state "agents of remembrance" have increasingly managed to shape the commemoration of the past. The book is based on ten years of research including a close reading of Party documents, history textbooks, official histories and memories of cadres, and visits to numerous sites of memories in Vietnam such as museums, monuments, and war cemeteries.

Endorsements
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. The Commemoration fo National History
1.1. Introduction
1.2. National history
1.3. Narratives of Sino-Vietnamese Relations in History Textbooks and Beyond
1.4. The Commemoration of the “Second Sino-Vietnamese War” and the Role of War
Veterans
1.5. Conclusion
2. The Commemoration of "World History": The Celebration of Socialism
2.1. The History of Socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as Portrayed in
Vietnamese Textbooks
2.2. Historical Narratives of the Collapse of Socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe in Textbooks and the Media
2.3. The Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution in
2017
2.4. Conclusion
3. The Commemoration of the Vietnamese Security Apparatus
3.1. Introduction
3.2. The “Shield and Sword” of the Party: The Political Role of the People’s Public
Security Forces and the Context of the Politics of Memory in Socialist Vietnam
3.3. The “Memory Machine” at Work: The Commemoration of the People’s Public
Security Forces
3.4. Conclusion
4. The Commemoration of the War Dead after 1975: The Defunct Republic of Vietnam
and the Problem of Reconciliation
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Policy in the South After 1975: Erasing the Memory of the Republic of Vietnam
4.3. Reform Policy and “National Reconciliation”? The Case of Bien Hoa Military
Cemetery
4.4. Conclusion
Conclusion

Bibliography