A rumor of war: American war and tourism in Việt Nam

This paper re-examines the rules of mental and cultural representations in the construction of a holiday plan and tourist practices. Using an approach of cultural geography, I would like to study the link between various representations of the American war and the practices of foreign tourists in Vietnam. This example provides a good opportunity to analyse how media are unequivocally changing the ways in which tourists imagine, understand and engage with destinations. The Vietnam War was the first war which was so mediatised. It became a "living-room war", present every evening at home. This war popularized through the media as a show favours not an accurate representation of the chronology and the stakes of the American war in Vietnam, but the construction of a war imagination. For many foreign tourists, the American war in Vietnam is more a symbol of violence, cruelty and imperialism than a real place. Movies like Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket are representative of this new kind of warlike movies which is called "Vietnam Movies", and where Vietnam is just scenery of tropical lands. Nevertheless, it is not because foreign tourists do not have precise representations of Vietnam before going there, that those representations have not played a part in the choice of this destination or in the practices that they develop once they are in Vietnam. Firstly, because movies, television series (like Magnum) or songs (like Born in the USA by B. Springsteen) make the destination very famous among Asian destinations. Secondly, because the media directly participate to create a beautiful image of Vietnam, with its green mountains and its white sand beaches, its blue sea and coconut trees. From the 1980s and the election of R. Reagan onwards, the media have created not only a beautiful image of Vietnam, but also a positive representation of this war. Movies like Rambo or television series such as The A-Team contribute to rehabilitate the image of the GI's. Therefore, if today foreign tourists, and in particular American and Australian tourists, are so numerous, it is not only because the Vietnamese frontiers are now open. It is also because the representations of Vietnam War have changed, making them look less guilty. The mediatisation of the American war does not play only a part in the construction of Vietnam as a tourist destination. They play a part in the construction of a specific geography of tourism. Today, more than 30 places in this country are clearly linked with the American war, like museums (in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Hué) and historical battlefields (for example Cu Chi or Vinh Moc). An entire region is now touristic because of this war: the DMZ, in the center of the country. Those places satisfy a real demand. Here, tourists can understand what happened. Above all, they can wage fake wars and perform media which improve their imagination