The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:: Memory, mourning and national memorials

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the "state" memorial representing loss in a consensual war and the "national" memorial built by veterans to commemorate death in a dissensual armed conflict, are often said to be diametrically opposed in their maintenance and violation of the conventions of traditional memorials and association with masculinity and femininity. They are shown to both eschew martial and national symbolism and to be radical reconceptualizations of the war memorial. They share analogous aesthetic qualities of simplicity, minimalism, and essentiality in their use of materials and the capacity to reanimate memories, comfort the bereaved, and engender healing. Similarly, both were appropriated through ritual and ceremonies invented by those who use them. At the Tomb, the Honour Guards' formalization of the presenting of arms is in violation of regulations. Going between the lines inscribed by power on the state memorial, the paper applies and illustrates a methodology for memory studies expansive enough to recover the conceptions and beliefs that motivated the construction of any monument, however distant and foreign might be the experiences that made their erection desired or contested, and to reanimate the memories motivating the political ideals that sustained the monuments' builders.