Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines British empire commemoration of World War I. It traces the building of monuments to Japanese war dead from the World War II battle of Peleliu. The book also examines public memory of two highly contested American Cold War conflicts: the Korean War and the Vietnam War, respectively. Scholars and popular writers have written a great deal about how Americans view these wars, the Vietnam War in particular. The book analyzes Vietnamese public memory of the United States' war in Vietnam and dissects the fascinating relationship between the promotion of war tourism in Vietnam and the shaping of public memory of the event. And Vietnam's public memory emerges from the confluence of recovery from the war's destruction and the lucrative influx of tourists who commemorate it.