Dear America: la neutralidad imposible

Abstract

This paper explores the pretense of neutrality assumed by Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1985), a compilation of letters written by G.I.’s in Vietnam. It is argued that its claim to political and moral innocence clashes with its stated intention of memoralizing Vietnam veterans. The paper shows how the book fails in his attempt to confine the role of the letters to an emotional and personal level. The letters emerge as texts which do not avoid examination of the political, moral and military issues concerning the war. The article also analyses the image of neutrality that the film version of this book (a documentary directed by Bill Couturie in 1987) pretends to convey. It is concluded that the avoidance of the war’s traumatic issues in the film constitutes an indirect support for the official U.S. view on the Vietnamese conflict.