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.
