One of the most serious problems with works addressing films about the Vietnam War is that, to some degree, they will always participate in the reduction of Viet Nam the country to Vietnam (or in especially derogatory cases ‘Nam) the war. Where Vietnam is spoken of, it is always in the context of America, as half of an uneasy but seemingly indissoluble historical couple. To reduce Viet Nam to the war between that country and America (a war that is significantly referred to as the “American War” in Viet Nam), or to any war for that matter, is obviously problematic. Nevertheless, films about war have a unique ability to reveal important historical and cultural aspects of a people as a result of the necessary intersections of nationalism, art, and history that they contain. Because Viet Nam has endured many wars throughout its long history, not the least of which was the American conflict, studying Vietnamese films that treat issues of war might be seen as especially instructive. This paper focuses on films about the Vietnam/American War as a way into the problems of cross-cultural communication between the United States and Viet Nam with the hope that the incorporation of Vietnamese and Vietnamese diasporic films into the international canon of films about the war might be seen as a first step in recognizing the existence of Vietnamese national and diasporic identities in cinema. These filmmakers bring to bear their own histories and future aspirations which differ from, intersect with, and translate those of America and Viet Nam independently.

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