아메리카 제국의 상흔: 미 라이 학살 사건의 과거와 현재

• 영문명: Scars of American Empire: My Lai Massacre, Its Past and Present
• 발행기관: 한국아메리카학회
• 저자명: 유정완(Jung-wan Yu)
• 간행물 정보: 『미국학논집』제51집 1호, 45~78쪽, 전체 34쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 기타인문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2019.05.30

영문 초록

This paper explores the persistent significance of the My Lai massacre. It also analyzes far and immediate causes of the massacre: the unique but atrocious American way of war in Vietnam, the National Liberation Front’s ‘people’s war,’ and the psychological disorientation of the American soldiers. The My Lai massacre led the American leaders to step back from the American ‘quagmire,’ radically shifting the fog of the war. This shift of policy led by Johnson and Nixon administrations ultimately fails, however, and America loses the war, making American exceptionalism seriously dismantled. America’s uniquely resilient collective narrative which Richard Slotkin calls the ‘regeneration through violence’ finally survives, however, and, though seriously wounded, American empire revives its collective illusion as a special nation with a manifest mission. The My Lai massacre supplied America a rare opportunity to reroute its imperial trajectory, but it unfortunately keeps imagining itself as an exceptional nation, as we can see even now around the world after its engagements in Vietnam more than 50 years ago.

키워드

Vietnam War American exceptionalism National Liberation Front My Lai massacre William Calley Jr