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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'South Africa's Vietnam'? Literary History and Cultural Memory of the Border War
Author:Baines, GaryISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:South African Historical Journal
Issue:49
Pages:172-192
Language:English
Geographic terms:Angola
South Africa
Namibia
Subjects:military intervention
military occupation
military personnel
literature
literary criticism
History and Exploration
Military, Defense and Arms
Literature, Mass Media and the Press
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470308671453
Abstract:America's war in Vietnam became a point of reference for South African soldiers who served in the Border War, the South African Defence Force's (SADF) illegal occupation of Namibia in the 1970s and 1980s. Basing himself on the impressions of South African soldier-authors - white conscript soldiers rather than freedom fighters - who served at the Namibian/Angolan border, the author of the present paper contends that South African soldiers related to American Vietnam war films and literature in order to make sense of significant episodes in their life stories. This was because, at the time, local productions of war adventure films with a Border setting lacked credible story lines and heroes. The author makes his case by examining themes which resonate in the literatures of both the Vietnam War and the Border War. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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