Personal Revolution is the First Step Towards Understanding - Tamir Kalifa

Susan Sontag’s writing on the conflict in Vietnam holds an important anthropological perspective that is often overlooked during wartime. In order to gain support for a foreign conflict, nations will attempt to define the conflict, ascribing a sense of order that the public will understand. For example: containing the spread of communism or a “war on terror.” In doing so, the first elements forgotten are the citizens of the “enemy” state that are no different from you and I. War is about governments fighting one another, not the people. The year 1968 was defined by raging anti-war sentiment and yet Sontag, an intellectual powerhouse, strays from the popular analysis of the war by focusing on the people of Vietnam rather than the banality of the conflict.
Though her writing centers on her perception of the foreign state, A Trip to Hanoi opens with Sontag doubting her ethos. She concedes that as she has no credibility to write about the conflict, she “…doubted that [her] account of such a trip could add anything new to the already eloquent opposition of the war.” This rhetorical tactic lowers the expectations for Sontag’s conclusions but allows for a unique vision unseen by “journalists…political activists [or] Asian specialists.” In establishing her individuality, Sontag’s writing reflects that of a diary entry rather than a comprehensive analysis of the conflict. This style is suitable to writing about the people of Vietnam because it is personal and subjective and does not have the preconceived notions a more educated individual on the issue might hold.
Sontag devotes the first few pages to conveying the malleable state of her perception of Vietnam. Her initial writing reflects the common thought she and her fellow countrymen bore prior to her arrival at Vietnam. This represents the average, arbitrary image of the war any foreigner would have. She quickly begins to challenge her views as she describes, “…being piled with gifts and flowers and rhetoric and tea and seemingly exaggerated kindness.” From the moment she encounters the Vietnamese her thought process shifts to attempting to understand the people. This thought process represents the capacity America has to see the Vietnamese on equal ground however are unable to because of the nationalistic rhetoric used by the government in contrast to the images of slaughter and suffering the hands of the American government. This contradictory image inhibits anyone who has not set foot in a city such as Hanoi from understanding the conflict. By coming to the reluctant conclusion that the conflict in Vietnam is not what she expected, Sontag proves that thoughts and perceptions have the capacity to change.
However, it is not as simple as this. Sontag soon realizes, through conversing with citizens, how complex of a society Vietnam is. She talks about how disenfranchised they had been under French rule, how far they had come since then and how we as American’s cannot possibly understand how they feel because our cultures are so polarized. She describes this tension as a “…hopeless” barrier she cannot cross because there is no common cultural ground other than the simplistic human similarities in lifestyle.
Sontag summarizes the significance of open thoughts when she says at the end of the essay, “An event that makes new feelings conscious is always the most important experience a person can have.” This statement embodies the entire essay because it represents the human capacity to change the way they think. One of the greatest problems during the Vietnam was the American inability to experience new feelings that would allow them to perceive the conflict differently. Part of this is due to the physical and cultural difference between American and Vietnam; however, the greatest barrier was psychological. The inability to concede and think openly about the conflict in Vietnam marred a country in a polarized argument between the nationalistic campaign to rescue a vulnerable nation and an enraged anti-war public. Sontag’s conclusion implies the possibilities of change and lessons other cultures have to offer. While they must be sought, the knowledge gained is invaluable as, “what happened to [her] in North Vietnam did not end with [her] return to America, but is still going on.”