"This essay is concerned with how narratives of the war have been constructed out of and within the cultural memory of the Vietnam War Memorial."

This section uses primary sources to support the claim that "the memorial stands in a precarious space between tehse opposing interpretations of the war."

Sturken on the "construction of history"

"Does the process of commemoration necessitate choosing sides?"

A monument on Highway 1 adjacent to the main gate for Bien Hoa Air Base commemorates the People's Army of Vietnam seizing of the Air Base on 25 April 1975.

During the Vietnam Wars (1955–75), the base was used by the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF). The United States used it as a major base from 1961 through 1973, stationing Army, Air Force (USAF),Navy, and Marine units there.

Chris Burden, "The Other Vietnam War Memorial"

The copper sheets, which subtly recall printing plates, are etched with a seemingly endless list of Vietnamese names in tiny black letters. Some identify specific people who perished during U.S. involvement in the Indochina conflict. The rest are computer-generated fabrications.

Exact records being unavailable, Burden used a basic catalogue of nearly 4,000 names and had them mixed-and-matched through a computer. Three million is the total number of war dead during America's involvement, which includes about 250,000 Vietnamese soldiers and 1.5 million civilians in the South, and some 700,000 military and 250,000 missing in action in the North, plus estimates of heavy losses in embattled border regions.