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| Author | Topic: Vietnamese perceptions of military dogs |
| Aaron Skabelund |
posted 3/7/05 3:40 AM
As part of a larger project, which examines the deployment of dogs as agents in and metaphors of the principal events and transformative ideologies in modern Japanese history, I am working on an article about the deployment of the German shepherd as a military and police dog in many different contexts, from its use by the German, Japanese, and United States militaries during the Second World War to the employment of the dogs by European imperial regimes in central and southern Africa. Currently, I am particularly interested in the mobilization of dogs by the U.S. military in Korea and Vietnam, and have found Michael G. Lemish's book _War Dogs_ to be helpful in understanding how military dogs were actually employed. I am, however, more interested in the symbolic meaning of these animals than just their actual, corporeal use. Lemish, for example, mentions that during the Korean War, Chinese troops told American soldiers via broadcasts blared over loudspeakers, "Yankee--take your dog and go home!"but there is little about Vietnamese attitudes, except that they sometimes ate dogs. How did Vietnamese regard military dogs and their use? Did military dogs at the time (or has it since) become at all a symbol of foreign (capitalist) imperialism for the Vietnamese as it did (and remains) elsewhere? If anyone can shed any light on these issues--either from personal experience or through leading me to some kind of source materials, I would be very appreciative. Many thanks, Aaron Skabelund ahs39@columbia.edu |
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