The Shifting Contours of Nostalgia, Homelessness, and Homecoming: Vietnam War Veterans’ Identity

Abstract

At the end of the Vietnam War, after the U.S. veterans returned to their homeland, they were rejected by their own society and hence experienced an inner state of homelessness. Having faced everyday humiliation and monotonous life in their homeland, they longed for Vietnam where they were once important and desired to return there as tourists now. In this journey of life, they turned out to be existential characters who embody the predicament of existence. In this reflective piece, we use Martin Heidegger’s critical phenomenological concepts of homelessness, being and dasein to make sense of the predicament of the veterans’ return to Vietnam. Drawing on our extensive conversation with them, we reflect on their being: how they are exiled at their homeland, but felt at home upon return to Vietnam; and relatedly, how the ever-changing contours of nostalgia, homelessness, and homecoming bear upon their identity.