A Picture and a Protest: Kjartan Slettemark and the Vietnam War

In given circumstances, art can play a crucial role in motivating people to participate in altruistic acts of protest and in initiating the formation of social movements. The story of the most controversial work of art in Norwegian cultural history, the so-called Vietnam Picture from 1965, provides an illuminating illustration of how and why artists and their work can have and have had a significant impact on peace and solidarity movements. The article discusses the qualities of artistic production and its reception that can stimulate and sustain protest. Picasso’s Guernica provides an interesting parallel to the Vietnam Picture, and the two pictures are briefly compared.     

Restructuring the Post-Cold War World Economy: Perspectives and a Prognosis

In exploring the consequences of changes in Eastern Europe for Western Europe, the Third World and the global economic order, this article examines the need for economic management which is more solidly based on the new theory of international trade, and which extends beyond the national level. The rapidly deteriorating situation in Eastern Europe and the Gulf crisis both form valuable examples of the problems and opportunities ahead. There is a clear move towards the formation of regional blocs such as the European Community, the intention of which is to strengthen the industrial countries against the uncertainties and risks involved in the current reshaping of the world order by multipolarity, as well as in the growing nationalist tensions and movements for national independence. This article will argue that bloc formation is bound to either further marginalize the majority of developing countries, or increase their dependence on the few regional centres that are emerging.     

Europe and the Vietnam War: A Thirty-Year Perspective

Book reviewed:
Christopher Goscha and Maurice Vaïsse, eds. La guerre du Vietnam et l'Europe 1963–1973 . Brussels: Bruylant, 2003. xxviii + 491 pp. €40.00.     

Remembering and Fighting for Their Own: Vietnam Veterans and the Long Tan Cross

On the third anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1969, a simple but distinctive concrete cross was planted on the site of the battle to remember the eighteen Australian lives lost. The memorial cross was later toppled, lost and recovered but its physical form was never forgotten. In Australia, veterans made it a focus for their commemoration of all who served and died in the Vietnam War, replicating it across the country. This article analyses the complex motivations behind this process, revealing the Long Tan cross as a deeply personal symbol for Vietnam veterans and part of their fight for recognition in the aftermath of the war.