The Legacy of the Vietnam War

Night Sky With Exit Wounds examines the legacy of the Vietnam War on both global and personal levels. In "Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds," Vuong describes the anti-Vietnamese sentiments that cropped up in American culture during the Vietnam, and he uses the example of an audience cheering for John Wayne after he shoots a Vietnamese man in a film about the war. Americans came to view the Vietnamese as an enemy, and viewed them with distrust if not outright hatred. This shift in sentiments is one of the broader impacts of the war in America that Vuong examines, but he also looks at the impact Americans had in Vietnam. He references Agent Orange, the herbicide sprayed over Vietnam by the United States military during the Vietnam War, and which destroyed thousands of square miles of forest, and caused serious health issues for...