The problem of commemoration is an important aspect of the sociology of culture because it bears on the way society conceives its past. This writing on the Vietnam Commemoration of War deals with the way society integrates past events that are less than glorious and whose memory induces disagreement instead of agreement. The Vietnam War differed from other wars because it was politically controversial and morally questionable and resulted in defeat; it bring to mind other wars because it called out in participants the traditional virtues of courage, self-sacrifice, and honour. Representing these contrasting aspects of the war in a single monument was framed by the pressure between contrasting memorial types. Focusing on the broad field out
