Abstract

This article explores how one female photographer, Georgette ‘Dickey’ Chapelle (1918–1965), used children’s emotions as visual and rhetorical justification for early ‘advisory’ actions in Vietnam by the United States, situating the presence of U.S. Marines in Vietnam as ‘humanitarian’. Children are a common subject for ‘humanitarian photography’, mobilising an emotional response and justifying certain actions as humanitarian (Fehrenbach and Rodogno, Humanitarian Photography: A History. Cambridge University Press, 2015). War photography studies have explored the creation of a ‘humanitarian soldier' to justify colonising conflicts in the twenty-first century (Parry, Media, Culture and Society 33 (8): 1185–1201, 2011; Kotilainen, “Humanitarian Soldiers, Colonialised Others and Invisible Enemies-Visual Strategic Communication Narratives of the Afghan War.” FIIA Working Paper, 2011). This paper brings these ideas to a case study from the Vietnam War era, emphasising the role of emotional constructions in the production of such ‘humanitarian’ interpretations of military activity. In her article for National Geographic, “Helicopter War in Viet Nam,” Chapelle focused on interactions between uniformed American men and Vietnamese children, whom she portrayed as grateful recipients of airlifts, clothing and medical treatment. Chapelle used children to symbolise South Vietnam, reflecting political discourses in the United States that presented Vietnam as a ‘childlike’ nation in need of ‘rescue’. While many photographs of children from the Vietnam War era were used as evidence of the moral indefensibility of the conflict, this paper argues that Chapelle’s photographs from the Mekong Delta in 1962 portray Vietnam as ‘childlike’ to justify American intervention in Vietnam as ‘humanitarian’.

摘要

本文探讨了一位女性摄影师 Georgette 'Dickey' Chapelle (1918–1965) 如何利用儿童的情绪作为美国早期在越南的“咨询”行动的视觉和修辞理由，将美国海军陆战队在越南的存在视为“人道主义”。儿童是“人道主义摄影”的常见主题，调动情绪反应并将某些行动证明是人道主义的（Fehrenbach 和 Rodogno，人道主义摄影：历史。剑桥大学出版社，2015 年）。战争摄影研究探索了创造“人道主义士兵”以证明 21 世纪的殖民冲突是正当的（招架、媒体、文化和社会33 (8): 1185–1201, 2011; Kotilainen，“人道主义士兵、被殖民化的其他人和无形的敌人——阿富汗战争的视觉战略传播叙事”。FIIA 工作文件，2011 年）。本文将这些想法带到越南战争时期的案例研究中，强调情感建构在对军事活动的这种“人道主义”解释的产生中的作用。在她为国家地理杂志撰写的文章中, “越南的直升机战争”，Chapelle 专注于穿制服的美国男子和越南儿童之间的互动，她将他们描绘成空运、服装和医疗的感恩接受者。夏贝尔用儿童来象征南越，反映了美国的政治话语，将越南描述为一个需要“拯救”的“孩子气”的国家。虽然许多越南战争时期儿童的照片被用作冲突在道德上站不住脚的证据，但本文认为，沙佩尔 1962 年在湄公河三角洲拍摄的照片将越南描绘成“孩子气”，以证明美国对越南的干预是“人道主义的” .