ABSTRACT
To survey many and varied topographical sites of memory that serve as very public places where the Cold War has been and continues to be remembered, this chapter is built around eight case studies. It commences in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where victimization is a cornerstone of the politics of the past. It then sweeps across Eastern Europe, exploring how the Cold War is commemorated publicly in Prague, Budapest, and Warsaw – all capitals of former Warsaw Pact nations that followed very similar westward orbits into the NATO/EU constellation following the collapse of communism. Whereas all these eastern European examples experienced notable Cold War ‘flashpoints’ in their own unique ways, Hanoi is examined as a city in which the era is remembered for having been truly ‘hot’. The Vietnamese case also differs inasmuch as it offers a national story in which the East emerged victorious over the West. Next, two initiatives based in Washington DC and nearby Vint Hill, in Northern Virginia, are scrutinized as long-running yet ultimately floundering attempts to memorialize the Cold War through the prism of American-led western triumphalism. Here, chronic problems faced when trying to raise public support and private funding over the past two decades indicate that, even in and around the nation’s capital, Cold War warriors experience difficulties in drumming up support for memorializing the United States’ ‘victory against evil communism’. And, finally, the chapter finishes with a detailed exploration of a privately operated Cold War museum based in California. Growing out of remarkably organic beginnings, it has become an unbridled success story that demonstrates the potential for increasingly innovative approaches to remembering the Cold War in the twenty-first century. Coverage of all eight case studies that feature in this chapter is heavily based on recent field research.
