• SUVANNABHUMI
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 2020

The 1968 Huế Massacre is a horrifying event rarely mentioned today in Vietnamese history and mass media. It is forgotten perhaps because it is simply indescribable. This study reads a song by Vietnamese musician Trịnh Công Sơn, where he attempted to chronicle the catastrophic images of the massacre. We use the notion of symbolic death in psychoanalysis to interpretation of the song, and shed a new light on how it captured this historical event which eludes understanding.