Soldiers’ Letters: the evolution in form and content of correspondence between the second South African and Vietnam wars. [abstract].

Abstract

One aspect of my research has been concerned with the changing form of war correspondence between soldiers and their families, as many of the ‘letters’ from soldiers during the Vietnam War are either physical tape recordings or their transcripts. Close attention has been paid to these records in an attempt to discover whether such changes in epistolary techniques or technology has changed the general content of the soldier’s letter. As such communication is continuing to evolve, seen by the popularity of email among current and recent soldiers, this has prompted interest in further – and more recent - research on the topic.