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Vietnam War

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Photographer shooting Henry Kissinger on Air Force One.

Notes From the Front

Henry Kissinger’s Vietnam diary shows that he knew the war was lost a decade before it ended.
by Thomas A. Bass via The American Scholar on December 4, 2023
US Marines marching in Da Nang, Vietnam, 1965.

How Israel Is Borrowing From the US Playbook in Vietnam

Justifying civilian casualties has a long history.
by Branko Marcetic via The Nation on November 14, 2023
Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Division disembark from a helicopter during the Division's withdrawal from Vietnam.

The Many Ends of the Vietnam War

When do wars end, and who gets to decide? These deceptively simple questions are actually quite difficult to answer.
by Amanda C. Demmer via Process: A Blog for American History on April 25, 2023
Vietnam solider exhibit at the Nixon Library.
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The Nixon Library's Vietnam Exhibition Obscures the Truth About the War's End

The Nixon White House Tapes tell a different story.
by Brian Robertson via HNN on March 19, 2023
U.S. Air Force plane dropping bombs
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After 50 Years, the Truth About the Vietnam Peace Agreement Remains Elusive

The Pentagon's official history says that a heavy bombardment by B-52s in 1972 pushed the North Vietnamese to return to negotiated peace. What are the facts?
by Arnold Isaacs via HNN on October 23, 2022
Lyndon Johnson sitting in Cabinet meeting

Juxtaposing Liberal Nationalism and International Politics: Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam War

How and why did Johnson consider American military involvement in Vietnam a worthwhile cause that would benefit American interests and the lives of the American people?
by Zachary Clary via JHI Blog on April 4, 2022

‘The Temperature in Saigon Is 105 and Rising’

What I learned about American power watching the U.S. leave Vietnam — and then Afghanistan decades later.
by Phil Caputo via Politico Magazine on August 21, 2021
A helicopter hovers over a building.
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The U.S. Failed to Learn the Lesson of Vietnam. Will it Learn From Afghanistan?

The U.S. can’t win wars for countries.
by Andrew Wiest via Made by History on August 16, 2021
Guard checking pockets of American soldier prisoners

Prisoners of War

During the war in Vietnam, there was a notorious American prison on the outskirts of Saigon: a prison for American soldiers.
via Radio Diaries on August 12, 2021
A bombing strike

Ho Chi Bear & The Ravens

Drummed out of Vietnam, misfit American pilots were given a choice-- face the music of military justice or go where oddballs and rule breakers were appreciated.
by Lucas Reilly via Medium on November 20, 2019

How the U.S. Departure From Afghanistan Could Echo Kissinger's Moves in Vietnam

The way America is ending its War in Afghanistan is comparable to how it pulled out of the conflict in Vietnam.
by David E. Kaiser via Time on February 6, 2019
The April 1966 cover of “Ramparts," featuring a caricature of Madame Nhu dressed as a Michigan State University cheerleader

The University That Launched a CIA Front Operation in Vietnam

A Vietnamese politician and an American academic led Michigan State University into a nation-building experiment and pulled America deeper into war.
by Eric Scigliano via Politico Magazine on March 25, 2018

How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government

Fifty years ago, the January 1968 battle laid bare the way U.S. leaders had misled the public about the war in Vietnam.
by Julian E. Zelizer via The Atlantic on January 15, 2018

What the Press and 'The Post' Missed

Leslie Gelb supervised the team that compiled the Pentagon Papers. He explains what Steven Spielberg's new film gets wrong.
by Brooke Gladstone, Leslie Gelb via WNYC on January 12, 2018

The Ghosts of My Lai

In the hamlet where U.S. troops killed hundreds of civilians, survivors are ready to forgive the most infamous American soldier.
by Shaun Raviv via Smithsonian on January 6, 2018

The Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary Glosses Over Devastating Civilian Toll

The PBS series by Burns focuses on soldiers' stories, with scant attention to the immense number of Vietnamese civilians who suffered and died.
by Nick Turse via The Intercept on September 28, 2017

The Vietnam War Transcript Trump Needs to Read

The PBS documentary on America’s most futile conflict is missing one explosive document. Every president should absorb its chilling lessons.
by Jeff Greenfield via Politico Magazine on September 27, 2017
Billy Graham at a speaker's podium (Photo by Ninian Reid).

The Preacher and Vietnam: When Billy Graham Urged Nixon to Kill One Million People

The disclosure of Billy Graham's recommendation of war crimes did not exicte any commotion.
by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair via CounterPunch on September 27, 2017
Magazine comic image of soldiers in Vietnam.

Comics Captured America's Growing Ambivalence About the Vietnam War

Comics were able to reflect changing views on the conflict in a way few other popular culture forms could.
by Cathy Schlund-Vials via The Conversation on September 20, 2017
Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

‘The Vietnam War’: Past All Reason

The new series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is mesmerizing. But it doesn’t answer key questions about the Vietnam War.
by Andrew J. Bacevich via The Nation on September 19, 2017
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Exhibit

Vietnam in American Memory

America's involvement in Vietnam remains a contested historical landscape: how should the conflict be remembered, and who has the right to tell the stories?

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