50 Years Later: Learnings from the Vietnam War

A Corporation-supported conference explores the impact of the Vietnam War on American political life, military strategy, race relations, and beyond

By Patricia Moore NicholasMay 31, 2023

Scholarship & Policy

Author and former Vietnam correspondent Peter Osnos (left) moderates a panel featuring former Washington Post correspondent Keith Richburg, Columbia University historian Lien-Hang Nguyen, and former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Raymond Burghardt. They discussed the status of postwar Vietnam. (Credit: William Atkins via GW Today)

On April 30, 1975, North Vietnam Army tanks charged through the presidential gates in the South Vietnam city of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Effectively, this event marked the end of the Vietnam War. Millions of lives were lost. Fifty years later, we continue to uncover the war’s impact.

Carnegie Corporation of New York, through its investment in the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University, supported a day-long conference “Vietnam: A 50 Year Retrospective" along with the university’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the Wallace Foundation. Streamed on C-SPAN on April 29, 2023, the conference featured five panels before an audience that mostly identified as having “some direct connection to the war in Vietnam” and university students.

The sessions were moderated by president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Daniel Weiss, author and former Vietnam correspondent Peter Osnos, and Thom Shanker, director of the Project for Media and National Security. The panelists covered everything from the need to demand ethical leadership from those in power to the ways that war can change a country’s perception of the military.

The first panel, titled “Vietnam War Reflections,” brought together retired U.S. Army Major General Paul Eaton, former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey. Describing the enduring impact of the war on their own lives, the panelists also debated the validity of comparing Vietnam to the Iraq war given variables such as the draft, the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and how the American public’s confidence in the government has evolved.

The panel “Writing About the Vietnam War” featured a conversation between four authors— professor of history and international affairs Robert Brigham, Vietnam veteran and reporter Philip Caputo, journalist and historian Frances Fitzgerald, and Harvard University professor of international affairs Fred Logevall. They discussed covering the Vietnam war on the ground, reflecting on it from both a historical and literary point of view. They considered the necessity of reporting on war as well as the difficulty of doing so without scaring people so much that they disengage.

Titled “Post-War Vietnam,” the third panel brought together Keith Richburg, former Washington Post foreign correspondent and current director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, historian Lien-Hang Nguyen, and former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam Raymond Burghardt. They reflected on the postwar normalization between countries, which they agreed demanded cooperation between militaries, law enforcement, and intelligence sharing. Panelists considered how, beyond any U.S. policy, increased Chinese aggression and Vietnam’s interests led to these developments.

Moderated by Thom Shanker, the panel “Beyond the War” covered topics ranging from women reporting on the war, the influence of media, and the treatment of veterans from Vietnam compared with those from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Former war correspondents Jim Sterba and Elizabeth Becker, along with author David Maraniss, discussed the conclusion of the war and drew parallels among antiwar protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, and ongoing fights for reproductive justice.

Lastly, the “War-Era Sounds and Images” panel explored photography, music, and poetry during and after the war. Photojournalist Mark Godfrey spoke about the disconnect between images from the time and what the government was saying. Lauren Onkey, the university's director of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, reflected on the pro-war and neutral music that existed at the same time as the era’s prominent rock’n’roll and antiwar music. Vietnam veteran Marcus Sullivan discussed the ways that music made Vietnam feel closer to Americans. The panel closed with an original poem by John Balaban and a recording of a traditional Vietnamese poem.

Learn more about the conference “Lessons from Vietnam: Why the War Still Resonates Today."