In the 1960s, concern over the expansion of Soviet ideology through its satellite states led the U.S. to escalate its involvement in the country of Vietnam. With the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to increase the American military presence in Vietnam. This war would drag on for years, claiming the lives of over 58,000 American servicemen and wounding hundreds of thousands more. The Vietnam War led to fundamental shifts in American domestic life, including the rise of protest movements on college campuses.
What have been the long-term effects of the Vietnam War on the American psyche? Is the war remembered as a failure, a success, or something else? How did the war alter domestic life, both during its course and in its aftermath? How did the conclusion of the war alter U.S. foreign policy?
The webinar features Pierre Asselin, Professor of History and Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations at San Diego State University; Larry Berman, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California, Davis; and Mark Lawrence, Associate Professor of History at University of Texas at Austin. You find a list of their publications by clicking here.
Photo by The Tribune / SEARCH Foundation - Tribune negatives collection, State Library of New South