UMass Amherst Plays Role as Sponsor as US and Vietnamese Historians Gather to Discuss the Legacies of War at Two-Day Conference in Hanoi

American and Vietnamese scholars will gather at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi for a two-day conference on Jan. 9 and 10, 2024 on “The Legacies of the American War in Viet Nam.” A dozen scholars from each nation will discuss the war and its consequences. 

The U.S. sponsors of the conference are the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and George Washington University’s Partnership for International Strategies in Asia (PISA).  

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Topics will include the political, social and cultural forces on all sides of the war; the causes of the U.S. defeat; the role and significance of the antiwar movements, both within the U.S. military and the general population; the impact of the war on the foreign policy of each nation; and the social, political, cultural, economic and environmental legacies of the war. 

Participants from the United States are: Christian G. Appy, UMass Amherst; Larry S. Berman,  University of California, Davis; David Cortright, University of Notre Dame; Shawn Driscoll, UMass Lowell; Mary L. Dudziak, Emory University; Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University; Peter Kuznick, American University; Edwin A. Martini, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, University of Alaska, Southeast; Derek Seidman, Rutgers University; Andrew Wells-Dang, United States Institute of Peace; Thomas E. Wilber, independent scholar; and Linda J. Yarr, George Washington University. 

Leading up to the conference, a delegation of the Americans, including two American combat veterans, will visit eight Vietnamese universities —from the Mekong Delta in the south to the mountains north of Hanoi — presenting the Vietnamese language edition of Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War, published by Vietnam’s War Remnants Museum.