The Spring 2010 issue of the Friends of the Vietnam Center newsletter is now available for download here.  Articles include a recap of the 2010 Conference on Counterinsurgency from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, an update from the Oral History Project, a call for papers for our upcoming symposium, and much more.  You can also view and download all previous issues of the newsletter at this link.

For those who served and those who sacrificed their lives for our country, thank you.  You have our sincerest gratitude and respect.  Happy Memorial Day from the Vietnam Center and Archive.

25 May 1984. The Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Era. Ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol where the body will lie in state until Memorial Day, May 28. Washington, D. C. David DeChant Collection VA031523

The Seventh Triennial Vietnam Symposium will take place on March 10-12, 2011, and will be held at the brand new Overton Hotel and Convention Center in Lubbock, Texas.

Vietnam Center symposia are open to presentations that examine any and all aspects of the United States involvement in Southeast Asia. This includes activities before, during, and after the war in Vietnam. Papers can examine any aspect of the experience to include early interaction and diplomacy, events and activities during the war to include military operations, humanitarian relief efforts, civic action and pacification, thematic issues to include social, political, cultural, and economic, the international dimensions of the war for all sides involved, activities in the US and elsewhere in support of or in opposition to the war, postwar issues, etc.

We encourage anyone interested in presenting a research paper to submit a one page proposal and a short CV for consideration. We also welcome panel proposals that include all speakers and a moderator. As always, graduate students are highly encouraged to submit proposals. Please format proposals to resemble an abstract to include the author’s name, title/affiliation, and contact information, along with proposed title, thesis/purpose, and main points. Please limit paper proposal length to a single page. For panel proposals, please limit each paper proposal within the panel to a single page. Submit all proposals electronically to VietnamCenterConference@ttu.edu. If you make an email submission but do not receive notification of receipt within seven days, please call 806-742-3742 and ask for Steve Maxner, Ph.D., Director, Vietnam Center and Archive.

The deadline for submitting proposals is October 15, 2010.

For updated information about the symposium, please visit http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2011_Symposium/

Thank you and we look forward to you joining us for this event.

The Vietnam Center and Archive now has its own channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/vietnamttu

The videos currently on our channel are unique, historical films from our collections and include:

-Film of U.S. soldiers spraying Agent Orange without protective equipment

-Scenes from the inauguration of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu

-Military Sentry Dog training

-Scenes from markets and villages in Southeast Asia during the war

-Film of an air show and military equipment

We hope that displaying our videos on YouTube will expose a larger audience to our vast collection of moving images concerning the Vietnam War. More videos will be added in the future so please check back periodically.

A travel guide produced by the Board of Tourist Industry, Japanese Government Railways, found in the Douglas Pike Collection: Indochina Archive (the collection is currently being processed and is scheduled to be made available to the public in the Spring) documents the plans for the Summer Olympic Games that were never held.     

As we watch the 2010 Winter Olympic Games taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from February 12th-28th, we revel in, applaud and admire the dedication, discipline, grace, and athleticism of our olympians, who symbolize and embody the international spirit of sportsmanship and national pride as they compete on a global level.

Ice Skater

As these Winter Games take place it is hard to imagine a time when the state of international relations prevented the Olympic games from taking place, but there was. In 1940, the Olympic games of the XII Olympiad were cancelled due to global war, World War II.

Fencing

The decision of where to hold the 1940 Summer Olympics had been a tumultuous one from the beginning. Japan and Italy quarreled over its location. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose Tokyo, Japan to host the Summer Olympics from September 21-October 6, 1940.

The IOC was forced to reverse its decision with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. The IOC chose Helsinki, Finland to host the games in lieu of Japan, untill the outbreak of World War II cancelled the 1940 Summer Olympic games altogether.

Olympic Stadium Plans

All issues of our newsletter, Friends of the Vietnam Center, are available for download on our website at this link: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/friends/newsletters.php

A sample of the old newsletter design (left) and the current one (right).

The Friends of the Vietnam Center newsletter is a quarterly, high quality, full color, award winning newsletter that provides news and updates about the Vietnam Center and Archive. Articles include exclusive in-depth interviews with collection donors and archive staff, information about our conferences and symposia, details about our diverse materials and how they are being used, updates on every aspect of our project, and much more.

The next issue of our newsletter will be released in May 2010.  If you would like to receive a printed copy of Friends in your mailbox, please consider joining our membership program.  The membership form can be found on this page: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/friends/

The registration form for our upcoming conference is available online: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2010_Conference/registration.php

Also, the special hotel rate has been extended to February 24th.  The reservation instructions are listed on our conference page here: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2010_Conference/

Conference Information:

2010 Vietnam Center Conference: Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost: Counterinsurgency from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan

Sponsored by:
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University
The Center for a New American Security

March 4th-5th, 2010
SAIS Kenney Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

“You have to learn from history,” President Obama recently observed. “On the other hand, each historical moment is different. You never step into the same river twice. And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam.” [New York Times, September 13, 2009]

Perhaps not. But Vietnam is certainly a reference point for many Americans as the war in Afghanistan approaches its ninth year. Comparing Vietnam and Afghanistan is a popular and sometimes lucrative undertaking for scores of historians, journalists and politicians. Google “Vietnam-Afghanistan” and you get about 36 million returns. Analogies abound; analysts debate. What are the lessons of Vietnam? What can we learn about counterinsurgency from our experience in Vietnam? Does Vietnam offer important insights to guide counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? Have we already applied our Vietnam experience in these conflicts? Or are Iraq and Afghanistan so unique as to defy comparison with past insurgencies?

This conference asks what we should have learned about counterinsurgency from Vietnam and whether, or how, these lessons are being exploited in today’s conflicts. Military experts and civilian analysts will debate these questions and more over two days at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies on March 4 and 5. You are most cordially invited to join the discussion

The agenda for our upcoming conference is now available here: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2010_conference/2010agenda.pdf

A registration form is being developed and will be available on our website soon. Please check our conference page periodically for updates: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2010_Conference/

Also, a block of hotel rooms has been reserved at a reduced rate of $99/night.  Please reserve your room by February 17th.  Reservation information available on our website: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2010_Conference/

Detailed conference information:

Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost: Counterinsurgency from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan

Sponsored by:
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University
& The Center for a New American Security

March 4th-5th, 2010
SAIS Kenney Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

“You have to learn from history,” President Obama recently observed. “On the other hand, each historical moment is different. You never step into the same river twice. And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam.” [New York Times, September 13, 2009]

Perhaps not. But Vietnam is certainly a reference point for many Americans as the war in Afghanistan approaches its ninth year. Comparing Vietnam and Afghanistan is a popular and sometimes lucrative undertaking for scores of historians, journalists and politicians. Google “Vietnam-Afghanistan” and you get about 36 million returns. Analogies abound; analysts debate. What are the lessons of Vietnam? What can we learn about counterinsurgency from our experience in Vietnam? Does Vietnam offer important insights to guide counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? Have we already applied our Vietnam experience in these conflicts? Or are Iraq and Afghanistan so unique as to defy comparison with past insurgencies?

This conference asks what we should have learned about counterinsurgency from Vietnam and whether, or how, these lessons are being exploited in today’s conflicts. Military experts and civilian analysts will debate these questions and more over two days at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies on March 4 and 5. You are most cordially invited to join the discussion.

The Vietnam Center and Archive is holding its annual Tet celebration today, Friday, February 12th from 3:00-5:00 at the Hall of Nations in the International Cultural Center at Texas Tech.  Please note that this is a new location for this event.  It is NOT being held in the Southwest Collection Building.  For a map to the International Cultural Center, please visit this link:

http://www.ttu.edu/campusMap/buildings/icc.php

Event information:

Friday, February 12, 2010
3:00-5:00pm
The Hall of Nations at the International Cultural Center
With a Presentation by the Vietnamese Student Association

Admission is free and open to the public.

The Vietnam Center cordially invites you to join us as we celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, on Friday, February 12, 2010. Please come sample Vietnamese cuisine and learn more about the rich heritage and culture that makes Vietnam so remarkable.

February 14, 2010 ushers in the Lunar Year of the Tiger. In Vietnam, one of 12 animals of the zodiac represents each year. The tiger is the third sign of the zodiac and symbolizes passion and integrity. Tigers are considered “king of the jungle” and are therefore protective of family and friends. It is said that people born in the year of the tiger are sensitive and respected, but can also be indecisive.

The Vietnamese people regard Tet as their most important holiday. Food preparation for Tet is very time consuming and often requires days of cooking and, prior to the celebrations, people clean, paint, and decorate their homes. People avoid cleaning during Tet so that good luck will not be “swept away.”

We hope you will be able to join us on February 12, 2010 as we celebrate this special event!

For more information, please call 742-3742.

Friday, February 12, 2010
3:00-5:00pm
The Hall of Nations at the International Cultural Center at Texas Tech
With a Presentation by the Vietnamese Student Association.

The Vietnam Center cordially invites you to join us as we celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, on Friday, February 12, 2010. Please come sample Vietnamese cuisine and learn more about the rich heritage and culture that makes Vietnam so remarkable.

February 14, 2010 ushers in the Lunar Year of the Tiger. In Vietnam, one of 12 animals of the zodiac represents each year. The tiger is the third sign of the zodiac and symbolizes passion and integrity. Tigers are considered “king of the jungle” and are therefore protective of family and friends. It is said that people born in the year of the tiger are sensitive and respected, but can also be indecisive.

The Vietnamese people regard Tet as their most important holiday. Food preparation for Tet is very time consuming and often requires days of cooking and, prior to the celebrations, people clean, paint, and decorate their homes. People avoid cleaning during Tet so that good luck will not be “swept away.”

We hope you will be able to join us on February 12, 2010 as we celebrate this special event!

For more information, please call (806) 742-3742