Unhappy Anniversary: The Consequences of Vietnam for American Policy and Society

Twenty-five years ago, helicopters lifted off the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, bearing away the last Americans from that failed war.

On the 25^th anniversary of the dramatic evacuation, The Brookings Institution presents a forum to examine the consequences of Vietnam during the ensuing quarter century.

The forum will discuss the “lessons of Vietnam” as applied to American foreign and defense policies. It will also focus on the lasting impact of that divisive period on such aspects of our society as popular culture, citizen activism, attitudes toward authority and duty, racial and gender equality, and the role of the news media.

The stage for the discussion will be set by keynote speaker David Halberstam, an early Vietnam war correspondent and later a best-selling chronicler of U.S. policy during the war as well as of American society since.

A panel comprising well-known observers of American society along with experts on military and diplomatic affairs will then examine the impact of a war that ended 25 years ago but still exerts a strong influence on American life and U.S. policy today.