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Books > History > American history > From 1900
When former president Lyndon B. Johnson opened the LBJ Presidential
Library in May 1971, he proclaimed, "It's all here, the story of
our time-with the bark off." Accordingly, he wanted his library to
reflect not only the triumphs of his administration, but the
failures, too-and he wanted us to learn from them to build a better
future for our country. In keeping with President Johnson's vision,
the LBJ Library took a substantive, unvarnished look at the Vietnam
War, with the goal to shed new light on the war and the lessons it
provides. The passage of years offers greater perspective on the
complexities of a war that altered not only our history but our
perception of ourselves as a nation. The result was the Vietnam War
Summit, an intensive three-day conference in April 2016 that
brought together policy makers, scholars, reporters, photographers,
musicians, and importantly, those who were on the front lines of
the war and the antiwar movement. In conjunction with the
conference, the library displayed a half-scale replica of the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Twice each day during the summit, ceremonies recognized Vietnam War
veterans. A War Remembered features photographs and documentation
from the Vietnam War Summit, but also includes a number of historic
photographs from both the LBJ Library and the Briscoe Center for
American History, offering a diverse perspective on the conflict
that defined a generation.
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Duong Van Mai Elliott's The
Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving
together the stories of the lives of four generations of her
family. Beginning with her great-grandfather, who rose from rural
poverty to become an influential landowner, and continuing to the
present, Mai Elliott traces her family's journey through an era of
tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her
grandmother's silk shop, and of hiding while French troops torched
her village, watching while blossoms torn by fire from the trees
flutter "like hundreds of butterflies" overhead. She makes clear
the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest
sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet
Minh, and spent months sleeping in jungle camps with her infant
son, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows
several family members through the last, desperate hours of the
fall of Saigon-including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing
the skid of a departing American helicopter. Based on family
papers, dozens of interviews, and a wealth of other research, this
is not only a memorable family saga but a record of how the
Vietnamese themselves have experienced their times.
BLOODY MAMA BLUES captures the war behind the war in Vietnam.
Corruption, black market dealings, prostitution, drugs, and easy
money proved seductive to countless American soldiers. Lieutenant
Mike Hardy expects to serve an honorable tour of duty as an
infantry officer. Instead, he is thrown into a cauldron of evil.
BLOODY MAMA BLUES explores the underside of the Vietnam experience,
and the irreparable damage suffered by a generation of young men
and women.
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