To mark this occasion as well as the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, this session brings together six contributors and editors to The Cambridge History alongside two scholars with extensive experience teaching about the war. The session seeks to inform about the latest historiography, to complicate and transcend earlier waves of scholarship about the Vietnam War, and to suggest how it could be taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

After a brief introduction by Tuan Hoang (volume 3 contributor), the next five speakers will spend seven minutes each addressing some of the themes and topics in this history. Lien-Hang Nguyen (general editor) will describe the scope of this history and the selection of subject matters. Edward Miller (volume 1 editor) will then speak about the background that led to competing models of nation-building among Vietnamese, and the transformation of an initially peaceful rivalry between the two Vietnams into a violent conflict. Following Miller, Andrew Preston (volume 2 editor) will address how historians have reinterpreted the domestic and international aspects of the conflict while calling attention to previously neglected groups of participants.

To balance the “big” pictures presented by the editors, two contributors will discuss more specific topics based on their chapters. Van Nguyen-Marshall (volume 1 contributor) will present on the actions and reactions of the state as well as non-state actors in South Vietnam. Jessica Frazier (volume 3 contributor) will address the subject of anti-war movements during the war. Following the presenters, Anne Foster, a specialist on U.S. foreign relations, will focus on how the new scholarship should impact perspectives on the American experiences of the war. Conversely, Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, a specialist on modern Vietnamese thought and culture, will reflect on the Vietnamese experiences as reflected in the new scholarship.

In all, the panelists will speak for 60 minutes, and the remaining 30 minutes will be spent engaging with the audience and one another. While it is impossible to cover all important topics in The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War in one ninety-minute session, this panel seeks to stimulate thinking and rethinking about the war as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of its ending. It is done in the hope of seeing this war as a complex and multifaceted history that left many legacies–from postwar refugees, to memorialization and commemoration by different sides, to Vietnam’s relations with China and the U.S. today--that are very much relevant to the world.