Just before Veterans Day, we participated in an unusual staff ride that examined the domestic front of the Vietnam War. We joined our students and colleagues from the Strategic Studies program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in portraying the presidents and protesters, the generals and journalists, and the senators and students who shaped the course of the war here at home. We made presentations in character outside the White House, on Capitol Hill, outside the Washington bureau of The New York Times, and at the Lincoln Memorial. We marched to the Pentagon across Memorial Bridge and reflected quietly at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Two of our faculty members portrayed their 1960s selves: one who served as a junior Army intelligence officer in Vietnam, and another who flew as an Air Force forward air controller in the conflict. Both frequently interjected their memories of the period, serving as an important balance to some of the darker narratives.
Read Full Article »
