Vietnam: A country, not a war: Harvard president
President of Harvard University, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust had a speech about the war between Vietnam and the US during a visit to the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities on March 23.
President of Harvard University, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, speaks at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities on March 23.
Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust shared that she worked as a scholar and teacher of history for more than three decades before becoming president of Harvard, so she was happy to be at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, one of Vietnam’s preeminent centres for historical study. In her speech, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust said that it meant a great deal to her to be in Vietnam, for important parts of the two countries' histories.
"What you know as the War of National Salvation Against the Americans—what we call “Vietnam”—indelibly shaped those of us coming of age in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s," she said. "Even though I never came within 8,000 miles of your country during those years, its names and places have reverberated in my mind for decades: Khe Sanh, Pleiku, Ap Bac, Dien Bien Phu, Gulf of Tonkin, Da Nang, Hue, Saigon, Hanoi. I have long wanted to make at least some of those names more than words. You have a slogan directed at tourists: “Vietnam: A Country, Not a War.” Like so many other Americans who have travelled here, I have wanted to make Vietnam into a place in my mind—not the name of a conflict that overtook my generation of young Americans, but a society and nation with all its complexity, its beauty, its history, its vibrancy, and its promise."
Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust recalled the war time when she was young: "American men of my generation confronted the military draft, which cast many into a struggle of conscience about whether they would comply with laws that required them to serve in a war they believed unwise and unjust. For young women, like me, the dilemma was less immediately personal, but it propelled us to ask unsettling questions about our nation, our democracy, and our very humanity. Michael Herr, a journalist from the United States who covered the war, once wrote that Vietnam is “what we had instead of happy childhoods.”
"Each May at Harvard, hundreds of former students return to campus to mark the 50th anniversary of their graduation. This is an important annual ritual, and this spring, a special event will take place within the customary set of observances. Members of the class of 1967—both men and women—will devote a segment of their time together to remembering the way the War defined their College years and discussing how what they call “Vietnam” has affected them for over half a century. As one class member who served as a Marine writes, “Many in my . . . generation made choices about Vietnam that . . . have haunted us, in dreams and awake, for the rest of our lives.”,"she added.
Talking about the consequences of the war, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust pointed out that 58,220 American soldiers died, compared to more than an estimated 3 million Vietnamese military and civilian deaths during the Second Indochina War. But both societies live with ghosts, with memories, and with legacies. With the aftermath.
"I was not a member of the Harvard class that will have its reunion this spring, but I am close to their age, and like them, I was shaped by the war in ways I am sure I still do not fully understand," she said. "But one influence I can clearly identify has been upon my work as a historian. Coming of age in the 1960s produced in me an enduring fascination with war, with the way its terrible demands can define individuals and societies, with war’s inevitable refraction of ideas and ideals, with the extremity of its pressures. War often proves to be the quintessential “moment of truth,” both for individuals and their societies."
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