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March 29 was National Vietnam War Veterans Day and marked the 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of the last American troops from South Vietnam. As Americans prepare to commemorate the service and sacrifices of its Vietnam War veterans, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) is calling on Virginians with personal connections to the Vietnam War to share their stories for a new exhibition, planned to open at Richmond’s flagship state history museum in 2024.
To develop the exhibit through an extensive crowdsourced archive, the museum and its partners are seeking to include a range of individual voices in the exhibition. They welcome the reflections of any Virginian who experienced the war to participate: veterans; pro- and anti-war activists; Vietnamese American refugees; military family members; journalists, photographers, and artists.
VMHC has also enlisted the Rockbridge Historical Society (RHS) as one of 10 regional partners that continue to collaborate on its exhibit designs and program development.
RHS Executive Director Eric Wilson explains the larger aims, and local resource: “For both our community and the commonwealth, we count on the input of area residents, and their surviving families, to make this interactive account as inclusive and expansive as possible. As in most all reckonings with war, it’s crucial to candidly, broadly assess both the diverse causes and consequences of a conflict that proved a crucible for pride, pain, and protest.”
Col. M. Houston Johnson, head of the History Depart- ment at Virginia Military Institute who teaches a course on the arc of conflicts in Vietnam from 1945 to 1975, added: “At a half-century’s distance from those events, it’s more important than ever to recognize the profound manner in which the conflict -and its effects both at home and abroad – have shaped the past 50 years of American history. We owe it to ourselves to engage with that history, and the strong feelings that persist, to capture a diversity of experiences from individuals who experienced those events, in an effort to both remember and learn from the war. Doing so offers tangible benefits to future generations, particularly those individuals who hope to serve their country in military and/or government service.”
For greater convenience and representative reach, the interviews and transcriptions will be recorded here in Rockbridge, as with other community-based history organizations across the state. Importantly, they will be added to the VMHC’s oral history collection which is available to students, scholars, and the general public. Additional copies and transcriptions will be added to the Rockbridge Historical Society Collections, so that participants, family, and neighbors can also freely review them.
Individuals interested in contributing to this commemorative enterprise can learn more, and signal their preliminary interest, through the dedicated portal at VirginiaHistory.org/ VAVietnam.
Those interested are also asked to contact Wilson through Director@RockbridgeHistory. org or the RHS Facebook page, so that RHS can help coordinate the shared initiative, and its own series of publications and programming here.
“Virginia and the Vietnam War” will open to the public in Richmond on Nov. 23, 2024, and remain on view through April 27, 2025, three days before the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
