The war that seemed half a world away suddenly felt very close. Friends, neighbors, and colleagues began to feel the costs of war directly as casualties mounted. An army fighting with the most advanced technology available struggled to suppress a movement that promised freedom and self-determination to its followers. Daily, news of the devastation beamed directly to viewers around the world, a horror impossible to ignore as it unfolded in real-time. Columbia’s campus, unable to ignore the suffering abroad and its nation’s involvement, rose in anger—at the war and, at times, seemingly at itself.
US involvement in the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago this year. The consequences of that war—for the Vietnamese people, US and Vietnamese combat veterans, and society—linger. The war tested the limits of American military power abroad. At home, the war brought new forms of protest to campuses across the country. In many ways, we live, work, and study on a campus shaped by war.
This seminar considers the literature of and related to the US war in Vietnam. We’ll read poetry, prose, memoir, and make time for some film. The seminar will begin with accounts of the war abroad. Our second meeting considers the reaction against the war at home. From there, we’ll look at reflections on the war in the decades that followed. We’ll conclude with recent events, asking how thinking of the US involvement in the Vietnam War and the protests against it might help us understand some of Columbia’s responses—student, faculty, and administrative—to the ongoing war in Palestine. What kinds of continuities can we uncover between the campus’ response to the Vietnam War and its engagement with the war in Gaza? How did (and does) Columbia’s position as a leading university influence domestic political discourse? How might literary engagements with this earlier moment of conflict help us navigate the current day with passion and empathy?