Vietnam and the Presidency Conference Schedule
Press Release · Saturday, March 11, 2006
Washington, DC
Friday, March 10 and
Saturday, March 11, 2006
John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum
Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
as of January 9, 2006
Friday, March 10
How We Got In: The United States, Asia, and Vietnam
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Professor George Herring, Alumni Professor of History, University of Kentucky, author of America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.
Professor Robert D. Schulzinger, Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder, author of A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975.
Professor Marilyn Young, Professor of History, New York University, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990.
Moderator, Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States.
Vietnam and Presidential Tapes
2:45 – 4:45 p.m.
On Johnson: Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss, author of The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964.
On Kennedy: Professor David Kaiser, Professor of Strategy and Policy, Naval War College, author of American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War.
On Nixon: Professor Jeffrey Kimball, Professor of History, Miami University, author of The Vietnam War Files: Uncovering the Secret History of Nixon-Era Strategy.
Moderator, Sharon Fawcett, Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries.
Keynote Speaker
5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize-winner for his coverage of the Vietnam War for The New York Times; author of The Best and The Brightest, the acclaimed critical history of how and why the United states went to war in Vietnam.
Saturday, March 11
Moderator, Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor, NBC Nightly News
The Media and the Role of Public Opinion
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Steve Bell, news correspondent for ABC News from 1967-1986, reported from Vietnam and Indo-China in the early ‘70s.
Frances Fitzgerald, non fiction author and journalist, received both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Fire In the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam.
Dan Rather, CBS News anchorman from 1981 to 2005 and 60 Minutes II correspondent; covered Vietnam for CBS News in the mid 1960s.
Inside the White House
10:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
General Alexander Haig commanded a battalion in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967; he was Military Assistant to President Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, eventually becoming Nixon’s White House Chief of Staff. He was Secretary of State from 1980 to 1981 under President Reagan.
The Honorable Henry Kissinger served as Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. He was President Nixon’s National Security Advisor from 1969 to 1973. He was a co-recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a ceasefire between South and North Vietnam.
Theodore Sorensen was Special Counsel to President Kennedy from 1960 to 1963. He is Senior Counsel for the New York City law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Jack Valenti was Special Assistant to President Johnson from 1963 to 1966. He was president of the Motion Picture Association from 1966 to 2004.
Lessons Learned
2:15 – 3:45 p.m.
The Honorable Chuck Hagel earned two Purple Hearts during his service in Vietnam. He is Nebraska’s senior U.S. senator.
Bob Herbert served in Korea in the 1960s. He has been an op ed columnist for The New York Times since 1993.
The Honorable Pete Peterson, a captain in the Vietnam War, was shot down in 1966 and remained a prisoner of war for six and a half years. He was the first American Ambassador appointed to Vietnam since the war.
This page was last reviewed on August 15, 2016.
Contact us with questions or comments.