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Conference Call for Papers and Panels
“1968 and the Tet Offensive”
April 27-28, 2018, Lubbock Texas
The Vietnam Center and Archive (VNCA)
and the Institute for Peace & Conflict (IPAC) at Texas Tech
University are pleased to announce a conference focused on the year 1968
and the Tet Offensive. We expect in this conference to approach these
historical events in the broadest possible manner by hosting presenters
who examine diplomatic, military, international regional, and domestic
aspects of the Vietnam War during that year, as well as the strategic
and tactical decision-making and actions that led up to and followed the
Tet Offensive. This will include presentations that look at all
participants to include the US, RVN, DRV, NLF, and the numerous allies
and other nations involved. We will also strongly encourage
presentations that examine the antiwar and peace movements at home and
abroad, the efforts to support the war effort, and the efforts to end
the conflict through international diplomacy, as well as military and
diplomatic means in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Recent and emerging scholarship on the
Tet Offensive and on 1968, more broadly, is refocusing much needed
attention on some of the pivotal events that took place during that
fateful year. In late November 1967, General William Westmoreland
publicly conveyed his optimism regarding eventual US victory in Vietnam,
helping President Johnson to buoy flagging US popular and political
support for the war effort. In the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, as
fighting broke out in every major city throughout the entirety of South
Vietnam, many started to doubt the veracity of those previous claims,
including prominent politicians and members of the American media.
Attention within the US came to focus on some of the more brutal battles
that emerged as US Marines fought to retake Vietnam’s ancient Imperial
city in the Battle for Hue and they came under heavy fire during in the
Siege of Khe Sanh. As the fighting intensified in Vietnam, so it did in
the streets and on campuses across America, as critics of the war
continued their calls for an immediate US withdrawal and an end to the
war. So powerful was the effect of these events that on March 31,
President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection – adding
to the leadership changes already in play with the departure of Robert
McNamara as Secretary of Defense in late February and the emergence of
General Creighton Abrams and departure of General Westmoreland as
commander of US forces in Vietnam in June. The violence that year
included some of the most horrific wartime atrocities committed against
civilians in Vietnam, including the Hue Massacre and the My Lai
Massacre, while violence in the US claimed the lives of nationally
prominent figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F.
Kennedy. The presidential election that year witnessed last-minute
attempts by the Johnson administration to end the war in Vietnam
sabotaged by the Nixon campaign. By the end of 1968, approximately
550,000 Americans engaged in more than 200 major combat operations,
dropped more than 500,000 tons of bombs, and the overall financial costs
of the war for that year alone totaled approximately $20 Billion. 1968
resulted in the highest numbers of casualties in a single year with more
than 16,000 Americans and approximately 100,000 Vietnamese killed on
all sides. All the while, the North Vietnamese and NLF fought on. With a
new president and leadership team preparing to take over in January of
1969, innumerable questions remained as to whether a US victory could be
achieved in Vietnam.
This two-day conference will be hosted
at the MCM Elegante Hotel and Suites in Lubbock, Texas. Conference
organizers welcome both individual presentation proposals as well as
pre-organized panel proposals that include a moderator/commentator and
three individual presentations. Conference sessions will follow the
standard 90-minute format to include 60 minutes for presentations (20
minutes per presentation) followed by 30 minutes for questions and
discussion. Presentations by veterans are especially encouraged as are
presentations by graduate students. Graduate student travel grants will
be made available to select students. All presentations will be video
recorded and made publicly available after the conference via the
Vietnam Center and Archive website. Select papers may also be published
in a collection by the TTU Press.
Proposal submission deadline is January 15, 2018. Please submit a 250 word abstract and separate two-page CV/resume to 1968vietnamconference@gmail.com.
The program committee of Ron Milam, Steve Maxner, Justin Hart, Dave
Lewis, and Laura Calkins will evaluate all paper proposals and develop a
program that reflects the many remarkable aspects of 1968. If
submitting a panel proposal, please include separate abstracts for each
proposed presentation and CVs/resumes for each speaker.
Contact
Vietnam Center and Archive
Vietnam Center and Archive
- Address: Texas Tech University, Box 41041, Lubbock, TX 79409
- Phone: 806-742-9010 Fax: 806-742-0496
- Email: vnca@ttu.edu
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