Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Vietnam War

None

Introducing Our Special Issue on America at War

The nation’s epic, expanding fight against terrorism overseas

A mid-level solar flare captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2017.

Did a Huge Solar Storm Detonate Deep Sea Mines During the Vietnam War?

Dozens of underwater devices seemed to explode without cause in 1972

A U.S. Marine carries an American flag on his rifle during a recovery operation in summer 1968

1968: The Year That Shattered America

How the Fourth of July Was Celebrated (and Protested) in 1968

Headlines from The New York Times reveal how the nation and the world commemorated Independence Day in what had already been a tumultuous year

Trade union workers participate in a mass demonstration at the Place de la Republique, Paris, May. 24, 1968

Fifty Years Later, France Is Still Debating the Legacy of Its 1968 Protests

In an activist era, millions of French students and workers demanded radical change

View of two farmers checking the corpses of dead sheep on a farm ranch near the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons

The Dugway sheep incident of March 1968 made visible the military’s covert attempts to test and stockpile millions of dollars worth of chemical weapons

This Major Military Operation Ignited the Vietnam War

By 1965, the U.S. initiated a military deployment, Operation Rolling Thunder, to help South Vietnam defend its independence

Johnson pressed his ear to this humble cup to hear the tap code messages of his friend Bob Shumaker in the next cell over.

The Indomitable Spirit of American POWs Lives On in These Vietnam Prison Keepsakes

For seven years an internee at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” Congressman Sam Johnson entrusts his story to the Smithsonian

A North American F-100D Super Sabre drops a napalm bomb near Bien Hoa, South Vietnam, 1967.

This Fighter Jet Turned the Tide During Vietnam’s Decisive Tet Offensive

More than five decades ago, America won this huge battle, but lost the war

Locals cross a small wooden foot bridge in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, just downriver from the My Lai Massacre in 1968.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

The Ghosts of My Lai

In the hamlet where U.S. troops killed hundreds of men, women and children, survivors are ready to forgive the most infamous American soldier of the war

A Timeline of 1968: The Year That Shattered America

The nation is still reckoning with the changes that came in that fateful year

A new dragon statue guards the Citadel in Hue, seized by northern forces during the 1968 Tet Offensive but then recaptured in some of the fiercest combat of the Vietnam War.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

Revisiting Vietnam 50 Years After the Tet Offensive

The battles of 1968 are long over. But the struggle to confront the truth goes on

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in "The Post."

What The Post Gets Right (and Wrong) About Katharine Graham and the Pentagon Papers

A Smithsonian historian reminds us how Graham, a Washington socialite-turned-publisher, transformed the paper into what it is today

The October 21, 1967 March on the Pentagon is remembered as one of the most significant political demonstrations of the era.

Fifty Years Ago, a Rag-Tag Group of Acid-Dropping Activists Tried to “Levitate” the Pentagon

The March on the Pentagon to end the Vietnam War began a turning point in public opinion, but some in the crowd were hoping for a miracle

An engraving from later in the 1880s shows rioters burning an orphanage for black children.

The Civil War Draft Riots Brought Terror to New York’s Streets

This dark event remains the largest civil insurrection—the Civil War itself aside—in American history

A Panel from the Marvel Comics series ‘The 'Nam.’

How Comics Captured America’s Opinions About the Vietnam War

More than any other medium, comics closely followed the narrative arc of the conflict, from support to growing ambivalence

The Homefront During the Vietnam War, As Told By One Captivating Photo

In an indelible picture taken 50 years ago, one family faces a loss in Vietnam

The National Portrait Gallery commissioned a poem from the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa for the museum's new exhibition, "The Face of Battle."

A New Poem is Commissioned to Honor the Soldiers Who Fight America’s Wars

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa writes “After the Burn Pits” for the National Portrait Gallery

Marilyn Leistner, who was the last mayor of Times Beach, stands next to a caution sign erected in front of the town in 1991, not long before the town was bulldozed and buried.

How Agent Orange Turned This American Small Town Into a Toxic Waste-Ridden Deathtrap

“Walking into the houses, many of them were like people had just simply stood up, walked out and never come back”

Nixon campaigning during the 1968 election

Trending Today

Notes Indicate Nixon Interfered With 1968 Peace Talks

Documents from aide seem to confirm long-time speculation that Nixon tried to scuttle a Vietnam peace deal to help his presidential campaign

A foundry in Phonsavan, Xieng Khouang province in Laos has processed over 85,000 live bombs to date. The country is still riddled with unexploded ordnance—a legacy of the United States' nine-year secret war.

Trending Today

Why the U.S. Is Pledging Millions to Clean Up Bombs in Laos

Decades later, a once-secret war still threatens Laotians

Page 3 of 4