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Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War

Date: October 16, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location: Wisconsin Veterans Museum
Sponsor: Please see event description for sponsor information.

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Overview:
Fewer Americans were captured or missing during the Vietnam War than in any previous major military conflict in U.S. history. Yet despite their small numbers, American POWs inspired an outpouring of concern that slowly eroded support for the war. Michael J. Allen reveals how wartime loss transformed U.S. politics well before, and long after, the war's official end. Throughout the war's last years and in the decades since, Allen argues, the effort to recover lost warriors was as much a means to establish responsibility for their loss as it was a search for answers about their fate. Equally important, he explains, POW/MIA families' disdain for the antiwar left and contempt for federal authority fueled the conservative ascendancy after 1968. Mixing political, cultural, and diplomatic history, Until the Last Man Comes Home presents the full and lasting impact of the Vietnam War in ways that are both familiar and surprising. Lecture and book signing.

A 2009 Dr. Richard H. Zeitlin Distinguished Lecture Series Event

Sponsors:
Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Department of History, Grand Strategy Program, and Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA)

A member program of the International Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
© 2009 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents | All Rights Reserved | Site Credit
Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: wage@intl-institute.wisc.edu