Vietnam War

New York workers, angered by the Mayor's apparent anti-Vietnam-War sympathies, wave American flags as they march in a demonstration near City Hall in New York City on May 15, 1970.

The 'Hard Hat Riot' of 1970 Pitted Construction Workers Against Anti-War Protesters

The Kent State shootings further widened the chasm among a citizenry divided over the Vietnam War

Anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University run as National Guardsmen fire tear gas and bullets into the crowd.

How 13 Seconds Changed Kent State University Forever

The institution took decades to come to grips with the trauma of the killing of four students 50 years ago

A WWII Airman's Son Tracks Down His Father's Last Mission—to Destroy a Nazi Weapon Factory

The impact of one heroic flight would take decades to reconcile

U.S. Army Pvt. John McGrath survived the bullet that scarred this letter he penned during the liberation of Italy.

The Unprecedented Effort to Preserve a Million Letters Written by U.S. Soldiers During Wartime

A tragedy at home led one intrepid historian to find and catalog precious correspondence for future generations to study

A man smokes a cigarette as he talks to an armored guard at a protest in People’s Park circa May, 1969, in Berkeley, California.

Scenes From 50 Years Ago This Spring, When Americans Turned Out to Protest the Vietnam War

In Los Angeles, Boston and New York, students and veterans alike challenged the government’s ongoing support for the lengthy war

"Tiffany Chung's exhibition opens our eyes to a history hidden in plain sight, illuminating the war and its aftermath from the perspective of those who lived through it," says curator Sarah Newman.

For Tiffany Chung, Finding Vietnam’s Forgotten Stories Began as a Personal Quest

To map the post-war exodus, the artist turned to interviews and deep research, starting with her own father’s past

Mi Vida by Jesse Treviño, 1971-73

How American Artists Engaged with Morality and Conflict During the Vietnam War

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new show documents the turbulent decade and the provocative dialog happening in a diverse art community

Northern Mountains, 2005

A Veteran Returns to Vietnam, Photographs the Country and Comes to Peace With His Wartime Experience

Trading in his rifle for a camera, photographer Chuck Forsman captures the country's resiliency in a new book

Operation Ranch Hand has led to a multi-generational health crisis and an environmental catastrophe.

Court Rules 'Blue Water' Vietnam Veterans Are Eligible for Agent Orange Benefits

Sailors had long been excluded from health benefits related to the dioxin-tainted herbicide the military spread during the war

Mary Beth and John Tinker display their black armbands in 1968, over two years after they wore anti-war armbands to school and sparked a legal battle that would make it all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Young Anti-War Activists Who Fought for Free Speech at School

Fifty years later, Mary Beth Tinker looks back at her small act of courage and the Supreme Court case that followed

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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

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

Headlines from <em>The New York Times</em> 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.

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

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