Vol.25 No.1 and Other Milestones
This issue of Vietnam is the first of our 25th year of publication. In 1988, retired Army colonel and founding editor Harry G. Summers Jr. wrote in the premier issue: “Perplexing and baffling the Vietnam War may well be, but we do not believe that it is inexplicable. The goal we have set for Vietnam magazine is to find the key to unlock that enigma. And we think it can be found in an exploration of the complexities that made the war unique.”
Colonel Summers, whose seminal On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War remains one of the most important books on the war, defied those who predicted a magazine about what was then the nation’s longest war—not to mention most unpopular—wouldn’t last long. He realized there remained far too many unanswered questions, too many holes in the historical record and too many untold stories of the men and women who fought in the war. Until his untimely death in 1999, Colonel Summers ensured Vietnam was always providing a platform for scholars to bring forward new findings and perspectives and was delivering the war’s “many truths” from the heralded and unheralded alike who were on the ground. We are still committed to that mission 25 years later.
As Colonel Summers was preparing Vol. 1, No. 1 of Vietnam in early 1988, Marine veteran Ray Manzo was setting into motion another Vietnam-related endeavor that has also stood the test of time. This Memorial Day weekend’s 25th Rolling Thunder Demonstration Run is expected to draw a million participants, far beyond anything Manzo could have imagined in 1988. Inside this issue, we are proud to present the Rolling Thunder XXV Official Guide, where you will find Manzo’s compelling story and much more about the event dedicated to Vietnam’s POWs and MIAs.
Army Lt. Gen. Mick Kicklighter served two tours in Vietnam and, as Saigon was about to fall in April 1975, joined Colonel Summers on a secret mission to evaluate the situation for President Gerald Ford. Today, General Kicklighter has one more Vietnam mission as head of the Defense Department’s 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Vietnam War. In an exclusive interview, General Kicklighter talks about his Vietnam service and the decade-long commemoration, which gets a boost Memorial Day as an official proclamation is made at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
And, 40 years ago this June 8, Associated Press photographer Nick Ut took a picture of a badly burned 9-year-old girl fleeing a napalm strike on her village. Ut’s photo became one of the war’s, and the century’s, most iconic images. Marking the 40th anniversary of that moment, Hal Buell recalls how Ut’s photo came to be and tells the inspiring “rest of the story” of Nick Ut and Kim Phuc, the “Napalm Girl.”
Originally published in the June 2012 issue of Vietnam Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
