Provocative New Vietnam War Exhibit at WW I Museum Through July
Published November 8th, 2019 at 4:09 PM
(Editor’s note: The Vietnam War exhibit run at the WWI Museum has been extended to July 26 because of the museum’s temporary closure due to Covid-19 health restrictions)
By Kevin Collison
An unvarnished account of the Vietnam War, from the Cold War domino theory that hooked the U.S. in the 1950s, to a baby sweater left by a grieving mother at the Vietnam Memorial in 1990, is at the World War I Museum.
“This exhibit should help people think about what happened,” said Matt Naylor, CEO and president of the museum.
“It’s not a myopic view, but a balanced view that will examine the conflict from a variety of angles and will stimulate conversations around that.”
Kansas City is only one of three cities in the nation where “The Vietnam War: 1945-1975” exhibition will be shown. It was organized two years ago by the New-York Historical Society, and was exhibited in that city and Pittsburgh before coming here.
The exhibition blends interactive maps of the U.S. and Vietnam where visitors can learn about the war from different perspectives, and artifacts including a bicycle that ferried supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and hundreds of Zippo cigarette lighters issued to GIs.
This Zippo lighter bears the feeling of its owner about the war.
There’s an early TV broadcast where a mother reflects on her son’s death in 1965, open copies of the famous Life magazine that published the faces of all 242 soldiers killed in combat during one week in 1969, and cockpit videos of the 1970 Cambodia bombing campaign.
It covers the heroics, both of the American soldiers and their South Vietnamese allies, as well as their opponents, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
It also doesn’t flinch from the brutality of the war, and how it tore apart American society.
An entire wall display is dedicated to the chaotic events of 1968 that included riots in the U.S. and the game-changing Tet Offensive in Vietnam.
A fatalistic message on one of the lighters displayed at the entry to the exhibit, and also scrawled on a soldier’s helmet further in, sums it up.
“We the unwilling, led by the unqualified, to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful,” the soldiers’ wrote.
Naylor said the Vietnam War exhibition is intended to prompt people to reflect on the conflict, both those who fought and those at home.
“Whether one served there or not, many people lived through it,” he said. “It was a powerful time in peoples’ memory.
“What we’ve seen is an emotional response. A museum should be a place that evokes emotional responses.”
Visitors can use interactive maps of the U.S. and Vietnam to learn more about the war.
Naylor said there’s a clear connection between World War I and the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Vietnam was part of the French colony of Indochina.
During the First World War, almost 100,000 Vietnamese were brought to aid France, half as soldiers, the remainder laborers. What they learned about modern warfare and liberty returned with them.
When France tried to reassert control of Indochina after World War II and the Japanese occupation, the Vietnamese led by Ho Chi Minh began their fight for independence as Communists.
The French reached out for American help and the rest of the story can be learned at the Vietnam War exhibition which will be shown at the World War I Museum through the end of May.
The exhibit ends with artifacts left at the Vietnam War Memorial
For the Veterans Day weekend events beginning today, there will be free admission to the museum for veterans and active duty military, and half price general admission for the public through Monday.
There also will be a Vietnam era “Huey” helicopter on display today through Sunday.
On Monday at 10 a.m., a Veterans Day Ceremony will be held featuring a keynote address by Dr. Pellom McDaniels III, a former Kansas City Chief and curator of the African-American Collection at the Rose Library at Emerson University.
Veterans Day Weekend hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday.