The Christmas Bombing of Viet Nam

The Christmas Bombing of Viet Nam

52d Anniversary Webinar 

Thursday, December 26, 8  p.m. ET 

Register by clicking here

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6f5nZeZeTLm_wGzrHoHeGg

Eyewitness accounts, human consequences, historical impact,                                          peace movement response

*  Doug Hostetter  moderator, Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee

*  Joan Baez   video of experience under the bombing

*  Ling Nguyen   eyewitness accounts of her mother

*  Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg    professor of history and author

*  Bill Zimmerman  Medical Aid for Indochina, Bach Mai Hospital Fund

Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg is a Professor of US History and American Foreign Policy at Hofstra University. Her book, Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia.(Oxford) was awarded the 2024 Bancroft Prize in American History. Carolyn is Co-Founder of Brooklyn for Peace and Legislative Co-Coordinator for Historians for Peace and Democracy.

Doug Hostetter (moderator) was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and chose to do his alternative service working for Mennonite Central Committee in Tam Ky, Quang Nam, from 1966 - 1969.  Doug returned to Vietnam in November and December 1970 with the US National Student Association delegation that negotiated the People’s Peace Treaty (PPT).   The People’s Peace Treaty was signed in Saigon by representatives of the Saigon Student Union and brought to Hanoi where representatives of the South Vietnam Liberation Student Union, the Vietnam National Student Union and the US National Student Association signed it.  Upon return to the US, Doug joined the staff of the People’s Peace Treaty national office in New York City, which, in cooperation with the US National Student Association, introduced the PPT to students in colleges and universities across the United States. In the spring of 1971, the PPT was ratified by almost 200 US colleges and universities -- hundreds of thousands of US students declaring their peace with student in Vietnam.   Doug was active broadly in the US anti-Vietnam War movement.  He was the Treasurer for Medical Aid for Indochina which after 1972 became the Bach Mai Hospital Fund and after 1975 became Friendshipment.  Doug is the NGO Representative for Pax Christi International at the United Nations in New York.  Earlier in his career Doug was as the Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office, the Director of the New England Office of the American Friends Service Committee; the Director of the US Fellowship of Reconciliation; and the Resource Specialist for Peace for the United Methodist Office for the United Nations.  Doug has published widely on the issues of war, peace and nonviolence, and is a contributing author to The People Make the Peace:  Lessons from the Vietnam Antiwar movement.

Linh Nguyen is USIP's Ho Chi Minh City-based Program Manager, where she oversees and supports various initiatives, including the War Remnants Museum exhibit project, a documentary on dioxin remediation, a series of dialogues between Vietnam and American youths, and a regional transnational crime project. Linh holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Fulbright and John F. Kennedy Fellow. She has experience working with international organizations, including the IOM, UNICEF, Oxfam, and Investing in Women, on a range of development and humanitarian projects.

Bill Zimmerman was a long-time antiwar protester and organizer.  As the leader of Medical Aid for Indochina (MAI) in 1972, he traveled to North Vietnam and visited the Bach Mai Hospital, the country's largest civilian facility.  When the Hospital was destroyed in the Christmas bombing, Bill coordinated the launch of the Bach Mai Hospital Relief Fund, which began as a project of MAI.  Two years later, Bill managed Tom Hayden’s campaign for US Senate in California and began a long career as a media consultant and campaign manager for progressive candidates, ballot initiatives and nonprofits nationwide.  He is the author of Troublemaker: A Memoir from the Frontlines of the Sixties, Doubleday, 2011.

Operation Linebacker II, sometimes referred to as the Christmas bombings and, in Vietnam, Dien Bien Phu in the air, was a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the United States against targets in North Vietnam from 18 December to 29 December 1972, during the Vietnam War. More than 20,000 tons of ordnance was dropped on military and industrial areas in Hanoi and Haiphong and at least 1,624 civilians were killed. The operation was the final major military operation carried out by the U.S. during the conflict, and the largest bombing campaign involving heavy bombers since World War II.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II

Joan Baez    Video account of her experience in the bomb shelter of the Metropole Hotel

Nguyen Linh   US Institute of Peace     sharing stories of her mother's life during the attacks

Carolyn Woods Eisenberg   Hofstra University   historical, political and strategic context

William Zimmerman    Bach Mai Hospital Fund   response of public opinion and activists

Doug Hostetter   Mennonite Central Committee    moderator   

Cosponsor  Brooklyn For Peace