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Vietnam Stories: First Encounters

Photo: Gary Price

This year marks the 40th anniversary since the fall of Saigon.  An event coming up tomorrow night will provide accounts of the war:

  • May 19, Vietnam: First Encounters

A panel discussion on the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Panel members include Tom Jones, a Navy Corpsman assigned to the Marines; Tom Bowman, an Army enlisted man; and two Vietnamese boat people, Patrick Lam and Pham Thien Khoc, an officer in the South Vietnamese Army. Moderated by Mark DePue, head of the presidential library’s Oral History Program.
Free; doors open at 6, event begins at 6:30 in the museum’s Union Theater.  Registration is required.

The event is presented by Illinois Public Media and the Presidential Library and Museum.  It comes after the recent airing of the PBS program American Experience on the fall of Saigon. It will re-air at 5 p.m. on May 31 on WILL-TV.

  • May 26, A Screaming Eagle Remembers World War II

Vincent Speranza of Auburn, Ill., was a member of the fabled 101st Airborne and a veteran of the division’s historic stand at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. He will share his memories of that battle and the rest of the war, and will sign his recently published memoir, “Nuts, A 101st Airborne Division Machine Gunner at Bastogne.” Moderated by Mark DePue.
May 26   6:30 p.m. with a book signing at 6.  Museum's Union Theater.  Registration required.

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