Galloway writes a weekly syndicated column on military and national security affairs.

Joe Galloway, a veteran journalist most famous for his combat reporting in Vietnam, will visit Texas Tech University to provide a pair of public lectures on campus Wednesday (Nov. 11).

Galloway co-authored the book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” which was later adapted into the movie “We Were Soldiers,” starring Mel Gibson.

He will hold a 9:30 a.m. book signing at the Barnes and Noble in the Student Union Building.

He will then give a lecture at 3 p.m. in room 101 of the Mass Communications Building, discussing his experiences reporting wars on several continents.

A second lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Senate Room of the Student Union Building.

Galloway is the only civilian awarded the U.S. Army’s Bronze Star for Valor during the Vietnam War. He later reported from the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, and recently retired as senior military correspondent of Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

He also writes a weekly syndicated column on military and national security affairs.

H. Ross Perot Sr. addresses the audience at the Frazier Alumni Pavillion during the 20th anniversary celebration of the Vietnam Center.

The burnt-red sunlight of a dying West Texas day slanted through the windows of the Frazier Alumni Pavilion as H. Ross Perot Sr. stepped to the podium to address a black-tie audience at the Texas Tech University Vietnam Center and Archive’s 20th Anniversary Ball.

Beneath red, white and blue banners draped from the rafters, the billionaire and two-time presidential candidate extolled the virtues of honor and sacrifice for a crowd that included U.S. legislators, Texas representatives, city councilmen and university administrators.

“Words are plentiful, but actions are precious,” he said.

Or, put a bit less eloquently: it’s not what you say; it’s what you do.

As Perot pointed out, the Vietnam Center has reached its current stature largely because of the actions of those who, for the past two decades, have nurtured and built a simple collection of letters into one of the world’s preeminent repositories of information on the Vietnam War era.

Jim Reckner, founder and recently retired director of the center, began the archive with a single bundle of letters written from a GI to his mother. Today, the center has more than 20 million documents chronicling the exploits of soldiers and generals, Vietcong and war protestors – second only to the holdings of the National Archive.

Along the way, the center positioned itself as a diplomatic emissary, advancing reconciliations between the former enemy nations through academic and even political agreements that have led to student exchanges and even sharing of information with Vietnam’s national archivist.

Men of Honor

Perot illustrated the center’s importance by detailing the experiences of some of the veterans in attendance, men who faced physical torture and the passive brutality of seclusion through hard years of being shuffled between prison camps.

Men like U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, who suffered a broken arm and back after being shot down during a combat mission and spent seven years as a prisoner of war – including nearly three and a half years in solitary confinement.

Johnson developed a special code to speak with other prisoners by tapping on the prison walls and committed 374 names to memory so he would be able to report their location if he got home before they did.

Featured Video H. Ross Perot Sr. speaks at the Vietnam Center and Archive’s 20th Anniversary Ball. More Video>>

Perot told similar stories about GIs showing courage in the face of torment and horrific conditions, putting their country ahead of their own well-being.

These are exactly the type of stories contained on the archive’s shelves, he reminded audience members.

In other words, the center’s archivists have spent 20 years preserving the words that describe the deeds of those who fought and died in the conflict, providing details and insights for veterans and scholars both through the center and the Virtual Vietnam Archive.

“We have worked diligently to honor our nation’s military veterans and other wartime participants by preserving and providing access to their history and stories,” said Steve Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center and Archive. “Vietnam Center collections are used by researchers and scholars around the world as they teach and write about the Vietnam War.”

H. Ross Perot

Perot began Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962 and built it into one of the world’s largest technology services firms before selling it for $2.5 billion to General Motors in 1984. He founded a new company, Perot Systems Corporation, in 1988.

In 1969, Perot spearheaded a campaign to end the brutality shown to U.S. POWs. Ten years later, when two EDS employees were taken hostage in Iran, Perot organized and directed a successful rescue mission.

He ran for president as an independent candidate in 1992, earning 19 percent of the vote, and again in 1996 on the Reform Party ticket.

He is the author of seven books and has received awards and honors including The Winston Churchill Award, the Raoul Wallenberg Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Patrick Henry Award and the National Business Hall of Fame Award.

Henry Ross Perot Sr., businessman and former presidential candidate, will deliver the keynote address at the Vietnam Center’s 20th Anniversary Ball.

Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center and Archive announces that H. Ross Perot Sr. will deliver the keynote address at the center’s 20th Anniversary Ball at 7 p.m. May 28 at the Frazier Alumni Pavilion.

For 20 years, the Vietnam Center has preserved the history of the American experience in the Vietnam War. Over the years, the center has provided resources and assistance to scholars, students, teachers, veterans, filmmakers and government agencies.

“These past 20 years have been both challenging and very rewarding,” said Steve Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center. “We have worked diligently to honor our nation’s military veterans and other wartime participants by preserving and providing access to their history and stories.”

Maxner said because of the tremendous support of Texas Tech and the State of Texas, the Vietnam Center is the largest Vietnam War material collection outside the U.S. National Archives.

“Vietnam Center collections are used by researchers and scholars around the world as they teach and write about the Vietnam War.  In this way, the research materials at Texas Tech are helping to more accurately inform an international audience of students and the interested public about events that took place more than four decades ago,” Maxner said.

“Our community, state and nation can take great pride in the Vietnam Center and all we have accomplished and we look forward to our next 20 years of service and scholarship.”

Tickets are $75 per person for general admission and $800 for a table of eight, which includes reserved seating, recognition in the program and a sponsor gift. The deadline to RSVP for the event is May 18.

In addition to Perot’s address, guests will enjoy dinner, music, a silent auction and a tribute to James Reckner, founder of the Vietnam Center.

For 20 years, the Vietnam Center has preserved the history of the American experience in the Vietnam War. Over the years, the center has provided resources and assistance to scholars, students, teachers, veterans, filmmakers and government agencies.

“These past 20 years have been both challenging and very rewarding,” said Steve Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center. ”We have worked diligently to honor our nation’s military veterans and other wartime participants by preserving and providing access to their history and stories.

Maxner said because of the tremendous support of Texas Tech and the State of Texas, the Vietnam Center is the largest Vietnam War material collection outside the U.S. National Archives.  

“Vietnam Center collections are used by researchers and scholars around the world as they teach and write about the Vietnam War.  In this way, the research materials at Texas Tech are helping to more accurately inform an international audience of students and the interested public about events that took place more than four decades ago,” Maxner said.

Our community, state, and nation can take great pride in the Vietnam Center and all we have accomplished and we look forward to our next 20 years of service and scholarship.”

Tickets are $75 per person for general admission and $800 for a table of eight, which includes reserved seating, recognition in the program and a sponsor gift. The deadline to RSVP for the event is May 18.

In addition to Perot’s address, guests will enjoy dinner, music, a silent auction and a tribute to James Reckner, founder of the Vietnam Center.

CONTACT: Amy Hooker, assistant archivist, Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, (806) 742- 9010 or amy.k.hooker@ttu.edu.

The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University is one of the largest collections of Vietnam-era related documents in the world.

Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center will host a conference on Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand and the Vietnam War March 13-14 at the Holiday Inn Park Plaza.

All conference presentations will take place in the Mahogany/Sycamore Room. Books will be for sale in the Mesquite Room.

The conference will provide additional insight into some of the regional and international implications of the Vietnam War, said Stephen Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center. The CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence will use the conference to release some previously classified studies of the Vietnam War to include the then-secret war in Laos.

“These remarkable materials will add substantially to our collective understanding of the Vietnam War,” Maxner said. “This collaborative release during a university conference is highly commendable as it reflects transparency in government and directly contributes to the open exchange of ideas that is at the foundation of any great university.”

Texas Tech President Guy Bailey will open the conference with remarks. Sessions are open to the public but registration is required to join in the conference meals. Registration will take place on site at the Holiday Inn.

Sessions Include:

• 8:30 a.m. March 13: Understanding the War in Southeast Asia through the declassified works of Thomas Ahern. Clayton Laurie, a historian for the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, will moderate the discussion.
• 10:30 a.m. March 13: Vietnamese perspectives on the War in Laos and Cambodia. Ron Milam, interim director of the Center for War and Diplomacy in the Post-Vietnam War Era at Texas Tech, will moderate the discussion.
• 3:30 p.m. March 13: The War in Laos: The Early Years. Marc Jason Gilbert, NEH Endowed Chair in World History and Humanities at Hawai’i Pacific University, will moderate the discussion.
• 5:30 p.m. March 13: The War in Laos. Dennis Patterson, interim director for the Institute of Modern Conflict, Diplomacy and Reconciliation at Texas Tech, will moderate the discussion.
• 8 a.m. March 14: New Interpretations of the War in Laos. Joyce Hoffmann, professor of journalism at Old Dominion University, will moderate the discussion.
• 10:30 a.m. March 14: Postwar Laos. Michael Carroll, SDF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary, will moderate the discussion.
• 4 p.m. March 14: The War in Cambodia. Kelly Crager, head of the Oral History Project at the Vietnam Center, will moderate the discussion.
• 5:30 p.m. March 14: The War in Thailand. Jeffrey Race, of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in Bangkok, Thailand, will moderate the discussion.

Full conference agenda, information and registration form.

Photo Courtesy Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University.

All conference presentations will take place in the Mahogany/Sycamore Room. Books will be for sale in the Mesquite Room.

The conference will provide additional insight into some of the regional and international implications of the Vietnam War, said Stephen Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center, and the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence will use the conference to release some previously classified studies of the Vietnam War to include the then-secret war in Laos.

“These remarkable materials will add substantially to our collective understanding of the Vietnam War,” Maxner said. “This collaborative release during a university conference is highly commendable as it reflects transparency in government and directly contributes to the open exchange of ideas that is at the foundation of any great university.” 

Texas Tech President Guy Bailey will open the conference with remarks. Sessions are open to the public but registration is required to join in the conference meals. Registration will take place on site at the Holiday Inn.           

Sessions include:

·         8:30 a.m. March 13: Understanding the War in Southeast Asia through the declassified works of Thomas Ahern. Clayton Laurie, a historian for the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, will moderate the discussion.

·         10:30 a.m. March 13: Vietnamese perspectives on the War in Laos and Cambodia. Ron Milam, interim director of the Center for War and Diplomacy in the Post-Vietnam War Era at Texas Tech, will moderate the discussion.

·         3:30 p.m. March 13: The War in Laos: The Early Years. Marc Jason Gilbert, NEH Endowed Chair in World History and Humanities at Hawai’i Pacific University, will moderate the discussion.

·         5:30 p.m. March 13: The War in Laos. Dennis Patterson, interim director for the Institute of Modern Conflict, Diplomacy and Reconciliation at Texas Tech, will moderate the discussion.

·         8a.m. March 14: New Interpretations of the War in Laos. Joyce Hoffmann, professor of journalism at Old Dominion University, will moderate the discussion.

·         10:30 a.m. March 14: Postwar Laos. Michael Carroll, SDF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary, will moderate the discussion.

·         4 p.m. March 14: The War in Cambodia. Kelly Crager, head of the Oral History Project at the Vietnam Center, will moderate the discussion.

·         5:30 p.m. March 14: The War in Thailand. Jeffrey Race, of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in Bangkok, Thailand, will moderate the discussion.

For a full conference agenda and registration forms, visit: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2009_Conference/index.htm.

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu.

CONTACT: Steve Maxner, director, The Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, (806) 773-8105 or steve.maxner@ttu.edu

Family, friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate James Reckner’s years of service and contribution to Texas Tech at a retirement reception at Merket Alumni Center. View More Photos.

To hear James Reckner tell his story, he came to Texas Tech in 1988 to let ivy grow over his walls while he wrote history books no one would read.

But a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity: Reckner got an idea.

The idea, it wasn’t much at first – the type of brain seed that sprouts up so readily on academic campuses and just as quickly withers beneath the reality of lean budgets and overweight schedule books.

But Reckner, he wouldn’t let this one go. For 20 years this gruff historian and former naval officer stuck with it, pressing, pushing, plowing it forward with the inevitability of a battleship prow parting sluggish seas, through obstructions and indifference and the gentle defeatism that has tripped up so many other well-intentioned endeavors.

And now, a mere two decades after he proposed something as simple as teaching a course on the Vietnam War, he has amassed one of the world’s foremost collections on the conflict, a vast sea of letters and books, photographs and maps to rival even the repositories of the Library of Congress, and – oh, yeah, this part was almost by accident – launched Texas Tech squarely onto the international diplomatic stage in terms of repairing relations between the U.S. and Vietnam.

The idea, it started simple, and it grew into something profound.

The idea became him.

What Vietnam War?

It started with a question, a throwaway. In his first year teaching at Texas Tech, Reckner asked his class: What U.S. general is most closely associated with the Vietnam War?

To the consternation of a combat veteran who witnessed the conflict first-hand through two tours, only one student could give him the answer: General William Westmoreland.

Reckner started thinking. If these students didn’t know the name of one of the most prominent Americans associated with the war, they couldn’t know much about the war. Period.

But what could he do about it? He considered teaching a course on the subject, but even that wasn’t possible – the Texas Tech Library didn’t house enough materials to support graduate research into the subject.

So Reckner called a meeting of local Vietnam veterans, who agreed to start collecting documents the university could then make available to students. It wasn’t long before Reckner was holding the first contribution, a stack of letters a soldier wrote to his mother in Slaton, and the rest, as they say, is history – the history of preserving history, you might say.

The Place of Study

A United States marine is seen stationed in Iraq. The Vietnam Center archives will now collect information on all conflicts involving U.S. troops since the Vietnam War.

Today, the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech holds more than 20 million pages of documents, photos, maps, books … you name it. Its online Virtual Vietnam Archive provides resources to more than a million historians, students, teachers and veterans each year.

Investigators visit Lubbock to hunt down MIA leads. The Dept. of Veterans Affairs checks records to validate medical claims. Even the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth sought out documents in their infamous bid to gun down Sen. John Kerry’s presidential aspirations, prompting Kerry supporters to wade into the same pool as they sought evidence to strengthen his claims.

In other words, Texas Tech has become the place to study the Vietnam War.

But the scope of the center goes beyond just research. Its symposiums and conferences attract scholars from throughout the world to hash over the experiences not only of the U.S. soldiers who slogged the jungles, but of Vietcong guerrillas and even the protesters who orchestrated sit-ins back home. They all have a place at the table, and they all come.

Vietnamese students attend classes at home thanks to scholarships provided through the program, and Reckner has inked agreements both educational and diplomatic with some of Vietnam’s highest ranking officials.

Prior to his retirement in January, Reckner even parlayed the success of the Vietnam Center and Archive into a new institute, The Institute for Modern Conflict, Diplomacy, & Reconciliation, devoted to advancing international reconciliation and documenting America’s many conflicts since the 1950s.

Yet Reckner describes his success flippantly, with a quip and a shrug, as if his drive to see the program succeed resulted from a character flaw, as if it were really a matter of losing sight of his original goal – to lose himself in academia.

“It kind of scares me when people have a plan and follow it through to the dime,” he says. “What kind of imagination is that?”

James Reckner meets with Vietnamese officials to formalize a commitment to exchange information with the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam.
Read More.

What Next?

There is still much of the salty dog about Reckner. He is a man of eye contact and firm handshakes. So it should come as no surprise that when he is asked the inevitable question – what he’ll do with his retirement – Reckner lists work as his first priority.

He’ll be spending most mornings, at least for now, in the Southwest Collection scrolling through microfilm as he finishes his two latest naval history books.

Then he wants to see the U.S. Reckner points out that while he’s visited exotic haunts throughout the world, from Vietnam to ports in the Mediterranean, he’s never had much opportunity to play tourist in his own country.

Beyond that, he remains ambivalent.

“I haven’t stuck with many of my plans in life so far,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t know if I’ll start now.”

He does, however, have a substantial list of to-dos for those taking over the fledgling Institute for Modern Conflict, Diplomacy and Reconciliation. The institute encompasses Texas Tech’s aerospace and military science departments, the Vietnam program and a newly formed Center for War and Diplomacy in the Post-Vietnam War Era.

Through it, Reckner would like to see Texas Tech build programs similar to the Vietnam Center dealing with Cold War enemies Russia and China, simultaneously preserving the record of that era while pushing to strengthen diplomatic ties. Texas Tech already is forging such ties with universities in those countries, and Reckner would like to see the work continue.

He also hopes to see construction begin on a new freestanding archive and museum space to house the institute and its components on 12 acres of campus set aside on the corner of Fourth Street and Quaker Avenue.

Such a facility would not only allow Texas Tech to showcase much more of its collection – including four Vietnam-era U.S. Army helicopters donated in 2006 – but would attract more researchers, materials and tourists, he said. It also would provide a place for the university to host functions such as veteran’s reunions and provide a visible sign of the extensive work Texas Tech is doing both in terms of preserving history and advancing diplomacy with the country’s former enemies.

“Texas Tech could be the premier university in the United States for studies related to Southeast Asia and reconciliation,” he said.

So while Reckner may be ready for retirement life, he still has not relinquished hold on his idea.

Here’s hoping the idea continues to grow beyond him.

President George Bush has appointed Steve Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center and Archive, to the remainder of a three-year term on the Board of Directors for the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF).

The VEF is a federal agency created to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam through educational exchanges in science and technology.

Board members include the Secretary of State, Secretary of Education, Secretary of the Treasury and representatives from the U.S. House and Senate.

Maxner pointed to his work both as deputy director and now director of the Vietnam Center as preparation for the appointment, noting that he has interacted extensively with university administrators, faculty, staff and students in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Center has inked a number of exchange agreements with Vietnamese universities and Maxner also has worked with officials in the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training – the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Education – developing a scholarship that directly mirrors the VEF program.

“I think anytime you get to sit down and meet with the U.S. Secretary of State, Secretary of Education and prominent U.S. Senators, this is good for the image and national prestige of Texas Tech University,” Maxner said. “While we get lots of great publicity through our athletics programs, our national leaders need to know that Texas Tech is also a place where great things happen in our academic research centers and institutes, like the Vietnam Center and Archive. I am honored to be able to represent our great university in this capacity and to serve on this board to help Vietnam and Vietnamese students in achieving some of their dreams and goals.”

VEF initiatives include providing opportunities for Vietnamese nationals to pursue graduate and post-graduate studies in science and technology in the U.S., while allowing Americans to teach in the same fields of study in Vietnam.

Maxner’s term will expire April 17, 2010.

Related

The Vietnam Center and Archive houses one of the largest collections of Vietnam-era related documents outside the National Archives. It supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam experience to promote better understanding of this experience and the peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia.

Ron Milam is an associate professor of history and a Vietnam veteran who is involved with the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech. View his profile in our online Experts Guide.

Ron Milam, associate professor of history, has been appointed to serve as a member of the board of directors of the David Westphall Veterans Foundation.

Milam, a Vietnam veteran who is involved with the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech, was appointed to the board in October.

The David Westphall Veterans Foundation is the founding organization responsible for the creation of the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial located near Angel Fire, N.M.

Milam was asked to serve on the board of directors for the memorial after serving as the keynote speaker at the Memorial Day services held at the memorial.

“I was very honored,” Milam said. “I spend a lot of time there, and I have another life there so to speak, so Angel Fire means a lot to us because of the memorial.”

Milam and his wife have been visiting Angel Fire for more than 25 years. He said they always noticed the sign about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but up until about 10 years ago they had not taken the time to visit it.

He said that after seeing the memorial, he fell in love with it, and he and his wife spoke with the founder and ended up purchasing a home in Angel Fire.

Milam said he hopes to develop a relationship between the Texas Tech Vietnam Center and the memorial. The memorial offers an extensive set of archives, but he said the foundation does not have the ability to preserve the artifacts.

Texas Tech can offer the memorial a place to preserve those artifacts, while the memorial can provide the university access to its wealth of knowledge.

“Getting a job at Texas Tech was a wonderful thing,” Milam said. “I am very fortunate to be hired by Texas Tech, and it is a real honor to help create a relationship between the memorial and the university.”

Steve Maxner, director of The Vietnam Center at Texas Tech, said the memorial is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year.

“Through his work on the board, Ron will have an impact on the lives of countless veterans and their families as they visit this very special memorial,” Maxner said.

The memorial is the first Vietnam Veterans memorial built in the United States and was formally dedicated in 1971.

Milam also serves on the Vietnam Center Advisory Board and has donated his personal collection of Vietnam War memorabilia to the Vietnam Archive. He is interim director for the Center and Archive for War and Diplomacy in the Post-Vietnam War Era.