This week, back in 1973, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, and America’s eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War ended. In 2019, the National Constitution Center hosted a program featuring activist Kim Phúc Phan Thi, and we’re sharing that conversation from our archives this week. When she was nine years old, Phúc was severely injured and running from her bombed village, when an Associated Press photographer captured her and others in one of the most famous photographs from the Vietnam War, which later won the Pulitzer Prize. In this moving program, Phúc discusses her firsthand experience of the Vietnam War and its impact; Mark Bowden, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam offers historical context; and classical composer and jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe performs and discusses the piece he was moved to compose after seeing Phúc’s photograph. Jeffrey Rosen moderates.
FULL PODCAST
Or, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This episode was produced by Jackie McDermott, Tanaya Tauber, and Lana Ulrich. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler.
PARTICIPANTS
Mark Bowden is a journalist and author of 13 books, including Hue 1968, Black Hawk Down, and Killing Pablo. He is a regular contributor to The Atlantic, and a longtime staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. His books have regularly appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists. Black Hawk Down was adapted into an Academy Award-winning motion picture, and three others are currently being adapted into TV series. He spent 16 years teaching, first at Loyola University in Maryland, and then at The University of Delaware, where he was the writer in residence from 2015-2017. After graduating in 1973, Bowden worked for The Baltimore News-American. He joined the staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1979, where, among other things, he covered science, football, transportation, politics, crime, and did extensive national and international reporting.
Kim Phúc is the founder of The Kim Foundation International, a nonprofit organization committed to funding programs to heal children in war torn areas of the world. In 1997 UNESCO named her a Goodwill Ambassador for Culture of Peace. She is also an Honorary Member of Kingston Rotary, a member of the Advisory Board for the Wheelchair Foundation, The Free Children Foundation and The World Children Centre in Atlanta. She has received honorary doctorate degrees York University, Griffith University, Queen’s University, University of Lethbridge, and Saint Mary’s University. She is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Peace Prize in Dresden Germany in February 2019.
Hannibal Lokumbe is a classical composer and jazz trumpeter. Among his many accomplishments, Hannibal has served as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s composer-in-residence. His long history with the Orchestra began in 1997 with a performance of his oratorio African Portraits. Throughout his tenure, Hannibal reached many different communities of Philadelphia through music and dialogue. He hosted a series of Composer’s Umbrella workshops as an outlet for artists of all backgrounds to collaborate and workshop new music. His work has been performed during the Orchestra’s annual free Martin Luther King, Jr., Tribute Concert as well as special chamber performances for various groups around the city, including the Philadelphia Prison System’s Detention Center in Northeast Philadelphia, St. Francis de Sales School, and Christ Church Neighborhood House. His chamber music has also been presented at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the National Museum of American Jewish History, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Video of this program
- The KIM Foundation International
- “Civil Rights and Constitutional Change,” Live at America’s Town Hall (Hannibal Lokumbe’s previous event at the National Constitution Center)
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