Talk: The Vietnam War and Its Legacy After 50 Years

April/May 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall discusses the Vietnam War—one of the major conflicts of the 20th century—and reflects on its legacy.

Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of History and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including recently JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 (Random House, 2020), which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His book Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House, 2012) won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Parkman Prize, the Arthur Ross Book Award, and the American Library in Paris Book Award.

Cosponsored by the Center for Cold War Studies and International History and UCSB’s Department of History