Vietnam Project Picks Up Speed

Good news: our class’s Vietnam project is alive and well, and it’s picking up speed. Here’s where it came from, what we’re building, and what we’ll ask of you between now and next September’s reunion.

How it started

In the second half of 2025, our Everyone listserv lit up. Classmates told how the war and the draft met us at graduation, and what some of us did about it. Some served. Some got deferments. Some resisted, and some found another road entirely.

A number of you said the exchange was too valuable to let scroll away. You wanted it preserved somehow. The class council agreed and asked for volunteers. We formed a committee, and here we are.

Who’s on the committee?

David Howorth and I have agreed to co-chair the “Vietnam Committee.” Several classmates volunteered to help:

• Art Klebanoff, who brings a strong background in publishing.
• Derry Allen and Art Segal, from our class leadership. They have relationships with other Yale offices that can help us develop an archival record like this one.
• Wayne Willis, as class webmaster.
• Other members are listed below.

What we’re building

The scope is easy to state. We want a lasting record of how the war shaped us: the decisions we made, or that the draft made for us, and everything that followed. That covers serving in the military, getting a deferment, going to Canada, going to med school, losing a slot in a graduate program, putting a career on hold, or anything else the war set in motion.

We call each piece a submission. Some are polished stories. Others are a few heartfelt paragraphs dashed off in an email. All of them belong.

The current plan has two tiers:

• At minimum, an archival collection for Yale, so the record outlasts all of us.
• Then, maybe, a “book” for the reunion, with everyone’s submissions included.

Where things stand

I found a way to go back through the 2025 conversation and gather all the submissions.  There were well over 100.

They’re being edited now. Mostly that means stripping out the email headers, quoted replies, signature blocks and other clutter that email tacks on. Your words stay your words.

David and I have also been categorizing and developing explanatory material that would add important context to the stories.

The road to the reunion

Class leadership suggested we use next September’s reunion, September 15 to 17, 2027, as a “forcing event.” Nothing gets a project done like a hard deadline, a due date etched on the calendar. So the goal is a “book” with copies of everyone’s submissions, ready in time for the reunion. Here’s the sequence:

1. Your submission comes back to you. Each contributor will get a lightly edited copy of what he sent. You can approve it, correct it, expand it, replace it with something new, or withdraw it. You’ll also tell us whether we can reprint it with your name or anonymously.
2. Everyone else gets an invitation. If you didn’t join the 2025 conversation, we want to hear from you too. Please hold your thoughts for now, though. We’ll reach out about the first of the year, once we’re set up to capture what you send.
3. We choose the format. Peter, David, and Art K. will review what we have and decide whether it works best as a PDF, an ebook, or a printed book. We’ll make that decision in the second quarter of 2027.
4. The reunion. The finished collection arrives in time for our 58th.

What we ask of you

This is a real project, and you’re going to hear about it. Please:

• Watch your inbox for emails about the “Vietnam Project, especially any that ask you to review, edit, approve or add to your submission.
• Answer when we write. A quick yes, a correction or a fresh version all help.
• Hold new submissions until we reach out in December or January.

We’ll keep you posted as the project moves along. Thanks to everyone who spoke up in 2025. You started something worth keeping.

Full Committee

• David Howorth, Co-chair
• Peter Lacouture, Co-chair
• Art Klebanoff, Advisor
• Arthur Segal, Advisor
• Derry Allen, Advisor
• Wayne Willis, Advisor
• Bill Newman, Member
• Daniel Seiver, Member
• David May, Member
• Harold Mancusi-Ungaro, Member
• Harry Forsdick, Member
• Kenneth Brown, Member
• Kenneth Davis, Member
• Michael Baum, Member
• Tom Guterbock, Member