“A Campus and a War” exhibit at MSU Libraries brings Vietnam experiences close to home
EAST LANSING, Mich., July 2025 – This summer, visitors to the Michigan State University Libraries are invited to explore a historical global conflict through a campus lens.
Recently installed in the MSU Libraries Main Gallery, the exhibit “A Campus and a War: Michigan State University and Vietnam” showcases the complex history of MSU’s involvement in the Vietnam War, including impacts that remain profound even fifty years after the conflict’s conclusion in 1975.
The exhibit was curated by MSU Libraries Head of Stephen O. Murray & Keelung Hong Special Collections and University Archives Leslie McRoberts, MSU Libraries Conservation Librarian Garrett Sumner and University Archives Outreach and Engagement Archivist Jennie Rankin. McRoberts noted the timeliness of the exhibit and how it demonstrates the ability to create change on a local level.
“This exhibition on the Vietnam War and Michigan State University arrives at a crucial moment,” McRoberts said. “It reminds us that history is not just a record of the past but a reflection of who we are today — how a campus thousands of miles from conflict became a microcosm of national struggle and change.”
Exhibit materials document the connections between MSU and Vietnam, including the relationship between Political Science Professor Wesley Fishel and South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem, the activities of the faculty-led Michigan State University Group (MSUG) in South Vietnam, and the antiwar movement on campus. The exhibit also looks beyond campus, with materials like personal correspondence between Viet Minh resistance leader Ho Chi Minh and Lansing lawyer and US Army Major Allison Kent Thomas, and a pink slip propaganda leaflet with “G.I. Don’t” directives produced by the National Liberation from of South Vietnam.
MSU History Professor and Southeast Asian Specialist Charles Keith, who provided support in curating the exhibit, also spoke to the significance of the exhibit.
“A Campus and a War” is an accessible and compelling way for members of the MSU community to explore the university’s complex relationship to the Vietnam War,” Keith said. “At a time of uncertainty and change in the place of universities in the country and the world alike, this history is as timely and pressing as ever.”
The exhibit will be available in the MSU Libraries Main Gallery through September, with a free public reception hosted at the Libraries in collaboration with the Historical Society of Greater Lansing on Friday, Aug. 8, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. The “Vietnam Dispatches from the Front and Home Front” reception will feature readings of poetry written by Vietnam veterans, as well as seminal primary source documents relating to the war, ranging from a draft notice to a prison letter from an anti-war protestor to a recorded love letter from a combat zone. For more information, please visit the MSU Libraries’ “Vietnam Dispatches from the Front and Home Front” event page.