Baker Peace Conference

After Saigon’s Fall: The Postwar Decade (1975-1985)

The Contemporary History Institute hosts the 2025 Baker Peace Conference, themed "After Saigon’s Fall: The Postwar Decade (1975-1985)," on Feb. 20-21 in Walter Hall Rotunda .

The Baker Conference, a spring staple at Ohio University since the 1980s, returns with a keynote address by renowned Vietnam scholar Peter Zinoman on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. Zinoman is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as Chairman of the History Department. He is the author of the Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 and Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung . He is also the co-translator of Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung and the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies . He is currently writing a book about northern Vietnamese anti-Stalinism during the 1950s.

The conference will also feature three panels of experts on the Vietnam War and the Southeast Asian region. The opening panel, on Thursday, Feb. 20, from 3 to 5 p.m., will examine the consequences of the Vietnam War for the nations of "Indochina": Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

There will be two additional panels on Friday, Feb. 21. The first, from 10 a.m. to noon, will look at the role of the "Cold War Allies," including the United States, the People's Republic of China, and the Soviet Union. The final panel, from 3 to 5 p.m., will then focus on the war’s after-effects on "Southeast Asian Neighbors" and will feature experts on Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Coffee, light snacks and other refreshments will be available to attendees throughout both days of the conference. We hope to see you there.

2025 Baker Peace Conference Schedule

All events are in the Walter Hall Rotunda.

Thursday, Feb. 20

Panel 1: Indochina, 3-5 p.m.

Ian Baird , Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Sophal Ear , Associate Professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University
Alex-Thái Vo , Research Assistant Professor at the Vietnam Center & Archive at Texas Tech University
Tuong Vu , Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon

View Panel 1 Livestream

Keynote Address: 7:30-9 p.m.

Peter Zinoman , Professor of History and Chairman of the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley

Friday, Feb. 21

Panel 2: Cold War Allies, 10 a.m.-noon

Xiao-Bing Li , Professor of History and Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma
Sergey Radchenko , Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Ingo Trauschweizer , Professor of History at Ohio University

View Panel 2 Livestream

Panel 3: Southeast Asian Neighbors, 3-5 p.m.

Lisandro Claudio , Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
Duc-Thanh Nguyen , Founding President of the Viet Nam Center for Economic and Strategic Studies
Arjun Subrahmanyan , Senior Lecturer in Southeast Asian History at Murdoch University

View Panel 3 Livestream

About the Baker Peace Conference

The Baker Peace Conference is an annual event that brings together a diverse group of leading experts to discuss a significant national or international issue related to peace.

The first Baker Peace Conference took place in 1988, six years after the late Dr. John C. Baker, the University's president from 1945-62, and his wife, Elizabeth, established the John and Elizabeth Baker Peace Studies Endowment to encourage the education of students and the general public in the means by which peace can be established and maintained throughout the world. The Baker Conferences are jointly sponsored by the Contemporary History Institute and the Baker Peace Studies Program.

All events are free and open to the public. Institute students participate in these conferences and are involved in helping to organize them.

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