When the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens “Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1974,” the nation’s pre-eminent museum franchise will take its most sustained look at one of the most culture-changing events in American history. But it hasn’t been the subject of specific, focused curatorial reconsideration. The war is included within exhibitions at the National Museum of American History, is referenced in the National Museum of African American History and Culture and served as the backdrop to an anniversary exhibition about the Vietnam memorial in 2003. The nation managed to build a memorial in 1982 to those who died in the war, less than a decade after the fall of Saigon, and, in 2017, Americans watched an epic 18-hour PBS documentary about the war, without any substantial political controversy. WASHINGTON - The Vietnam War, which tore this country apart and forever changed its politics and culture, has never been the subject of a Smithsonian exhibition. By Philip Kennicott | The Washington Post
