On Thursday, Oct. 26, the Clements Center for National Security will host a discussion with author Mark Bowden on his new book Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam (Atlantic 2017). Bowden is the author of 13 books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down. He will be joined in discussion by UT Professor of History Mark Lawrence and LBJ Professor of Ethical Leadership Howard Prince. The event, which will be held at the AT&T Conference Center Room 203 at 5 p.m., is co-sponsored by the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Student Veterans Association. This event is free and open to the public, but advanced registration is required. Please click here to complete your registration and reserve your tickets. Mr. Bowden will sign copies of his book following the conclusion of the talk.
Bowden, an Atlantic national correspondent, is an author, journalist, screenwriter and teacher. His book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (1999)—an international bestseller that spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list—was a finalist for the National Book Award. Bowden also worked on the screenplay for Black Hawk Down, a film adaptation of the book, directed by Ridley Scott. He is also the author of the international bestseller Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw (2001), which tells the story of the hunt for Colombian cocaine billionaire Pablo Escobar. Killing Pablo won the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award as the best book in 2001 and is currently being adapted for film, with Bowden again writing the screenplay. He is also the author of Doctor Dealer (1987), Bringing the Heat (1994), Our Finest Day (2002) and Finders Keepers (2002).
Howard Prince is a clinical professor and holds the Loyd Hackler Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Previously he served as the founding dean and professor of leadership studies in the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies and also held the George and Virginia Modlin Endowed Chair in Leadership Studies. Dr. Prince also served as the first professor and head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. As a young Army officer, Dr. Prince became a highly decorated combat veteran. After serving for more than 28 years in the U.S. Army, he was advanced on the retired list to brigadier general upon his retirement in 1990 and was presented with the U.S. Army's highest award for service, the Distinguished Service Medal. He is best known for his work on ethical leadership, leader development and creating university-based leadership education programs.
Mark Atwood Lawrence is associate professor of history, director of graduate studies at the Clements Center for National Security, and distinguished fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1988 and his doctorate from Yale in 1999. After teaching as a lecturer in history at Yale, he joined the History Department at UT-Austin in 2000. Since then, he has published three books, The Vietnam War: An International History in Documents (Oxford University Press, 2014), Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005) and The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (Oxford University Press, 2008).