Weatherhead Advisor Thomas J. Vallely Honored with Presidential Citizens Medal in White House Ceremony

Thomas J. Vallely, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Senior Advisor for Vietnam, received the Presidential Citizens Medal in a ceremony at the White House on Thursday, January 2, 2025.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was created in 1969 and is widely considered the second highest civilian award of the U.S. government, behind the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is given annually, in the government’s words, to “citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

A former U.S. Marine and recipient of the Silver Star who served in the Vietnam War, Vallely has worked for decades to restore and repair relations between America and Vietnam. “Thomas Vallely has never given up on peace,” notes the official White House announcement of this year’s Presidential Citizens Medals. “His service remains a symbol of American leadership in the world.”

At the Weatherhead Institute Vallely co-teaches a course on the war for Columbia undergraduates and supports the expansion of Weatherhead’s engagement with Vietnam, in such areas as Vietnamese Studies and public policy. At present he is collaborating with colleagues both at Columbia and in Vietnam to create a series of programs centered on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in April 2025.

Before joining Columbia in 2024, Vallely spent 35 years at Harvard University. He founded the Harvard Vietnam Program in 1989 and as its Founding Director provided behind-the-scenes support for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, building relationships with Vietnamese leaders and overcoming obstacles to a formal reestablishment of bilateral ties. Over time Vallely was also able to leverage the Vietnam Program’s research to engage in a candid and constructively critical dialogue with the Vietnamese government about Vietnam’s development challenges.

In 1994, Vallely established the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, “the Fulbright School,” in Ho Chi Minh City. Under his leadership the Fulbright School became a center of excellence in public policy research and teaching and pioneered the development of new modes of institutional governance in Vietnam.

Vallely is also responsible for innovative bilateral educational initiatives like the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), which awarded STEM scholarships to Vietnamese students, and Fulbright University Vietnam, an international university in Ho Chi Minh City, modeled on the American liberal arts system, which merged with the Fulbright School upon its founding in 2016. Vallely is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Fulbright University Vietnam.

For these and other contributions to Vietnamese higher education, Vallely was awarded the Phan Chau Trinh Cultural Prize by the Phan Chau Trinh Cultural Foundation In 2014.

This year’s 20 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal include two other Americans whose lives were affected by the Vietnam War. They are Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the war who subsequently founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and the late war correspondent Joseph Galloway (awarded posthumously), who received a Bronze Star for helping to rescue a seriously wounded U.S. soldier during the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965.

In addition, former Secretary of State John Kerry—like Vallely, a decorated veteran of the war—was also present at the ceremony at the White House on January 2nd.