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George Johnson discusses the moral journey that began as a Jewish Army officer serving in Vietnam.

George E. Johnson is a Washington-based lawyer and writer. Since 2013, he has been a Senior Editor of Moment Magazine, a large-circulation independent American Jewish magazine. In April 2020, Moment published "When One’s Duty and the Right Thing Are Not the Same", in which Johnson, an observant Jew, looks back 50 years on how his Vietnam service as an Army intelligence officer living among Vietnamese villagers changed his life. The article is an excerpt from his Vietnam memoir. Johnson’s Jewish Word columns have appeared periodically in Moment, as have his symposium interviews of dozens of famous Jews, ranging from great rabbis and novelists to concert pianists and Israeli leaders. His symposium-based e-book, What Will the Jewish World Look Like in 2050? was published in 2017. Johnson’s articles on Jewish life also have appeared in The Journal of Jewish Ideas and Ideals, Conservative Judaism, Bnai Brith Magazine, Midstream, and Sh’ma, and have been quoted in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to his Jewish publications, Johnson practiced law in the energy field for 35 years, retiring from practice in 2011. Along the way, he also served as Research Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Planning and Research of the Synagogue Council of America, authoring numerous studies on Jewish public policy issues.

Join us for a conversation with military law scholar Eugene Fidell. He'll address the relationship between civilian government and military law. He'll also discuss the Orders Project which provides volunteer lawyers to military personnel who question the legality of orders.

Eugene R. Fidell is an Adjunct Professor at NYU Law School (Fall 2020), Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, and of counsel at the Washington, DC firm Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP. He graduated from Queens College and Harvard Law School and served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1969 to 1972.

He graduated with honor from the Naval Justice School and has represented personnel in every branch of the armed forces as well as the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and NOAA.

Mr. Fidell is a life member of the American Law Institute, president emeritus of the National Institute of Military Justice, and former chair of the Committee on Military Justice of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. Since 2014 he has edited the Global Military Justice Reform blog, globalmjreform.blogspot.com. His books include Military Justice: Cases and Materials (3d ed. 2020) (co-author) and Military Justice: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2016).

He has served on a variety of U.S. advisory boards, including, most recently, the Executive Review Panel for the comprehensive Review of Navy and Marine Corps Uniformed Legal Communities.