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This Vietnam War Discussion Guide COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND ENGAGEMENT GUIDE SEPTEMBER 2017 he Vietnam War, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 10-part, 18-hour documentary series, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimen- sions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides—Americans Twho fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Accompanying this series is an unprecedented outreach and public engagement program, providing inclusive opportunities for communities to participate in a national conversation. We invite you to be part of this campaign by supporting conversations in your community. This guide is filled with tools that can help you plan for screenings and spark discussions. We hope it will support a deeper understanding of the complex issues that surrounded the Vietnam War. Thank you for looking at ways to broaden the conversation! We also invite you to visit the website at pbs.org/vietnampbs for a robust interactive experience, including educational tools to support teachers and students. SERIES DESCRIPTION Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen, digitally remastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century, COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND ENGAGEMENT GUIDE / 1 historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kenne- dy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. “The Vietnam War was a decade of agony that took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans,” Ken Burns said. “Not since the Civil War have we as a country been so torn apart. There wasn’t an American alive then who wasn’t affected in some way—from those who fought and sacrificed in the war, to families of service members and POWs, to those who protested the war in open conflict with their government and fellow citizens. More than 40 years after it ended, we can’t forget Vietnam, and we are still arguing about why it went wrong, who was to blame, and whether it was all worth it.” “We are all searching for some meaning in this terrible tragedy. Ken and I have tried to shed new light on the human dimensions of the war by looking at it from the bottom up, the top down, and from all sides,” Lynn Novick said. “In addition to dozens of ‘ordinary’ Americans who shared their stories, we interviewed many ‘ordinary’ Vietnamese soldiers and noncomba- tants in the North and South, and we were surprised to learn that the war remains as painful and unresolved for them as it is for us.” AIRDATES The film premieresSeptember 17, 2017, on PBS stations nation- wide. The first five episodes will air nightly from Sunday, September 17, through Thursday, September 21, and the final five episodes will air nightly from Sunday, September 24, through Thursday, Sep- tember 28. Each episode will premiere at 8:00 p.m. ET, and a repeat broadcast will immediately follow. Beginning Tuesday, October 3, the series will re-air on a week- ly basis through Tuesday, November 28, at 9:00 p.m. ET. PRODUCTION CREDITS SOLDIER OF THE 25TH INFANTRY DIVISION, 1969. The Vietnam War is a production of Florentine Films and WETA, COURTESY OF CHARLES O. HAUGHEY Washington D.C. Directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Produced by Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick and Ken Burns. FUNDING CREDITS Bank of America; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; PBS; David H. Koch; Blavatnik Family Foundation; Park Foundation; National Endowment for the Humanities; The Pew Charitable Trusts; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; Ford Foundation Just Films; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and Members of The Better Angels Society: COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND ENGAGEMENT GUIDE / 2 AMERICAN SOLDIER LOOKS OVER PERIMETER OF FSB HAMPTON, MARCH 14, 1969. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Jonathan & Jeannie Lavine, Diane & Hal Brierley, Amy & Da- vid Abrams, John & Catherine Debs, Fullerton Family Charita- ble Fund, The Montrone Family, Lynda & Stewart Resnick, The Perry & Donna Golkin Family Foundation, The Lynch Foun- dation, The Roger & Rosemary Enrico Foundation, Richard S. & Donna L. Strong Foundation, Bonnie & Tom McCloskey, Barbara K. & Cyrus B. Sweet III, The Lavender Butterfly Fund USING THIS GUIDE The goal of this discussion guide is to help you facilitate deeper conversations around The Vietnam War, understand the com- plexities, and promote dialogue. This guide will help you engage your community, and it will best prepare you for a thoughtful event, utilizing resources and support from local and national organizations. Whether you are hosting a private screening or a large public community event, we hope that this guide prepares you to spark deep conversations about veterans’ rights, patriotism and protest, the politics of the era, and more. ENGAGEMENT AND SCREENINGS Community Partners Vital in strengthening outreach and engagement efforts, community partners can also make screenings more meaningful and impactful. Get your partners to the table early and rely on them as experts to inform your work, connect with their constituencies, and support and promote community events. To ensure rich conversations and a thoughtful engagement approach, cultivate partners with different perspectives on the Vietnam War. Begin partnership outreach by connecting with the following: libraries, local humanities chapter organizations, active-duty military and veterans organizations, peace/anti-war groups, Vietnamese American organizations, religious organizations, high schools, universities and col- leges, local history museums, conscientious objectors to the war, and civic groups. The Vietnamese American community is robust and closely connected, and strong partnership out- reach efforts can begin with local Vietnamese small-business owners associations, local churches, Asian American studies programs or clubs at local universities, fraternities and sororities, in-language local media and publishers, transnational adoption agencies, and community benefit organizations servicing Southeast Asians in public and mental health care management. For detailed information on engaging the veterans community, please refer to page 12 of this guide. Work with partners to do the following: • Provide advice and guidance on your plans and engagement activities. • Have partners host or contribute to community screening/discussion events. Create other mean- ingful engagement activities that serve your community with your partners. • Offer advice and address language or cultural barriers to understanding in order to create mean- ingful engagement activities for everyone (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and the idea of “mental health” is not a common concept for many Southeast Asians). COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND ENGAGEMENT GUIDE / 3 GENERAL WILLIAM WESTMORELAND AND PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON, APRIL 4, 1968. COURTESY OF THE LYNDON B. JOHNSON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES • Serve as local experts on panels or suggest representatives to ensure inclusivity and diverse points of view in the discussion. • Provide content or support social media efforts around events or larger engagement activities. Like the film itself, engagement efforts need to be detailed and multi-sided. Reach out to as many orga- nizations as possible to maximize conversations about The Vietnam War and work with these partners to build an impactful campaign around the film. HOW TO SET UP A SCREENING The Vietnam War is a divisive subject that can invoke a variety of emotions. Make sure that when produc- ing screening events you select diverse organizations with varying points of view. Be prepared to discuss difficult issues in a respectful manner, steering away from any angry rhetoric. This means selecting a host or facilitator who can manage a respectful dialogue among participants and the community. • Reach out to your partners: For a screening event, partners may be able to do the following: • Serve as or provide advice on local experts for a panel discussion. • Provide opportunities to host the event. • Help you reach new audiences and share information to their networks. • Give your partners opportunities to host a table or provide additional information and resources at an event. • Recruit the right facilitator: Recruit a host or moderator who can facilitate an interesting and respectful discussion after the screening, drawing out answers from the panel that are suitable for the audience. The role of the host is to keep the discussion moving while remaining neutral COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND ENGAGEMENT GUIDE / 4 and fair. Your host need not be an expert in the field, but rather someone who can facilitate discussion and create a safe environment where the audience members also feel free to voice their thoughts and pose questions. A good host or moderator should plan on previewing the screener in advance. • Select diverse panelists: Recruit local experts and invite them to participate in a panel discussion or Q&A about issues brought up in the screener. Look at the screening topic and try to bring together a diverse range of panelists with differing views, including those from veterans orga- nizations, the Vietnamese American community, and civic and humanities groups, as well as conscientious
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