Advance Work with PBS Stations re Vietnam Series

               PBS stations across the entire country are already planning engagement with their communities.  This could include interviews filmed beforehand and broadcast to complement showings, as well as public on or off air panels, web based conversations and community forums.  While we have not seen the series, we know it does include opponents of the war.  Accordingly stations will be interested in providing a local dimension to the anti-war movement and will welcome your assistance. 

              It is essential to contact them as soon as possible.  Call the station and ask for both the community outreach and  communications staff person.  Ask for a meeting for yourself and others to discuss their plans for the series.  If you did not live in this location during the war, or were not active in the anti-war movement there, try to identify before the meeting local people who were as civilians or veterans, either to bring with you or to cite as resources.  As a current resident in the station’s viewing area, your experiences elsewhere in opposing the war should also be relevant.   

              Try to identify people who were against the war while in the military, received bad discharges, went to prison for draft resistance or left the country and received amnesty.  Find out who organized local protests or participation in national demonstrations.  Religious institutions may have hosted draft counseling or conducted weekly vigils.  Colleges and universities might have been the sites of teach-ins, peaceful or militant demonstrations, student strikes, or the expulsion or destruction of ROTC programs and buildings.   Researching newspaper archives, including "underground" papers, and conversations with retired professors, ministers and journalists could be productive in unearthing a rich local history that deserves permanent recognition.

              If the station is not responsive, let us know and we will share that with the producers of the series at Florentine Films and WETA, the lead station for PBS.

              The most intense coverage will be in the lead up to and during the initial two weeks of daily broadcasts.  We’re hopeful that the conversation will continue through the fall with the weekly segment rebroadcasts and beyond, including at participating libraries--and that people who were active in the anti-war movement in many different ways have a chance to participate.

              Your own independent programs can also be set in motion now for the period of screenings that offer personal experiences of veterans, anti-war activists and Indochinese-Americans, inviting the public and local media.  They can take place at religious institutions, campuses, civic centers or veterans halls.  Ideally they will be cosponsored by local peace, veterans and immigrant groups, including Vietnam Veterans of America*, Vets for Peace** and Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as the PBS station.  Many Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion chapters are now led by the Vietnam generation and may also be interested. 

              One approach is to plan public meetings on Friday or Saturday evenings (September 22/23, September 29/30) to review and reflect on the five segments shown the preceding Sunday to Thursday, not least about the consequences for veterans and the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

        And please let Terry Provance <terryprovance@gmail.com> and John McAuliff  <jmcauliff@ffrd.org> know what you are doing and quickly if there are any problems.


*  Vietnam Veterans of America chapter locator
scroll down to "Locate a VVA chapter"  https://vva.org/what-we-do/our-members/

** Vets for Peace chapter contacts  https://www.veteransforpeace.org/files/2014/9452/1743/17.05.11.ChapterContacts.pdf


Experience of VPCC Committee member Steve Ladd in San Francisco

The community engagement person I spoke with at KQED overall was quite receptive. She did note that most stations are not large enough to fund such a position. The work around Vietnam series events may be done by marketing or communications staff. She recommended it's best to call and just ask to speak with the people who are organizing events around the series. And if the person who answers isn't sure, ask to speak with the marketing or communications staff.

KQED is planning several smaller events before the broadcast and one larger town hall afterwards. Other stations may also be doing something similar. The pre-events are: Vietnamese community discussion in San Jose (a closed session first to discuss sensitive issues internally, with a public session to follow); a homeless vets outreach event working with vets organizations; and an event at the station with antiwar movement folks telling their stories (75 seats). She scheduled the call with me as a potential lead partner for that event. So, I'll be pulling together and proposing to her a range of people locally.  None of these events will be filmed, but there may be audio recordings.

The townhall event after the broadcast, likely in early October, will feature a variety of people from different experiences and perspectives, culled in part from the earlier events, to reflect on the series. It will be held on the USS Hornet, now a museum in Alameda CA. It may be broadcast, but she wasn't sure yet.

It seemed that my contact at the station was quite happy that I had earlier email contact since she was looking for someone who could help her bring in people representing the peace movement. So, in calls to stations, I would encourage people not only to ask what the station has planned and how they can participate, but also that they could be a useful partner to suggest people who could be presenters or lead participants in events (as well as helping encourage people to attend planned events).

She also promised to send me a link to an hour long version of the film they will show at public events prior to discussion.