Vietnam Peace
Commemoration Committee
Program and Funding
September 1, 2020 – June
30, 2021
Background
VPCC was formed in 2014 in response to the US Department of Defense
campaign to locate and award all military personnel during the Vietnam era. Between 2015 to 2025 the Pentagon will hold hundreds
of local events with the support of traditional veterans’ organizations,
Daughters of the American Revolution, and community, high school and university
sports groups.
A letter initiated by Tom Hayden, David Cortright and John McAuliff to
oppose this project collected over 1500 signers and was featured in a front
page story in the New York Times on October 9, 2014 and in a follow-up on July
26, 2016.
The VPCC goal is to monitor the Pentagon, challenge its version of the
history of the war in Vietnam and celebrate the power of the anti-war
movement. Through multiple gatherings we
have publicly commemorated the 1967 March on the Pentagon, the 1968 massacre at
My Lai, and the 1969 Mobilization and Moratorium. We sponsored a large weekend conference in
2015 of 675 activists, scholars and leaders in Washington, a series of public
vigils at the Pentagon, White House, Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial and the
Vietnam Memorial Wall, opinion articles in newspapers, educational events, an
active website and blog as well as a youtube channel.
Commemoration in the time of Covid-19
Beginning in the fall of 2019, VPCC began planning for the 50th
anniversary of the student killings at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in
Mississippi. We also worked closely with
faculty and staff at both universities to prepare events to be held on May 1-4,
2020, at Kent State and on April 4 and May 16, 2020, at Jackson State. But due to the coronavirus, these public
events were cancelled.
In their place both schools held their own webinars with our support,
and we organized two zoom programs of our own to commemorate the National
Student Strike, Kent State, Jackson State and the Chicano Moratorium. In fact, we discovered new opportunities from
this on line format. More people could
participate without coming to Washington, DC, where all of our previous events
were held, or by going to the two campuses. For summaries and links to all the programs, click here: <https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2020/05/follow-up-to-may-9-vpcc-50th.html>.
Subsequently we held three zoom programs to commemorate the
normalizations of relations between the government of Vietnam and the United
States by reviewing the effort to achieve it between 1975 and 1995. The US experience was presented on July 6 and
the Vietnamese experience on July 8. They
were followed by an open zoom binational discussion on July 13. All were
well received and are available by clicking here <https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2020/07/webinars-on-normalization-of-us-viet.html> .
Consequently,
we are planning to host a series of webinars through June, 2021.
Webinars and programs under development
Religious Opposition to the war
in Indochina: A task force has been
convened to plan for one or two webinars to remember the significant
participation of various religious constituencies which opposed the war. From Clergy and Laity Concerned, National
Council of Churches, Catholic Left, peace churches, religiously-affiliated
peace organizations, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Southern Christian
Leadership Conference to local church coalitions, church-sponsored draft
counseling, fasts, civil disobedience, and religion news editors, we will share
their stories and experiences, levels of cooperation and how churches
influenced the larger anti-war movement.
In addition, we plan to discuss how that experience can inform today's
social justice work undertaken by churches.
Our tentative schedule is early 2021.
Da 5 Bloods and The People vs
Agent Orange: Our goal is to host webinars so that viewers of Spike Lee's latest
film, "Da 5 Bloods" now available on Netflix, and "The People vs
Agent Orange", a PBS documentary by Alan Adelson due in the spring, can
evaluate and discuss. We have made
contact with Netflix and Lee's production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, in
order to plan and participate. In
addition, we plan to educate people about the continually lingering health and
environmental hazards presented by US military use of Agent Orange during the
war.
People's Peace Treaty: One of the most significant strategies of
the anti-war movement was the student led campaign for supporting a negotiated
settlement created in December 1970 and made public in 1971. Students from the US worked with counterparts
in Saigon and Hanoi to finalize the text.
The treaty was adopted by hundreds of campuses and student body leaders
as well as local governments and broadly endorsed by prominent cultural and
political figures. Its content presaged
the negotiated settlement between the US and Vietnam in January 1973. We have already collected numerous documents
and are in touch with people in the US and Vietnam who supported the treaty. If schools are in regular session by the
spring, we hope to stimulate local events recalling their adoption of the
Treaty. https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2020/02/peoples-peace-treaty-with-us.html.
The Boys Who Said No!: A new film about resistance to the draft will
be released in the United States soon.
It has already made its premier in Australia with film-maker Judith
Ehrlich present. We are working with the
production team to plan a webinar either this fall 2020 or early next year
2021.
The Spring Offensive: In
early 2021, we plan to support or organize a webinar to recall the 1971 Winter
Soldier hearings held by veterans to hear testimony on US military atrocities
and violations of international law (Jan 31 - Feb 2) . Following the lead of veterans organizations,
we will commemorate Operation Dewey Canyon (April 19-23) the public and powerful display of tossing war
medals at the Capitol, and the historic testimony by John Kerry (April 22).
A program and/or
webinar will also recognize civilian opposition to the war manifested by mass
demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco (April 26) and by the
unprecedented civil disobedience of 12,000 May Day arrests in Washington (May
1-6).
Release of the Pentagon Papers: Made public by the New York Times on June 13,
1971, we are inviting Dan Ellsberg and others to our spring 2021 webinar to
remember the power of whistle-blowing and how the Pentagon Papers changed
public opinion and the course of the war.
Budget and Funding
Although other webinars may also be planned, we present here our budget
for the 6 events listed above. Your
support will be appreciated.
Part-time
consultant $1000/month $10,000
Social
media promotion $500/webinar 3,000
Zoom
costs $250/webinar 1,500
Website
maintenance $50/month 500
Total $15,000
Tax-deductible
checks and foundation grants may be made payable to our fiscal sponsor, the
Fund for
Reconciliation and Development (FFRD) (please note to add VPCC to memo line).
And mailed
to:
FFRD
64 Jean
Court
Riverhead,
NY 11901-6304
For more
information or questions, please contact VPCC staff person:
Terry
Provance
terryprovance@gmail.com
202-686-7843
Thank you for your
support!
