The Vietnam War Expanded Engagement

FAIN: GI-234992-16

Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (Arlington, VA 22206-3440)
Anne Harrington (Project Director: August 2015 to June 2018)

Implementation of public programs and discussions nation-wide to accompany the eighteen-hour documentary series by Ken Burns, The Vietnam War.

This proposal requests support for a national engagement campaign to accompany The Vietnam War, an eighteen-hour documentary film series about the history and meaning of the Vietnam War, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick of Florentine Films, co-produced by WETA, and slated for PBS broadcast in 2017. As the first major documentary assessment of the subject since the early 1980s, the time for this national conversation is overdue. The dialogue will take place in many venues: across generations and throughout America, between pro and anti-war factions, between veterans of different wars, among policy makers and leaders, through social media and online, between military and civilian communities and within the military itself, in high school and college classrooms, and across America’s many racial and ethnic divides. The national engagement effort will be focused on three key areas: community engagement, digital and new media, and educational initiatives.