Engaging the Public With American History

NEH funded events—hosted in towns across the nation—brought communities together to view and discuss *The Vietnam War*. Image courtesy of WETA.

Since 1970, NEH grants have helped WETA, the Greater Washington PBS affiliate, bring humanities programming to the nation. NEH funding for projects like Ken Burns’ The Civil War, Jeff Bieber’s Latino Americans, and Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s Prohibition and The Vietnam War has ensured that high-quality documentaries interpreting the history of the United States are available in classrooms and homes throughout our nation. And NEH funding for expanded public engagement with The Vietnam War helped veterans and communities around the country access the ten-part documentary series and reflect on what the war meant for individual people and our nation.

NEH-supported films produced by WETA have reached broad audiences, educating and touching the lives of viewers worldwide. Just one example, The Vietnam War, premiered during September 2017 to broad acclaim and garnered 33.8 million viewers during its initial run. Between its premiere on September 17 and December 31, 2017, the series was streamed more than 13 million times and a Vietnamese-language subtitled version was streamed more than 1.1 million times. In a PBS-conducted survey, 92% of respondents agreed that they learned something from watching the film, and 86% felt they had a better understanding of the Vietnam War and its era as a result of watching the series.

Public programs associated with *The Vietnam War* gave veterans new opportunities to reflect upon their experiences and share with others. Image courtesy of WETA.

For millions of Americans, The Vietnam War provided access to a critical part of our nation’s history. For others, the film was a reflection of their own lived experiences. Recognizing this, WETA and NEH set out to meaningfully engage veterans and their communities with the film. With NEH funding, WETA provided 81 subgrants to 74 PBS-affiliate stations to support public engagement with the film. Stations hosted film screenings, lectures, and panels, and collected more than 3,790 local stories related to the Vietnam War. And the programs have had lasting impacts for veterans and their communities. Following a Q&A with Vietnam veteran John Musgrave in Kansas City, Missouri, attendees rallied to raise money to send Musgrave and his wife on a trip to Vietnam—a trip he had wanted to make but unable to afford on his own. In Salt Lake City, Utah, NEH funding supported an art exhibition featuring the work of Vietnam veterans that has since traveled the state. And in Vermillion, South Dakota, NEH funding helped the local station reach out to Native American veterans, offering them opportunities to reflect on and share their stories through discussion panels and story collection events. Cumulatively, these events provided communities around the country with opportunities to support and learn from their veterans, while learning about a crucial period of American history.