This semester, students in my Introduction to Public History course will be developing short documentary videos to accompany oral histories that UCF’s Veterans Legacy Project VLP team members have conducted with Vietnam War veterans. In preparation for beginning this group project, I am currently reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, viewing Ken Burns’ multi-episode documentary on the Vietnam War, and viewing a selection of VLP interviews with Vietnam War veterans, which are available on the Library of Congress website. Through my initial reading and viewing, I have been shocked to realize the extent of my lack of knowledge about the Vietnam War, even as a history MA student focusing on US history. (I found that I knew some background information about efforts to protest the Vietnam War, but minimal knowledge about the war itself!) I also have had surprisingly little connection to the war in my personal life, despite the fact that my parents (and presuma...