CAVWV "Completing the Record"

CAVWV Documentary Series

"Completing the Record"

Section I. Introcution & Motivation
Section II. Legislation
Section III. Attempts to gain funding
Section IV. Supporting Documentation

With regards to the Ken Burns Documenary Series "The Vietnam War."

"In propaganda truth pays... It is a complete delusion to think of the brilliant propagandist as being a professional liar. The brilliant propagandist is the man who tells the truth, or that selection of the truth which is requisite for his purpose, and tells it in such a way that the recipient does not think he is receiving any propaganda... [...] The art of propaganda is not telling lies, but rather selecting the truth you require and giving it mixed up with some truths the audience wants to hear."
Richard Crossman, British Deputy Director of Psychological Warfare, WWII

Section I - Introduction & Motivation

The Story of the First Asian Documentary series on the Vietnam Conflict is complicated and enduring as it demonstrates the desire and determination of those who lived in Southeast Asian during this time of conflict to have their accounts told and archived for fuure geneations.

Introduction.
After Ken Burns 2017 broadcast of his Documentary Series "The Vietnam War" many of our allies were disappointed that Laos and Cambodia had been omitted from the series. Arguably one third of the war was fought in those two countries. The desire of our Asian Allies for a Documentary Series to be made and complete the record the Burns Film had omitted burned in their hearts and psyche. The omission of Laos and Cambodia stung intensely and that sting had not subsided over time. Various efforts had been attempted by other Southest Asian Communities in the United States without success.. These efforts had great enthusiastic support form their communities but failed largely due to the inability to secure funding.

Fortunately the State of Minnesota had established a fund to preserve Minnesotas Heritage and Legacy. This fund was established by Amendmending State Constitution and the resulting fund made available and accessible to all Minnesotans. This Fund is called the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. (More information about this fund can be found below).

The State of Minnesota has one of the largest and most diverse Asian populations in the United States consisting of Vietnamese, Lao, Hmong, Cambodian, Thai, Japanese, Tibetan, Chinese, South Korean, Afghan, Burmese (Karen) and many others.

Process in appropriating the Fund.
Accessing this Fund seems to have changed over time but currently the process is a member of the State legislature authors a bill for funding. It is then referred to the either the House or Senate Legacy Committees depenting on which chamber the author is a member. That commitee then calls a hearing so the author can explain to bill and answer questions from the commitee. If the commitee has no objections the bill is referred to be included in that years onmibus bill. The House and Senate omnibus bills are then sent to reconciliation committee who then determines if the bill is included in the Legilature Legacy funding bill which is then voted on by the Legislature. The Chairman of each committee has the power to call the bill for a hearing if not called it dies and can be reintroduced in the next session. The Chairman in effect is the gatekeeper of the Fund. Funds are often appropriated directly to a non-profit or can be sent to a "pass through" organization that is directed to administer the funds.

It is a very compliicated process but the key person in the process is the author of the bill and the Chairman "gatekeeper" of each Legacy committee. The Chairman determines the fate of the bill from the very start. If the bill fails at any part of the process it dies and can be reintroduced in the next sessoin. Therfore, the process starts all over again.

Motivation.
The Minnesota Caombodian community had attempted to gain funding as early as 2013 for story collection without success. A coalition of Asian Veterns was organized and attempted to gain funding for projects in 2015 and 2017 without success. In 2017 the Ken Burns film series was released and was promoted by a grant to Twin Cities Public Television. As stated above Laos and Cambodia had been omitted form the PBS film however the Hmong has two films made by TPT again omitting all other southeast asian communities.

In 2017 the CAVWV the only known coaliton of allied vietnam war veterans head quartered in Saint Paul was approached by numerous Veterans and asked if the Coalition might help with the documentary series. The CAVWV one of if not the most respected Vietnam war organizations of Vietnam War veterasns and who had access to United States Military, Agency and Asian Veterans internationally, accepted the challenge and recruited 13 film makers in Minnesota to produce a nine episode series with the emphasis on Asian narrative. If produced it would be the first of its kind known to exist.

Concept.
Initial planning was to produce nine episodes which would consist of one episode focusing on the historical background of Southest Asia and prelude to the war. Six episodes whould focuss on the three geographical areas in Southeast Asia i.e. Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. One would focus on the United States Special Forcess and CIA covert operations with our allies during the war. And the last would focus on the aftermath of the war and immigration to the United States and Minnesota.

Proof of Concept.
Knowing to struggle the Cambodians and oher Asian communites was having in gaining funding the Coalition approached funding by incrementally asking for funds and demonstrating the ability of the Organization to administer and produce initial story collection which was neccessary to collect content for the film. Once the concept had gained confidence with Legislators the film series would move forward, funded and the first episodes produced in time for the 50th Anniversay of the ending of the Vietnam War.

Community Mobilization.
On every occation a bill was introduced our Asian Veterans and their Communities mobilized to lobby in support of the funding for the film series. Khao Insixiengmay a distinguished and highly respected retired Colonel of the Royal Lao Armed Forces and Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) played a pivotal role in lobbying for the legislation. He lived and had a professional relationship with Speaker Mellisa Hortman arguably the most influential person in the State Legislature at the time. It is said nothing gets passed in the Legislature with out the Speakers approval.

Failure to get hearings.
Session after session our projects failed to get a hearings. No reason was ever given, though inquires were made. This began a continuous effort by our Asian Communities to gain funding.

That story follows.

Section II - Legislation Text and History of Denied Funding

As the amounts of the legislaltion had changed form year to year the text published below is the last language of our attempt in the 2023 session authored by Speaker Hoffman.

2008 - Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund Established

2013 - Cambodian Community sought funding for story collection.
Denied a hearing

Pictured are the members of the Cambodian Cummunity discussing archiving community story collection with Minnesota Historical Society archivist Ryan Barland.

2015 - Veterans seek funding for Allied Vietnam War Memorial
Authors include: Howe,
Denied a hearing - see more about the controvery and about their effort here:

Memorial controversy

2017 - Twin Cities Puic Television

TPT sought and obtained funding to promote the PBS-Ken Burns Film which omited Laos and Cambodia and awarding the Hmong a separate local documentary. This was a contriuting factor in the Asian communities desire to complete the record of the war.
As part of the promotion the Minnesota Humanities Center sponsored the Veterans Voices program where several Asian veterans participated. The Center offered a $25,000 grant after the program ended. That grant was divided and was awarded to non veteran organizations with the exeption of one, SGU Veterans and Families of the USA, INC.
The attention given to the Hmong by Twin Cities Public Television and the Veterans Voices Program at The Minnesota Humaninties Center is astonishing.

See examples here:

1)  Hope for the Hmong People
2) TPT Minnesota Remembers Vietnam, "The Secret War"   https://www.tpt.org/americas-secret-war/
3) PBS "The Secret War,"   https://www.pbs.org/video/americas-secret-war-f55rln/

2019 - Coalition sought funding for Story Collection in preparation for their Film Series.

Legislation text - HF 2797 & SF 2778.
Authors include: Green, Poston, Daniels, Newton, Marty, Eaton, Hoffman, Senjem
Hearing was denied in the House but a hearing was called in the Senate, however the Coalition was only given 2 hours to arrive at the hearing and testify. This effort failed as it was not included in the Legacy Bill that year.

Hearing denied in the House

Hearing Called in the Senate with only 2 hours notice for our testifiers to attend,
It failed to be included in the Legacy Appropriation Bill that year

2019 - Asian Studies Curriculum

A group of Asian educators formed a committee to offer their expertise in helping create a Asian Studies Curriculum in the Minnesota Schools which the Department of Education was reviewing that year, Since Minnesota has one of he largest and most diverse Asian populatins in the U.S. and since their were curiculums only sporadic Hmong studies they thought it importand to offer thier expertise. Sen. Roger Chamberlin authored the bill in the Senate and a meeting was arranged with Rep. Khouly Her who sat on the Education Committee and two other Hmong Representatives as the educators thought they would have a speical interest in the curriculum. Dr. Ha Tuong, Dr. Steve Young and Scott Walkr represented the educators, Rep. J. Xiong, Samantha Vanf and Khouly Her also attended the meeting. A teribile argument occure etween Dr. Young and Rep. Her. The effort died as the Hmong Representatives had no interest in supporting the effort.

2021 - Film Sereis Funding sought, The year of Covid.

The Covid pandemic hit our state hard and the State Legilature struggled to conduct business.For the most part our policy makers made the best of a bad cituation and legilsative business chugged along without much disruption. The Film Series again did not get a hearing in either Legacy Committee.

Hearing denied.

2023 - Film Series Funding sought.-

Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader John Hoffman authored the bill.
Hearing denied.

Hearing denied.

Section III - Attempts to gain funding

2019 - First failure, hearings denied;

The video of that amendment and opposition by Hmong Reprasentaives can be found hear: the exchange begins at - 37:04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgu1OKjJQqE

2021 - Second failure, hearings denied; HF2428 - SF2335

A second attempt was made in 2021. That effort ended in failure as well as our bill failed to get a hearing in with either Legacy Committees. Again Chaired by Rep. Leion Lillie in the House which had three Hmong legislator on the Commitee and Sen. Fong Hawj's Senate Committee which had one other Hmong Senators other than himself on that committee. That year Rep. Steve Green again attempted to amend the Legacy Omnibus bill without success.

The video of that Omnibus amendment and the opposition can be found hear: The exchange begins at - 19:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiu_kW5u1bE&list=PL215WnxBOAeyUKkAhC5X_bXGHFWrNCb_G&index=74

2023 - Third failure, hearings denied; HF3208 - SF3227

The third attempt was made in 2023. This time on the advise of Sen. John Hoffman a good friend of CL Insixiengmay Khao that we should approach our Representatives in the House and Senate from which we resided. Those two representatives were Rep. Khouly Her an Sen. Erin Murphy. When the attempt was made to get a meeting with Rep. Khouly Her our phone calls were not returned. Given the exchange of the previous year this was not a surprise. Our attempt to get an appointment with Sen. Murphy was different. A phone call was placed and answered by Sen. Murphy's Legislative Assistant Alexis Kise. She asked if we would email the Sen. asking for an appointment. The first email provided an appointment date. But was followed by an unavailable to meet on that date email. A second date was arranged and booked only to be followed by an email that that appointment could not be honored and the Sen. would try to work us in soon. Three weeks had now passed and no meeting or correspondence was exchanged until Mr. Walker called the Senators office and left a voice mail with Alexis Kise abut the urgency of a meeting. Alexis Kise returned the phone call later stating that the Senator was unavailable for a meeting before dead line for our bill had to be introduced. She stated the Senator had mistaken the meeting was for legislation to be introduced next year not this. There was no misunderstanding.

With CL Khao our delegation returning to Sen. Hoffman office to discuss the situation at hand. He agreed to author the legislation as a gesture of friendship with CL Khao provided we meet with Sen. Fong Hawj. We dutifully marched down to Sen. Fong Hawj office where he was concluding a meeting with several Somalie Community Members. When he exited his office he was a bet taken aback at the site of Southeast Asians waiting for him. We explained the purpose of the visit and the request Sen. Hoffman had made. Sen. Hawj was polite but stated that the last hearing for any Legacy Funding was the day before and he was not going to hold any more hearing this year. He suggested we try to find smaller amounts by private funding or try again next session. We had not shared the bill with him and so he could not have known about the bill and the amount if not told ahead of time by someone else. It was at this time we noticed Sen. Erin Murphy meeting with a guest in her office directly next door to Sen Hawj's. You can draw what conclusion from that as you may. We certainly have our opinion.

Since Rep. Her was not returning calls for an appointment we met with Speaker Hortman and told her of our situation with CL Khao in tow. She and Senator Hoffman for years had led CL Khao that they would help him gain finial support for his community without success.

We had two bills needing introduced. One was for collecting stories to be recorded and archived in the Library of Congress and used as source material for the film series. The other was for the film series itself. She agreed to author one bill in the House by combining the story collection with the film series. The text of that bill can be found above. We asked if we should help gathering co-sponors, she said no she would take care of that. Our bill was denied a hearing by Chairman Leon Lillie. Several Hmong legislators were on that committee.

That year the Hmong had several Legacy Bills introduced of which all got hearings in both the House and Senate Legacy Committees and all were passed. The other asian communities also had legislation however two were heard in committee one was a New Lao organization with close personal ties to Sen. Fong Hawj and the other was a bill providing grants to other communities in preparation for the 50th Commemoration of the Vietnam War. That grant money was to be appropriated by competitive grant process. Bids were submitted and awarded, The vast majority of the money went to Hmong bidders.

2025 - Ending of the Film Series effort.

Our effort to get Legacy Funding appropriated for our series died this year as certain legislator gatekeepers have demonstrated the successful ability to block the funding.
It should be noted that while our Veterans have concluded their effort a more energetic generation of community members have risen to take on the challenge of archiving their histories. Our Veterans, much older now have given their whole hearted support of this next generation Asian Minnesotans.

In 2023 and 2025 the Hmong have legislation amounting in the millions of dollars. This year one bill granting the Southeast Asian Communities a funding opportunity to commemorate the ending of the Vietnam War was introduced by Rep. Jim Nash in the House and by Sen. Sandy Pappas in the Senate to award grant money on a competitive basis to the Minnesota Humanities Center to administer the appropriation in HF1440 & SF874 for the amount of $500,000 which is to be divided by th Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese Communities.

However SF 874 as predicted did not get a hearing in the Senate Legacy Committee, Chaired by Sen. Fong Hawj, he closed the Committee early and therefore denying the bill a hearing. HF 1440 had better luck as it did get a hearing in the House Legacy Committee Chaired by Rep. Joe McDonald. It has been included into the House Omnibus bill.
.
However it is not likely the bill will be funded as there is likely opposition from a certain Legislators.

Committee on Finance - Legacy Omnibus Bill Hearing
A31 Amendment Arts & Heritage Page8 on Spreadsheet
Legacy Hearing begins at 32:00 mark

https://www.youtube.com/live/zV0YnvunvEo