For Anthony Florez, who grew up in the Westside neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, sharing memories of his Army service during the Vietnam War was a chance to remember the conflict of the era, at home and abroad.
“A lot of people didn’t like the idea that we were fighting the war. We didn’t get a welcome home like they do now,” Florez remembered.
“I just got off the plane, and I was walking down the terminal and some girl came up behind me, started beating me on my back and started calling me baby killer,” he said. “So anyway, that was my welcome home.”
In other years, recollections like Florez’s have been presented to the Library of Congress as part of the "Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War" oral history project, in a ceremony at the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, Kansas.
Thanks to federal cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which then hit Humanities Kansas, this year’s event had to be moved, a luncheon for the veterans was called off, and organizers at one point thought the whole thing might be cancelled.
Cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency in early April eliminated $65 million from state operating budgets overnight and abruptly terminated all federal grants for state humanities councils.
Despite the odds, on May 9, historian Gene Chávez greeted the veterans and their families for a revamped handover event at American Legion Post 213, in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.
“We are at what it is called the Eagle's Nest,” said Chávez, historian in residence at the Kansas City Museum. Chávez is known for documenting the experiences of Mexicans and other immigrants in the Midwest.
He also helped secure the space for free, and chipped in with bagels, coffee and other refreshments.
“It is an American Legion Post that was formed by former soldiers, GIs, when they came back from World War II, that serves particularly the Hispanic community — but everyone’s welcome here,” he said.
The Kansas oral history project started with a first round of Kansas veterans in 2017, but Chávez said he felt the project was missing the perspective of Hispanic veterans who served in Vietnam. So, when the oral histories project was proposed again last year in 11 communities across Kansas, he helped fill the gap.
The veterans and their family members gathered at the Eagles Nest were the result of that effort.
“It was very significant to be able to interview the guys that I interviewed and hear their stories,” Chávez said. “For those who did go into combat, it was very moving to hear their stories, and it was emotional for them and for me.”
Chávez’s work was funded by a $5,000 grant from Humanities Kansas, an organization he has worked with since 1998. He served on their board and later in the nonprofit’s Speakers Bureau and the Talk About Literature series.
Despite the venue changes, Chávez said the smaller gathering worked out well.
“As it turned out, it was a very nice time together,” Chávez said in a phone call after the event. “It was more intimate than I think it would have been at the Dole Center, where you had individuals from throughout the state of Kansas.”
Humanities cuts around the country
The rippling effect of the NEH cuts cancelled at least 1,200 grants, impacting programs at state humanities councils, museums, historical sites, libraries, and universities, according to the Washington Post. Without immediate intervention, many state nonprofits like Humanities Kansas and Missouri Humanities faced reductions or even closure.
But in late April, the Mellon Foundation, already the largest private arts and humanities funder in the country, stepped in and committed to donating $15 million in emergency funding to stabilize state humanities councils.
“But the amount of money that Mellon was able to invest in this emergency moment is really just a drop in the bucket in terms of the overall budget — not just of the humanities councils, but also of the NEH,” said Phillip Brian Harper, Mellon’s program director for Higher Learning.
In fiscal year 2025, NEH awarded more than $74 million in grants and provided $60 million for state affiliates, according to an endowment press release.
As part of Mellon’s donation, the foundation agreed to provide all state humanities councils $200,000 in emergency funding, plus up to $50,000 in a one-to-one matching fund.
“The work of the humanities councils touches people across the entire nation, and people depend on that programming, so we saw support for the humanities councils as the way to reach as many people as possible in the face of these cuts,” said Harper.
Humanities Kansas Associate Director Tracy Quillin said, since the cuts were announced, it’s been an ever changing scenario for the independent nonprofit. She said 84% of their funding comes through the NEH.
“We have jumped into action but it's challenging,” she said. “We have suspended some of our programs and grants that provide funding to community cultural organizations across the state, mostly in small communities.”
Quillin said everyone was disappointed the oral history handover event did not go as planned.
"Vietnam veterans are getting older and the opportunity to preserve these stories is fleeting," she said. "These stories are really quite powerful and quite moving."
At the ceremony in Kansas City, Monica Mohindra, director of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, noted the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and said it is becoming more urgent to capture these memories before they are lost.
“There's this concept that you pass away once when you leave the earth, and you pass away again when people are no longer saying your name,” she said. “Oral histories give us that opportunity to make sure that that story, that experience — the lived experience of our nation's veterans — continues to benefit all, long past what we think of as those first two deaths.”
Kansas stories join Library of Congress
The handover may have been more informal than it has been in previous years, but the result is the same: the stories Chávez collected will now be archived with 121,000 other oral histories at the Library of Congress.
Army veteran Robert Mesa’s story is among them. Mesa lives in North Kansas City and served as military police in Vietnam. He said the war affected him mentally and physically.
“When you've seen people die — people you know — you can't be a friend,” Mesa said. “If you get too close to them somebody's going to be killed, so it's just best to go ahead and stay by yourself. And that's pretty much what I did.”
Mesa said he was exposed to Agent Orange, an herbicide that was used by the U.S. military to clear vegetation in the Southeast Asian jungle and foliage around basecamps during the war.
Although he suffered from health problems when he returned home, Mesa didn’t find out that he was exposed to the dangerous chemical until a few years ago.
“A lot of people like me have Agent Orange, and you're dealing with medical problems within your body. It affects you in so many ways,” Mesa said. “Psychologically too, the war itself was not good. I mean, I imagine seeing so many people die. I went to Vietnam, and now I'm paying for it.”
Many of the veterans Chávez spoke with shared their stories for the first time.
“They felt like it was important that their stories be told, even though some were reluctant, and even some of their families said, ‘Well, he doesn't talk much about it,’” Chávez said. “But they really opened up and it was really quite moving for me to do that and to document their stories.”
Without the restoration of Humanities Kansas’ federal operating grant, the group’s associate director said the future for the nonprofit is unclear.
“While we're able to keep functioning because of resources that we have on hand, it's really a question of if that funding goes away for good,” Quillen said. “Then our organization wouldn't be able to support and keep up with the demand for the work that we were doing across the state.”
“It's just not possible,” she said.
