Tag Archives: Marc Selverstone

Roundup: William Tong, Jake Sussman, Marc Selverstone, Talmage Boston,

Posted on March 25, 2025 | 1 comment

Attorney General William Tong spoke to a large Y’s Women crowd yesterday.

He described the impact of state lawsuits against tobacco and pharmaceutical firms. Up next: social media companies.

The AG — one of nearly 2 dozen who have sued Donald Trump and his administration, in several cases — said that the president must follow judges, and the law. States have the “checks and balances” power to keep the executive branch in check, he noted.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong with (from left) Y’s Women president Vera DeStefano and vice president Catherine Albin. (Photo/Jilda Manikas)

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Jake Sussman is not yet 30. But — as founder of Superpower Mentors, an online mentoring program that empowers young people with learning differences to confidently succeed in any environment — he has already made a difference in thousands of lives.

On April 10 (6:30 p.m., Woodway Country Club, Darien) the Westport native will be honored at Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities‘ annual gala. Sussman will receive the Norwalk-based non-profit’s “Be the Difference” Award.

Jake has spent thosands of hours personally mentoring neurodiverse youth around the world. He often uses his own experiences with learning differences in his work.

“As someone who once struggled to see my own potential, I know firsthand that the right mentorship can change everything,” he says.

“The world’s biggest problems will be solved by those who think differently. I am committed to making sure every young person sees their differences as their greatest superpower.”

Click here for tickets, and more information.

Jake Sussman

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Sunday’s community conversation about the Representative Town Meeting was informative, insightful and fun. (And I’m not just saying that because I was the moderator.)

If you want to know more about our town’s legislative body — what it does; what motivates people to run; what they get out of it — click below.

PS: RTM members want competitive races. It makes everyone better. If you’re thinking of running for a seat this fall, the video above may motivate you.

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Westport did it again!

On Sunday — in just one hour — residents donated 180 bags of food and household items — to Homes with Hope’s Gillespie Center and food pantry.

Others send supplies through Amazon.

The collection was sponsored by Marcy Sansolo, the Facebook “What Up Westport” page creator and avid town volunteer (and most recent “06880” Unsung Hero).

Along with donors, the Imperial Avenue parking lot collection point was visited by Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden, Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service president Jaime Bairaktaris, CLASP Homes president Tracy Flood, Gillespie Center pantry manager Sarah Carusone, and the general manager of Fresh Market.

Fresh Market had offered a great deal to Marcy. She bought 100 pounds of beef, and 100 more pounds of chicken, to augment the other donations.

Marcy got a tour of the newly renovated Gillespie Center. “I was so moved by everyone involved, and in awe of all the goodness surrounding me” she says — referring to the homeless shelter, food pantry, and all who helped with the collection.

Marcy Sansolo and Sarah Carusone, Homes with Hope food pantry manager. (Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)

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More politics (national version): Last Thursday was “Westport Day,” at the prestigious Virginia Festival of the Book.

Historian (and 1972 Staples High School graduate) Talmage Boston, discussed his new book, “How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents.”

The moderator was 1980 Staples grad Marc Selverstone, the University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs’ director of presidential studies.

Referencing America’s 8 greatest presidents, Boston explored how their leadership traits can be applied today. 

In the audience were Dave Harrison, a legendary Staples social studies teacher who taught both Boston and Selverstone, and his wife, former SHS educator Marianne Harrison, along with Selverstone’s parents, Bob and Harriet. Bob — a psychologist — also worked as a Staples guidance counselor and teacher, while Harriet is a retired media specialist and library department chair at Norwalk High School.

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Staples’ recipients for March Students of the Month are senior Massimo Sequenzia, juniors Angela Dellorusso and Vincent Vega, sophomores Hayley Epstein and Igancy Nieweglowski, and freshmen Chloe Endich and Petra Schwartz.

Students of the Month — nominated by their teachers — help make Staples a welcoming place for peers and teachers. They are “the type of kind, cheerful, hard-working, trustworthy students that keep the high school together.”

From left: Angela Dellorusso, Hayley Epstein, Ignacy Nieweglowski, Massimo Sequenzia, Vincent Vega. Not pictured: Chloe Endich, Petra Schwartz.

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John Basile — the jazz guitarist and composer known for his “soulful melodic playing, sophisticated harmonic sense, and deep conversational approach to improvisation” — headlines this week’s Jazz at the Post (Thursday, March 27; shows at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.; dinner at 7 p.m.; VFW Post 399; $20 music cover, $15 for veterans and students; click here to reserve).

Basile has worked withPeggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett. He’ll be joined by bassist Yuriy Galkin, drummer Carmen Intorre Jr., and saxophonist Greg “The Jazz Rabbi” Wall.

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Speaking of music: pianists Dr. Liang-Fang Chang and Dr. Uriel Tsachor perform April 6 (2 p.m.), at Saugatuck Congregational Church.

The Y’s Men of Westport & Weston co-sponsor the free event, on the church’s Steinway grand piano.

Dr. Liang-Fang Chang and Dr. Uriel Tsachor

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Four stone pillars have stood on Morningside Drive South for decades. It’s not going anywhere.

But there’s plenty of ever-changing life all around at least one, as today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo shows. In a few days, this scene will look very different.

(Photo/Bob Weingarten)

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And finally … happy 78th birthday, Sir Elton John!

(We’ve got news, videos, music — everything you need. But we need your support. If you enjoy “06880” — your hyperlocal blog — please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)

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Marc Selverstone: Presidential Scholar Studies #47

Posted on February 24, 2025 | 10 comments

Marc Selverstone is a presidential scholar.

He teaches and writes about the American presidency.

In 2025, that’s like being someone who studied ocean liners and icebergs in 1912.

That’s my analogy, not his.

Marc Selverstone

Selverstone — a 1980 graduate of Staples High School — is the University of Virginia Miller Center’s director of presidential studies, and co-chair of its Presidential Recordings Program.

The Miller Center is non-partisan. When we spoke on Friday, Selverstone chose his words carefully and judiciously.

But still …

In the 50 years since its founding the Center has examined tapes, conducted oral histories, convened panels, and embarked on many other projects. It gauges the trajectory of the presidency as an institution, and make recommendations to ensure its effectiveness in American life.

Neither Selverstone nor his colleagues have ever seen a presidency like the current one.

They are not journalists, writing about executive orders, negotiations and norms-breaking as they occur.

They are not pundits or talking heads, explaining it all on TV or podcasts.

Presidential scholars wait. They need access to documents, records, memoirs and other historical information, to examine and assess the success or failure of any particular administion.

But still …

In his first term, President Trump showed an unprecedented disregard for the Presidential Records Act. In many ways, his second administration is even less bound by tradition (and laws) than the first.

It’s clear, Selverstone says, that — unlike in 2017 — the Trump administration was ready to govern from Day One.

“They had a very clear sense of what they wanted to do in terms of policy and execution, and who they wanted to have involved,” he notes.

“That’s especialy true with their use of executive orders. There have been dozens already.

Since January 20, President Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders.

“it’s so hard to get things done through Congress. So presidents reach for executive power. Most presidents of a different party come in and reverse some orders of the previous president, and add some of their own. But this expands greatly on what other presidents have done in the first 100 days.”

Because Republicans control the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the White House, Trump can “flex his executive might as much as possible,” Selverstone says.

“His followers like that — even though, by and large, many Americans are concerned about too much executive power.”

Selverstone adds, “We’d be hard pressed int he modern era to identify another president who tiptoes to the line, to suggest that laws or courts might not matter.

While Congress is a co-equal branch of government, right now members are “not really holding the president’s feet to the fire, in areas like personnel and policy.”

In recent years, Selverstone says, the balance of power has shifted more to the executive branch. The Trump presidency had accelerated that trend.

In fact, he adds, “as Trump asserts authority over ndependent agencies in a way that makes some people uncomfortable, he seems to invite court challenges. Favorable rulings could expand his power even more. That to me is a very different presidency.”

Recent Supreme Court rulings have widened presidential power.

Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission is, like other independent agencies, in Trump’s crosshairs. Its independence is no longer assured.

The norms being overturned now date back to the post-Watergate era, after Richard Nixon sowed fears about an “imperial presidency.” Selverstone is very familiar with that period, through his work with the Miller Center’s Recordings Program. He helped transcribe and analyze White House tapes that Nixon — among other presidents — made in secret.

“Whistleblower protection, inspectors general, the FBI — they’re all being neutered now. Not even Nixon would have done that,” Selverstone says.

President Nixon tested many presidential norms.

What does all this mean for Selverstone, and the Miller Center?

“We pride ourselves on being a non-partisan institution,” he says.

“We look at an array of challenges, and explore how the presidency addresses them in national life. As trust in government plummets, that’s of great concern to us at the center.

“We engage citizens from all walks of life, in both parties. We run programs that look at uses of presidential power, with people from both sides of the aisle.

“We convene scholars to think throught how we got here, what it means for us now, what might be done, and ask, will it stand the test of time?”

An important conference is set for the fall. Major figures from past administrations — Republican and Democratic — who “believe in good government” will offer insights into the past, present and future.

Based on the first 5 weeks of the administration of the 47th president of the United States, they’ll have plenty to talk about.

(“06880” is “where Westport meets the world.” This story — about a Staples grad who studies national politics — is one small example of what we do. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

 

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Roundup: High Winds, Presidents, Running …

Posted on February 17, 2025 | 3 comments

Today’s high winds have caused 48 power outages in Westport, and 39 in Weston.

This was the scene on Cedargate Lane, off Whitney Street:

(Photo/Richard Fogel)

Winds of 20 to 30 miles mph hour — with occasional gusts possible over 50 mph — are expected through 6 p.m.

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This news is very timely, for Presidents’ Day.

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center is a non-partisan center that studies  presidential scholarship.

On March 20 they’ll host a special session: “How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents.”

It’s special for another reason: 2 of the 3 participants are Staples High School graduates.

Speaker Talmage Boston (SHS ’72) is an attorney, historian and author. His latest book examines presidential leadership. He has been named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Thompson Reuters every year since 2003, and among the “Best Lawyers in America” every year since 2013.

Moderator Marc Selverstone (SHS ’80) is the Miller Center’s Professor of Presidential Studies. A historian of the Cold War, he is the author of “The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam.” As co-chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program, Selverstone edits the secret White House tapes of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

Click here for more information, and a link to the livestream and archived video.

Talmage Boston and Marc Selverstone.

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Registration is open for the Joggers Club’s Kids Running program.

It’s great for youngsters grads kindergarten through 8th grade looking to perfect their skills, as well as those looking just to burn energy.

The program runs every Sunday from April 6 to June 4, 4 to 5:15 p.m. at the Staples High School track. The cost is $149 for Joggers Club members, $199 for non-members.

Workouts range from the 100 yard dash to fun conversational runs.

Sessions begin with stretching and warmups, followed by coaching on speed, endurance and strength. Each day ends with relays and games.

Coaches include 5 experienced adult runners, and stars of Staples High School’s cross country and track teams.

All members receive a running shirt, trophy, and visit from an ice cream truck.

Email thejoggersclub@gmail.com for more information.

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They can’t believe it’s here. But the Staples Class of 1965 is planning their 60th reunion.

The main event is September 20, at the Patterson Club in Fairfield. Many more activities are also in the works.

A committee of 12 — including Westporters Merle Spiegel, Joey Kaempfer and Mike Greenberg — have been at work for a year already, determined to make it the best reunion in history. (Three members are expected from Australia!)

They’ve found good addresses for 230 classmates — but they need more. If you’re a ’65 grad — or know someone who is — email Staplesreunion1965@gmail.com.

The “new” Staples, circa 1959. By 1965, a new addition was built to the 2 buildings, on the right (south) side of the ones pictured. The auditorium (center left) and gym (largest building in the rear) are the only original structures that remain today.

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Ed Simek writes: “These 3 trees always catch my eye as I drive through Longshore. They’re on the fairway, separating the 8th and 9th holes.”

No one is playing golf there today. But it’s an intriguing photo nonetheless — perfect for today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.

(Photo/Ed Simek)

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And finally … sure, this is Presidents’ Day.

But it’s also National Condom Week.

Enjoy!

(Celebrate today — and every day — with “06880.” May we suggest a tax-deductible contribution, to support our work? Please click here. Thank you!)

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Roundup: Rob Simmelkjaer, Paul Newman, President Kennedy …

Posted on November 6, 2022 | 3 comments

On the even of today’s New York City Marathon — and a couple of weeks before Roh Simmelkjaer takes over as CEO of its organizer, New York Road Runners — the New York Times sat down for a chat with the Westport resident.

Simmelkjaer is familiar to local residents. He’s a former member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Democratic Town Committee.

Persona — the interview and conversation-focused social media startup he founded — had a heavy local presence.

Simmelkjaer has also been a top manager at ESPN, an on-air Olympics personality for NBC, and — most recently — director of the Connecticut State Lottery.

He calls the Road Runners gig his “dream job.” (He comes prepared: He’s finished the New York Marathon twice.)

Click here to learn about Simmelkjaer’s plans — including a greater focus on the mental health aspect of running, and expanding the organization’s reach — in the Times’ Q-and-A. (Hat tip: John Suggs)

Rob Simmelkjaer

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Also in today’s New York Times: a review of Paul Newman’s new posthumous memoir, “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.”

It’s by Richard Russo, who has some skin in the Westport actor’s game. Newman’s portrayal of Sully in the film adaptation of Russo’s novel changed the author’s life, opening doors to a screenwriting career.

Click here for the full Times piece.

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CraftWestport — the Young Woman’s League’s mega-pre-holiday fair — returns to the Staples High School fieldhouse today, after 2 COVID years off.

Among the 175-plus exhibitors: Aiden Schachter.

The Staples High School student is selling his LED lightclouds. That may be a first for the event — and he may be the youngest vendor ever.

The show runs until 6 p.m. today. Click here for tickets, and more information.

Aiden Schachter, and his lightcloud booth.

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As the political season heats up, so does the work of Marc Selverstone.

The 1980 Staples High School graduate — An associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia, and chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs there — is about to publish “The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment in Vietnam.”

It’s called “a major revision of our understanding of JFK’s commitment to Vietnam, revealing that his administration’s plan to withdraw was a political device, the effect of which was to manage public opinion while preserving United States military assistance.”

Selverstone is an expert on the subject. At the Miller Center he edits the secret tapes of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

Click here for more information, and to purchase.

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How do stress levels affect children’s brain development?

That’s the topic of the next Positive Directions “Lunch and Learn” series.

Frank Castorina, PD clinical supervisor, provides insights on November 16 (noon to 1:30 p.m., Westport Weston Family YMCA0.

It’s an important and timely topic. And lunch is provided! Click here to RSVP.

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Speaking of stress: Relax with some wine! (Adults, not kids …)

Westport Sunrise Rotary has just the ticket. Their “Westport Uncorked” wine tasting fundraiser is set for The Inn at Longshore (Friday, November 18. 6:30 p.m.).

Heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served, along with dozens of fine wines provided by The Fine Wine Company of Westport. (All wines are available for purchase).

Every dollar raised goes directly to charities supported by Westport Sunrise Rotary. Click here for tickets, and more information.

Good times at the 2019 Uncorked wine tasting, at the Inn at Longshore.

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In advance of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ November 25 release of “Live at the Fillmore 1997” — their first live record in over a decade — Emmy-winning Westport animator Jeff Scher has created a great video.

Viewers will recognize plenty of local scenes, including Compo Beach, North Avenue and Cross Highway. There’s also the “Heroes Tunnel” through West Rock Ridge near Wilbur Cross Parkway Exit 59 in New Haven.

Click below to see:

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Westporters turned out in force yesterday, to help the Westport police force — and folks in need.

The Police Department and Stop & Shop sponsored their annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. All donations — 436 bags, filled to the brim — support Homes with Hope’s Food Pantry at the Gillespie Center. and Westport Human Services’ Food Pantry.

Some residents went out of their way to bring food. Others spotted the food drive, and added non-perishable items to their shopping lists.

At the end of the day, an entire (and enormous) truck was filled with much-needed goods. Thanks to all who contributed — and of course to the WPD, and Stop & Shop.

RTM member Jimmy Izzo, former 1st Selectman Jim Marpe (with his wife Mary Ellen and grandson Charlie), and Police Chief Foti Koskinas (center), with volunteers and Westport Police Department officers at the Thanksgiving food drive by Stop & Shop.

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“Script in Hand” — the Westport Country Playhouse’s very popular series of staged readings — returns November 14 (7 p.m.). The show is “Ripcord.”

Click here for details (including a plot summary) and tickets.

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If you’ve eaten at La Plage, you know there’s fine dining by the water.

If you’re a bald eagle, you agree. Seth Goltzer spotted this bird enjoying a tasty meal of squirrel at Longshore.

It’s the real world. And it fits perfectly with our “Westport … Naturally” concept.

(Photo/Seth Goltzer)

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And finally … Aaron Carter, the singer and actor (and brother of Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter) was found dead yesterday at his California home. He was 34.

(Your clock should have been set back an hour last night. And don’t forget to support “06880” either! Please click here to contribute.)

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Marc Selverstone: Presidential Scholar Looks Back, And Ahead

Posted on January 20, 2021 | 2 comments

Our country is deeply divided. We’ll remain so for some time.

The Biden administration will move quickly to get things done. It only has a year to do so, before the mid-term elections move into high gear.

We’ll continue to reel from assaults on both truth and an array of institutions vital to the maintenance of a healthy democracy.

Those are not novel concepts. But they — and others, much more in depth and nuanced — have particular resonance, on this inauguration day.

They come from Marc Selverstone. The 1980 Staples High School graduate is an associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s famed Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Marc Selverstone

With a doctorate in American history, he also chairs the center’s Presidential Recordings Program; teaches courses on foreign relations, and consults with filmmakers, authors and educators.

Over the last 4 years, Selverstone says, it’s been a challenge to figure out how to avoid using the word “unprecedented.”

Beyond trying to understand policy choices, he’s tried to understand President Trump’s appeal to “a durable segment of the population, and an extraordinary percentage of the Republican Party.”

“His most dramatic departures had less to do with policy than with his approach to norms and conventions, to personnel and institutions and, most consequentially, to truth and fact-based reality,” the scholar says.

Selverstone calls the Biden transition “one of the most professional in memory. That augurs well for a country reeling from intersecting health and economic crises, and against the backdrop of really seismic and fundamental challenges in our politics, in social and race relations, and with respect to the environment.

“Whether or not the Capitol insurrection functions as a modern-day Beer Hall Putsch remains to be seen,” he adds. “1923 is a far cry from 1933, let alone what came after. But reporting seems to indicate that the assault has galvanized groups of well-armed violent extremists who are fanatically loyal to the outgoing president and all he represents.”

Until January 6, the Confederate flag had never been paraded through the US Capitol.

Selverstone’s looks ahead are informed by his study of the past. The Recordings Program transcribes and analyzes White House tapes that 6 consecutive presidents of both parties — from Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 to Richard Nixon in 1973 — made in secret.

Most of the work focuses on the period between 1962 and ’73. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon were the most active in taping aides, journalists, cabinet officials, legislators, family members and private individuals.

In 2005, Selverstone was part of a Brown University-led oral history research project, exploring the Kennedy/Johnson transition and its impact on Vietnam policy.

Intrigued, Selverstone began exploring Kennedy’s thoughts on withdrawal planning (“real and extensive”), and his Vietnam policy overall — cut short, of course, by his assassination.

President John F. Kennedy and the primary architect of his Vietnam policy, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

That led to a book, due to his publisher March 1: “The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam.”

Selverstone has become impressed with how much the president was souring on the war. He had always been wary of deep involvement, the professor says, though he went to Dallas still committed to fighting it.

The question of withdrawal deadlines — at least, their public announcements – is relevant today. “Calendars factored into the Bush , Obama and Trump policies toward Iraq and Afghanistan,” Selverstone says.

Such deadlines “don’t have a very good track record,” he notes. “They rarely served the political or military objectives they were designed to achieve.”

Meanwhile, Selverstone, the Miller Center and the US prepare for a new administration.

He’ll continue to work on the presidential tapes, then undertake new projects beyond the election of 1964 and Vietnam.

“With the Kennedy book in the rear view mirror,” he says, “I’ll join my colleagues in thinking about what this turbulent era of American public life means for us, as well as what it means in the stream of time.”

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Ken Burns’ Vietnam: The Westport Connections

Posted on September 22, 2017 | 9 comments

Ken Burns’ epic, 10-part PBS series “The Vietnam War” shines a spotlight on one of the most consequential, divisive and controversial events in American history.

Like all of Burns’ masterful works it combines visual images, music and 1st-person accounts, plus the insights of experts with a wide array of perspectives.

One of those contributors has Westport roots.

Marc Selverstone

Marc Selverstone adds his wisdom, as chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. The project produces scholarly transcripts of secret White House tapes, from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon.

The 1980 Staples High School graduate — who earned a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in history from Ohio University — also serves as an associate professor at UVa.

His contribution began 6 years ago, with a call from co-producer Sarah Botstein. Selverstone sorted through “countless” Vietnam-related transcripts, and forwarded them on. It was an arduous — but crucial — process.

The next phase of collaboration began in the fall of 2015. Selverstone and Ken Hughes — the Miller Center’s Nixon expert — spent 4 days watching the entire series at WNET in New York, with Burns and the full Florentine Films team.

Also in attendance were key figures who appear in the film: Tim O’Brien, Les Gelb, Hal Kushner and many more.

“To hear their stories on film, then speak to them — because they’re sitting right next to you — was a profound and immersive experience,” Selverstone says. “It offered access to the war, and its era, that’s hard to come by.”

Born in 1962, he remembers the assassinations 6 years later of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. He recalls too the 1969 Vietnam Moratorium protest — he was there with his father, then-Staples guidance counselor Bob Selverstone — but as an adult he’s studied Vietnam as a scholar.

“I did not have a lot of contact with people who shared so much of themselves, and the way they’d been affected by the war,” he notes.

Though the film was nearly finished, Selverstone offered feedback. He was impressed that Burns’ team was “really concerned about getting it ‘right.'”

Selverstone then worked closely with co-producer Lynn Novick on post-production, and on an Atlantic story she and Burns published last week called “How Americans Lost Faith in the Presidency.”

Now, Selverstone is writing a chapter on President Kennedy, for the upcoming “Cambridge History of the Vietnam War.” He met with Burns, Novick and the 15 other scholars involved in that book, prior to a public presentation for 1,000 people at Dartmouth College.

Selverstone has been involved in a few recent events surrounding the film too. Last week he was at the Kennedy Center with John McCain, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel.

He’ll be at a special screening of the final episode in Washington on September 28. The next day he’s a panelist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In November he’ll join Novick for a Q-and-A at the Virginia Film Festival.

Meanwhile, Selverstone is busy building the Miller Center’s pages to provide more content to visitors to the PBS “Vietnam” website.

Selverstone is glad for the buzz around the film. “I hope it provides an opportunity for the country to think about its past, about those who suffered and sacrificed, and about us as a collective,” he says.

“Ken talks about how frequently we focus on the ‘pluribus’ at the expense of the ‘unum.’ If these 2 weeks and their extension into the fall allow us to take comfort through a moment of national uplift — to watch this film together, as a people, and celebrate those who endured — then it might have a tonic effect on a country sorely in need of one.”

Burns’ film has another Westport connection. Christian Appy — who graduated from Staples 8 years before Selverstone, and is now a University of Massachusetts history professor and Vietnam expert — is writing 7 articles about the film for the Organization of American Historians.

Christian Appy, and his book.

Appy — the author of “American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity” — says that Burns’ film will reach more people than any book ever written about the war. It could rival audiences for films like “Apocalypse Now” and “Platoon.”

Thus, Appy says, it is critical that “history teachers of all kinds — not just Vietnam War specialists — give this documentary serious attention.”

Of course, he and Marc Selverstone already have.

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