LibGuides: History Vault: The Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975

The Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975

The Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 (Module 3)

Covering the U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops. Along the way, documents in this module trace the actions and decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, as well as events on the ground in Vietnam, from the perspective of State Department officials, Associated Press reporters, and members of the U.S. Armed forces, including the Marines and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam.

This module features the records of the Associated Press’s Saigon Bureau. Over 40 years ago, as Saigon was falling to the communists and the U.S. was evacuating Vietnam, Peter Arnett saved the records of the AP’s Saigon Bureau and brought them back to the United States. Until ProQuest scanned them and digitized them in History Vault, they were never before available to the public. Other key collections in this module include records of the Military Assistance and Advisory Command, Vietnam (MACV); General William Westmoreland Papers, and National Security Files from the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations.

Use Case: VVAW, The Turning, and the Rewards of Digitized History
by Andrew Hunt, professor of U.S. History at the University of Waterloo

Events

The Indochina Wars, 1950-1975.
A monograph from George Allen.
Tet Offensive
CIA Research Report including an assessment (post-mortem) of the Tet Offensive.
U.S. bicentennial exhibit in the Soviet Union, and visitor views on U.S. and Soviet life, Nov-Dec 1976
From the Records of the U.S. Information Agency, Cold War Era Research Reports, Series B: 1964-1982.

Oral Histories

Maxwell Taylor
Oral history interviews with Maxwell Taylor, October-December 1969, and statement on Robert F. Kennedy by Maxwell Taylor, September 3, 1968
George A. Smathers
Oral history interview transcript of George A. Smathers, United States Senator, on March 31, 1964, April 14, 1964, and July 10, 1964

People

A short list of individuals (many, many more are mentioned in the product) to get users started.

McGeorge Bundy
Contains Memos of McGeorge Bundy, October 1-December 31, 1964, covering Gulf of Tonkin incident, Vietnam operations, messages from Maxwell Taylor, and Congo situation.
Jane Fonda
Pgs. 26-29 of document is a transcript Hanoi Radio talk attributed to Jane Fonda.
Richard M. Nixon
Reading materials for President Nixon's 1972 trip to China, covering China's history and culture, Mao Tse-tung, and quotations from Chinese literature and philosophy.
Mao Zedong
President Nixon talks with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai in China, February 1972.

Agent Orange

Research and Analysis study evaluating herbicide operations in South Vietnam. by Jul 12, 1966
From the Records of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Part 2. Classified Studies from the Combined Intelligence Center Vietnam, 1965-1973.

Places

Berlin
USSR-Western negotiations, revised Western peace plan, and Berlin Crisis developments including civil air access and tunnels under Berlin Wall, February-May 1963.
Laos
CIA research reports on Laos, including Pathet Lao capture and interrogation of two U.S. pilots, 1965.
Thailand
Correspondence pertaining to the Gulf of Tonkin attacks, August 7-September 10, 1964.
Formosa
Dec. 1, 1948, NSC Memo on the Strategic Importance of Formosa.