U.S. History

Vietnam War in Primary Sources

This is a guide to scholarly research and primary source collections related to United States history. Subpages include Boston history, Indigenous people's histories, Caribbean history, as well as African American History.

Researching the Vietnam War

Researching the Vietnam War can be a complicated process in part because there is a significant amount of available material. This guide provides access points to news, government records, and more related to the conflict between 1945 and 1975.

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Broad Digital Collections

Gallica
Interface in English and French (and other major, European languages). Majority of the content in French.
France's fantastic digital library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Covers two millenia with particular strength from 1500 to the present.
Open Access.

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Interface in English. Content in English or other languages.
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more. Strongest between the 17th and 21st centuries. Content dating back to B.C.E.
Open Access.
SouthEast Asia Digital Library
Drawn largely from the collections of universities and individual scholars in this region, the SEADL contains digital facsimiles of books and manuscripts, as well as multimedia materials and searchable indexes of additional Southeast Asian resources. Nations represented in the collection include Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Digital Collections about the Vietnam War

Oral Histories in the Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive (Texas Tech)
In 1999 The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive initiated the Oral History Project (OHP). The history of the wars in Southeast Asia is not complete without the inclusion of the voices of those who were in some way involved. To that end, the mission of the OHP is to create and preserve a more complete record of the wars in Southeast Asia by preserving, through recorded interviews, the recollections and experiences of all who were involved in those wars.
Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive (Texas Tech)
Thousands of digitized records relating to U.S. involvement in Vietnam hosted by Texas Tech University.
Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection
The text are selections from Vietnam War era ephemera collection of printed ephemera including pamphlets, posters, manifestos, newsletters, booklets, and open letters created by the various Seattle-area and University of Washington manifestations of American civil rights and protest movements of the late 1960's and 1970's.
Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection
This database contains leaflets, posters and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. They reflect the social environment and political activities of the youth movement in Seattle during that period.

Sources: Government Docs & Reports, U.S.

Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
Declassified documents on the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century. Includes more than 10,000 documents discussing Vietnam between 1945 and 1975.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 10,000 documents from the Department of State, the White House, the CIA, and Department of Defense, and more discussing Vietnam in some capacity between 1945 and 1975. Includes discussions of the length of the conflict as well as peace negotiations.

CIA Reading Room: Vietnam Collection
This collection of declassified estimative products is the first such release by the Central Intelligence Agency of documents exclusively on the Vietnam war. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) commissioned Lloyd Gardner, the renowned American scholar on the Vietnam war, to prepare an introductory essay providing historical context for the documents.
FDLP/EC: Secretaries of Defense historical series
The Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC) Archive with full PDF reports from the Cold War era.
FDLP/EC: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960-1968
The Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC) Archive including three volumes of the The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam's records.
NARA: Vietnam War
Remembering Vietnam is an exhibit at the National Archives in Washington, DC, on display from November 10, 2017, through February 28, 2019, featuring records related to 12 critical episodes in the Vietnam War. Online access includes thousands of records of multiple sorts from differing parts of the war.
Nixon Tapes
nixontapes.org is the only website dedicated solely to the scholarly production and dissemination of digitized Nixon tape audio and transcripts. We have the most complete digitized Nixon tape collection in existence -- approximately 3,000 hours spread over 6 terabytes of hard drives and cloud storage that contain more than 10,000 audio files. This is the only website in the world that makes the complete collection of Nixon tapes available directly to the public in a user-friendly format as a public service.
NSA/CSS: Declassification & Transparency
As NSA/CSS reviews records under the Freedom of Information Act or Mandatory Declassification Review provisions of Executive Order 13526 and makes the material available to the public via the NSA.gov website on the Internet. In addition, NSA/CSS periodically conducts "Special Topical Reviews" of categories of records, such as the Gulf of Tonkin, USS Liberty, UKUSA, and posts those records to this site. Topics also include the Vietnam Paris Peace Talks and Vietnam POW/MIA Documents.
Pentagon Papers (NARA)
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues.
State Department's Office of the Historian: Historical Documents
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Includes document packets on the Vietnam War and other major events.
Tet Declassified
The Intelligence Community's (IC)'s display of selected documents from the declassified volume as well as other contextual images, videos, and quotes which will be updated on a periodic basis. To view all declassified documents that have been released to date please click on the 'view documents' link.

Sources: Newspapers and Other News

Newspapers

Cold War: Global Perspectives on East-West Tensions, 1945 - 1991 This link opens in a new window
From the archives of the Central Intelligence Agency, this database provides digitized, searchable and analyzed content from newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasts from that period and from around the world. This document set includes more than 1,100 documents related to the "Vietnam War, 1954-1975" as a "Proxy War."
ProQuest Historical U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Combined searching of the historical New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Constitution, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, NY Amsterdam News, and Chicago Defender.

TV News

AP Archive: Vietnam War
Dozens of television news pieces on the Vietnam war.

Meet the Press This link opens in a new window
Meet the Press, network TVs longest running programincludes thousands of interviews, panels, and debates,1947-2013.
Socialism on Film This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 100 film clips taken in Vietnam by both Western and Eastern Block sides between 1950 and the 1980s.
World Newsreels Online This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of international newsreels, 1929-1966. Includes transcriptions and the ability to create and export clips. Includes March of Time series.

The Living Room Candidate
The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

For historical newspapers and television, visit BC Libraries' Historical News page.

Sources: Gov. Docs and Reports, Diverse Non-U.S.

Hoover Institute: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Over 1,219 Vietnam-related materials online, including audio and visual materials (posters and more). Includes a collection of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong propaganda directed at American soldiers in Vietnam during 1967-1968.
New Zealand's Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was our longest and most contentious military experience of the twentieth century. Over 3000 New Zealanders served in South Vietnam from 1963 to 1975. Back home, the Vietnam War led to enormous political and public debate about New Zealand's foreign policy and place in the world.
UN Archives: Vietnam, 1945-1975
More than 300 digital facsimiles of UN documents discussing/mentioning Vietnam between 1945-1975.
Wilson Center: Vietnam War
Documents on the Vietnam War. These telegrams, minutes, and discussion notes range from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, and most come from Chinese and Albanian archives. There are many documents from Albania archives on Vietnam-Albanian relations. The collection also includes several Chinese telegrams and memorandums on foreign and economic relations with Indochina, as well as discussions with Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.

Sources: Oral Histories

Vietnam Era Oral History Project (Utah Valley)
The Vietnam Era Oral History Project currently consists of interviews with veterans who saw active duty in Vietnam, but also with those who served elsewhere; with veterans who became active in Utah’s civil rights, peace, and justice movements, as well as with family members of veterans.
Rutger's Oral History Archives: Vietnam War Index
Dozens of interviews with people who served in the army, navy, coast guard, and more.

Sources: Photograph Collections

AP Images: Vietnam
To cover the Vietnam War, The Associated Press assembled an extraordinary group of photojournalists in its Saigon bureau, creating one of the greatest photographic legacies of the 20th century. Collected in “Vietnam: The Real War” (Abrams 2013) are images that tell the story of a divisive war that has left a deep and lasting impression on American life.
LOC: Collections with Photos, Prints, Drawings on Vietnam
More than 800 visual images touching or about Vietnam.
Photojournalism: Eddie Adams (U of Texas)
Measuring 200 linear feet in size, the Eddie Adams Photographic Archive documents Adams's career and includes "Saigon Execution," his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of General Loan executing a Vietnamese prisoner in 1968. Partly digitized.
Vietnamese people, events, and views, 1950 (LOC)
Farm workers, artisans and their works, children, soldiers, city crowds, etc. Emperor Bao Dai of South Vietnam, Governor Nguyen-duy-Trinh of North Vietnam, and other officials posed with General de Lattre de Tassigny. Cockfight. Buddhist temples, shrines, and works of art. Markets, street cars, pedicabs and bicycles. Americans serving with U.S. Information Agency.

Sources: Presidential Libraries

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is one of fourteen Presidential Libraries within the National Archives and Records Administration. The Library is also the primary repository for the papers of Ernest Hemingway.
LBJ Presidential Library
Includes documents associated with Civil Rights, the Vietnam Conflict, and more.
Richard Nixon Library
Gerald R. Ford: "The Vietnam War Declassification Project"
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, the staff of the Gerald R. Ford Library reviewed for possible declassification nearly 40,000 pages of National Security Adviser files on Indochina.

Topics: Geneva Conference of 1954

Wilson Center: Geneva Conference of 1954
An international meeting in Switzerland involving the Soviet Union, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China and the Viet Minh. The powers involved attempted to negotiate a settlement to end the conflict in Indochina and re-unify Vietnam. The conference also dealt unsuccessful with the problem of divided Korea.

Topics: Indochinese War

Gallica
Interface in English and French (and other major, European languages). Majority of the content in French.
France's fantastic digital library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Covers two millenia with particular strength from 1500 to the present.
Open Access.
Wilson Center: The First Indochina War
This collection mainly focuses on the end of the conflict in 1954.

Topics: Refugees

Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new window
From the archives of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency come government reports covering all aspects of global migration during much of the 20th-century. Includes material on the Boat People after Vietnam War (1974-1982) and Hmong Refugees (1974-1996).

Topics: U.S. Responses and Commentary

History Vault This link opens in a new window
Access to the multiple collections focused on 19th and 20th century United States history with a focus on Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle. NAACP collections, the Albert Levitt Papers, and more, include responses to and commentary on the Vietnam War.

FBI Records: The Vault
Declassified FBI documents with topics like Anti-War Movements and more.

Topics: Vetrans

Veteran's History Project (LOC)
A selection of digitized documents hosted by the Library of Congress related to specific individuals' service.
Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database (LOC)
This database of over 160,000 records is designed to assist researchers in accessing U.S. Government documents pertaining to U.S. unaccounted-for military personnel from the Vietnam conflict as of December 1991.

Burns Box

In our very own special collections library (Burns), you'll find a selection of material on your topic. Consider visiting the library and seeing history in your hands. To do so, you should start by searching for material through BC Libraries' catalog and then ordering it (if you haven't registered, you'll be prompted). For a guide on the process, check out the "Finding Burns Material" page. You might also check out the following recommendations:

John E. Wall legal papers : pertaining to the trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock and others
The collection consists of attorney John E. Wall's notes and background materials used in the prosecution of Dr. Benjamin Spock, Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr., and others for encouraging draft resistance during the Vietnam War. It includes handwritten notes, typescript documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, and transcripts of legal proceedings.
Boston College alumni veterans remembrance book : manuscript
A hand-lettered memorial list of Boston College alumni who died serving in the United States Armed Forces in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Tip O'Neill congressional papers, 1936-1994 (bulk 1953-1986)
Composed of correspondence, publications, photographs, audio tapes, videocassettes, artifacts, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks. Most of the material relates to O'Neill's career in Congress, and documents his views on such issues as the Vietnam War, Watergate, and relations with Ireland. Also includes papers of O'Neill's staff, files of Democratic Committees, and some letters of late twentieth century presidents.
William Van Etten Casey Papers, 1943-1990
The papers document aspects of Casey's academic and personal life. The largest series deals with Gerard Manley Hopkins, and includes a play, articles, and course materials. The papers also include various manuscripts of Casey, lectures and sermons, and newsletters of the American School of Oriental Research. There are also some academic materials relating to Casey's theology course, and a few personal items providing biographical information.

Sources: Film

La Salle University Annotated Bibliography of Vietnam War Film Criticism
This bibliography includes monographs, theses, chapters in books, articles in collections, periodical and newspaper articles, book reviews and internet sites which discuss three or more dramatic films related to Vietnam's wars in the twentieth century. Sources which are more narrowly focused are included in a bibliography of film reviews and criticism grouped by specific film titles elsewhere on this site.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias The Vietnam War in Film
As a war that was not supposed to be a war—the United States never formally declared it as such—and yet was already the second in a series of wars—the first being the anticolonial war against the French that won Vietnam its independence—the Vietnam War is just as hard to pin down cinematically as it is historically.

Ted-Ed's "The infamous and ingenious Ho Chi Minh Trail - Cameron Paterson" on YouTube.

Crash Course's "The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38" on YouTube.

For Additional Help

For additional recommendations, contact your History Liaison, Erin, at erinkate.scheopner@bc.edu or schedule an appointment.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

U.S. History

Vietnam War in Primary Sources

Researching the Vietnam War

What's on This Page

Broad Digital Collections

Digital Collections about the Vietnam War

Sources: Government Docs & Reports, U.S.

Sources: Newspapers and Other News

Newspapers

TV News

Sources: Gov. Docs and Reports, Diverse Non-U.S.

Sources: Oral Histories

Sources: Photograph Collections

Sources: Presidential Libraries

Topics: Geneva Conference of 1954

Topics: Indochinese War

Topics: Refugees

Topics: U.S. Responses and Commentary

Topics: Vetrans

Burns Box

Sources: Film

For Additional Help