JKM Library: Primary Sources: Vietnam War History

	: Fall 2024 Hours

Example search terms:

When searching catalogs and databases for primary source materials, try using keywords and subject headings similar to the ones below, adding terms denoting primary sources.

-sources

Example: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Sources

-personal narratives

Example: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, North Vietnamese

-correspondence

-biography

Example: Prisoners of war--Vietnam--Biography

-newspapers

Example: Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)--Newspapers

-speeches

You can also try searching by an individual or organization name in an author field.

Example: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Example: McCarthy, Joseph

General Resources

The New York Times
Microfilm copies of the New York Times are available Sept. 1851 - Mar. 2000.

Making of America
This site contains 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles related to the social history of the United States from the antebellum era through reconstruction.
Digital Public Library of America
An extensive collection of primary sources found within American history, including images and written works.
Internet Archive
A free and open access collection maintained by a nonprofit organization.
American Memory Project
Contains written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music covering architecture, landscape, advertising, performing arts, and more.
EuroDocs-BYU
A collection of assembled primary documents related to European history, arranged by time period and nation. All of the links are widely accessible and free web-sites.
Historic Pittsburgh
A collection of local resources that supports personal and scholarly research of Western Pennsylvania
History Matters
Provides links to history websites and useful resources for teaching US history.
NYPL Digital Images
Thousands of downloadable public domain image covering many topics.

Vietnam and 60s in America Primary Resources

Tuskegee Univ. Civil Rights Oral History
Recordings by Tuskegee Civic Association of speeches from prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
American Experience: Vietnam Online
Sixties Project
Provides information on the sixties, including articles, personal narratives, primary documents, and much more. A great deal of the information relates to the Viet Nam war.
The Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University

Gulf of Tonkin:

NSA Gulf of Tonkin Index
National Security Archive- Gulf of Tonkin, 40 Years Later
Lyndon B. Johnson- Gulf of Tonkin Incident Speech
Declassified Oral History Interviews on Gulf of Tonkin
U.S. Reaction to Events in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 1-10
This site includes official telegrams and memorandum and is hosted by the Department of State Office of the Historian. This link connects to volume I of Vietnam War documents.

Military:

Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation
Includes transcripts of oral histories created by female U.S. Military veterans of the Vietnam War, including those serving in the Army Nurse Corps, the Air Force, American Red Cross, Foreign Correspondents, and as Civilian Servants.
Electronic Data Records Relating to Military Activities During the Vietnam War- National Archives

Veteran's History Project
The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

Ho Chi Minh Primary Sources:

Ho Chi Minh: Speeches and Primary Sources
Contains links to documents such as the Declaration of Independence, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ho chi Minh Letter to LBJ, and the transcript of a speech titled Program for Communist China.

Official and Government Documents:

Wilson Center Digital Archives: International History Declassified documents on the Vietnam War
Mount Holyoke documents relating to American foreign policy- Vietnam
Vietnam War Declassification Project at Gerald Ford Presidential Library
Great Society Congress
Materials relating to the 89th Congress (January 1965 - December 1966) and the passing of the most extensive legislation program since the New Deal.

Cold War and Red Scare:

Bay of Pigs: 40 Years After
International conference that includes full-text primary documents and audio recordings from the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
Cold War Museum Online Exhibits
Includes digitized photographs, posters, military patches, and videos documenting the Cold War.
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School- Cuban Missile Crisis Documents
"Communism" video by Coronet Instructional Films
Educational film on the Cold War conflict published in 1952.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home- McCarthyism/ The "Red Scare"
Correspondence, memorandum, Senate Resolutions, notes, and photographs on Senator Joseph McCarthy and others related to the Red Scare, made accessible at the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Atomic Cafe

American consumer culture:

Hagley Museum and Library- Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society
Online exhibits produced by the Hagley Museum and Library includes photographs and other primary materials documenting business, advertising, and catalogs of American business.

Civil rights and activism

BLACK QUOTIDIAN Everyday History in African-American Newspapers
Focusing on the twentieth-century black press, Black Quotidian presents ideas, sounds, images, and movements that are so important to African-American history
Southern Courier newspaper
Based in Montgomery, AL provided objective coverage of civil rights activities in the South from 1965-1968.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Position Paper: On Vietnam
The Civil Rights Era in the U.S. News & World Report Photographs Collection- Selected images from the Library of Congress
Vietnam War: Student Activism, Antiwar and Radical History Project at the University of Washington

Generation on fire : voices of protest from the 1960s : an oral history