CAIRO – Vietnam War in the Academia (III) - Research & Studies - “The History of the Vietnam War...is of inestimable value for primary source research for graduate contemporary history, political science, and programmes of international study. It also holds much potential for graduate and undergraduate level studies in cultural anthropology...[and] European colonial history." –Microform Review Not since the Civil War has a conflict so divided the American public. The Vietnam War is the most political, controversial war ever recorded in American military history. Even today, years after the withdrawal of US troops, researchers strive to separate fact from fiction. The History of the Vietnam War provides a comprehensive and systematically organised collection of material on this series of events. All aspects of the war are covered in this collection – from the Viet Cong and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Southeast Asia to the campuses and political forums in the US conflicting perceptions about the nature, course, and purpose of the war are represented. The collection spans 21 years and includes 365,000 pages of materials. Contents include: unclassified and declassified US Government documents and reports; captured documents; transcripts of interviews with defectors; prisoner of war interrogation reports; newspaper and periodical clippings from American, Vietnamese, Asian, and European English-language publications; media monitoring documents from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and the Department of Commerce Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS); scholarly monographs and studies; transcripts of speeches and press conferences by leaders on both sides; uncopyrighted books; monographs and similar published source materials; propaganda leaflets and similar materials published by both sides; and a number of unpublished book-length manuscripts chiefly by Vietnamese writers. All materials have been collected by Douglas Pike, Director of the Indochina Archives at the University of California, Berkeley and a well-known authority on the Vietnam conflict. As a US Foreign Service Officer during the war, he was considered the US Government's leading expert on Vietnamese communism. He has collected materials from not only the United States, but Saigon, Hanoi, Peking, Moscow, Tokyo, Australia, and Western Europe. Many documents were gathered from personal contacts during and after Mr. Pike's presence in Vietnam. Organised into the broad subject categories listed below and then arranged chronologically, the collection can be used as a resource for researchers and students and as a unique teaching tool in American and Southeast Asian history, political science, international relations, military history, journalism, and many other fields of study.
