Research Guides: HIST 3361: The U.S. and the Vietnam War: Find Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary vs. Secondary Sources: A Guide to Understanding

Sample of Primary Sources in Print

Sample of Primary and Secondary Collected Sources

Primary Sources in Library Databases

* An SHSU username and password are required to access these collections.

Observer: News for the American Soldier in Vietnam, 1962-1973 This link opens in a new window More than 5,200 page images from The Observer, a weekly newspaper published by the Command Information Division of the U.S. Military Assistance Commands Office of Information which carried official news about and for American troops in Vietnam.
Presidential Recordings Digital Edition: The Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon White House Tapes This link opens in a new window Hundreds of hours of presidential audio recordings (and full text transcripts) from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. Covers many major issues, from the Kennedy Assassination and the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War, the War on Poverty, and much more. Also includes photo and video galleries and a linked timeline.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 This link opens in a new window Reports, documents, journals of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1994. Every publication, over 415,000 documents, from 15th - 103rd Congresses.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set Maps This link opens in a new window Over 65,000 maps, 1872-1979, 42nd Congress 3rd session - 96th Congress 1st session. Diverse topics such as diseases, railroads, migrations, explorations, international events.
America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1998 This link opens in a new window American and U.S. local newspapers from all 50 states, ranging from 1690 to 1998.

Primary Source Collections Online

Virtual Vietnam Archive Largest online source for information on the Vietnam War. Formed by Vietnam veterans in 1989 with a mission to “collect and preserve the documentary record of the Vietnam War.” Contains more than 550,000 items for searching and browsing. Note the curated subject guides on many topics for help digging into the wealth of content. (Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech Univ.)
A Guide to Vietnam War Resources: Government documents, oral histories, antiwar movements by Seth Kershner and Michael Mannheim, College & Research Libraries News, 2015
Antiwar and Radical History Project, Pacific Northwest Hundreds of photographs and documents cataloguing the history of protest and activism against war--particularly, the Vietnam War--among students, soldiers, and residents of the Pacific Northwest. (Univ. of Washington)
CIA Vietnam Histories Sampling of primary documents showing CIA's involvement in every aspect of the Indochina War. (George Washington Univ.)
Commander Naval Forces Vietnam - Monthly Reports, 1966-1973
(Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. Navy)
Documents on Indochina: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Spans from 1950 to 1964, ending with President Lyndon Johnson’s reaction to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, providing a narrative of the run up to war as told in diplomatic cables, government statements, and presidential addresses. (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)
FBI Files on the Anti-War Movement From the FBI Vault. Note: modern dates beside files indicate when they were put online, not when they were created.
FBI Files on Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) was founded in 1967 and quickly became one of the most visible antiwar groups of the 1960s and 1970s. This archive, containing 21,477 pages of documents received in response to VVAW’s Freedom of Information Act requests, chronicles the group’s organizing activities across the country.
Gulf of Tonkin: NSA Documents Declassified documents related to the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. (National Security Agency, NSA)
LBJ Presidential Library - Reading Room Two parts of the digital reading room in particular are most interesting to Vietnam researchers. The first is a collection of Johnson’s National Security Action Memorandums, which are presidential directives that relate to national security. The second is a collection of contemporary interviews with key Cold War figures—such as Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Foreign Policy Adviser Walt Rostow, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara—which are helpful to understanding the war from the administration’s perspective.
Memoirs V. Tapes: Nixon and the December Bombings Online exhibit from the Nixon Library & Museum. Includes tapes, documents, photos, and videos related to the Dec. 1972 bombing of North Vietnam and the Paris Peace negotiations. Look for "Additonial Media" links at the bottom of each page to find audio, maps, etc. (Nixon Library, National Archives)
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - Virtual Library Includes President Nixon’s own daily diary and National Security Action Memorandums, along with Nixon’s speeches, news releases, press conference transcripts, some private memos, and the diary of Nixon aide H. R. Haldeman, as well as the full text of the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the United States’ covert role in the Vietnam conflict starting in the 1940s.
Oral History of Utah Peace Activists Features transcripts and audio interviews with a wide range of activists, including military veterans who turned against the war and longtime peace activists. (Utah Valley Univ)
The Pentagon Papers: Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force The complete report, declassified and with no redactions, available online in PDF format. This report was originally commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967; small portions were leaked to the press in 1971. The online release includes significant amounts of content never before available. (National Archives)
Rutgers Oral History Archives - Vietnam War Oral histories from Rutgers graduates who served in Vietnam. All four branches of the military are presented, and interviews may be downloaded in HTML or PDF format. (Rutgers Univ.)
Stay Alert, Stay Alive, Dept. of the Army Training Video
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Veterans 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. (Library of Congress)
Vietnam Era Oral History Project 20 interviews with Vietnam veterans, most conducted in 2010. Only excerpts of interview videos are provided, but full interviews are available in audio and transcript form. (Utah Valley Univ.)
Vietnam War Declassification Project Includes sample declassified documents on the war from the Ford Library. There is also a link to other war documents and photographs.(Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library)
Vietnam War Documents from the Wilson Center "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." (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
Vietnam War Ephemera Collection Leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus by the Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s and 1970s; covers hot social issues of the time, including the antiwar movement. (Univ. of Washington)
Vietnam War Records from the National Archives National Archives portal to their records on the Vietnam War. Most records relate to casualty counts for both U.S. and Vietnam. Also files on prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. (National Archives)
Vietnam War Veterans Oral History Collection Includes interviewees are from all branches of the armed forces, serving in various years of the nearly ten-year-long conflict, representing different ranks and different fields of duty. (Univ. of Florida)
Vietnam War: Video from the AP Archive