Vietnam Documents and Research Notes Series

Scope

This  collection contains never-before-published documents captured from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers. The documents were one of the most important tools Americans used to learn about the military plans and political strategies of the enemy.

Completely translated into English, the documents include the full text of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese political and military reports, treatises, resolutions, directives, and program descriptions. They were compiled by the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), which coordinated all U.S. psychological and information activities.

These documents allow researchers to trace the conduct of the political as well as the military aspects of the war—from the other side. Researchers can follow everything from the effects of pacification on the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army to the Tet Offensive.

In addition to captured documents, the collection also includes documents from the North Vietnamese domestic wire service, Viet-Nam News Agency. These wire service reports and broadcasts highlight the North Vietnamese propaganda efforts. There are also a small number of studies, based on captured documents, that analyze specific aspects of the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese insurgency.

Most documents deal primarily with political topics. North Vietnamese soldiers’ diaries and comments on their military conditions and tasks are also included. Everything from poems to letters to loved ones from homesick soldiers give a uniquely vivid picture of the enemy.

Related microform collections are:
Vietnam: A Documentary Collection–Westmoreland v. CBS. (Microfiche Cabinet 23 Drawer 8)
Vietnam Documents. (Microfiche Cabinet 23, Drawer 8).

Related Web sites are Declassified CIA Documents on the Vietnam War – providing an in-depth indexing of the CIA declassified documents on the Vietnam War  and, where possible, a link to the full-text documents available at Virtual Vietnam Archive (VVA).