LibGuides: War in Vietnam: Overviews, Impact, and Video & Audio

Overviews

New Zealand's Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was NZ's 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.
The Pentagon Papers
National Archives. 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.

On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. There are 48 boxes and approximately 7,000 declassified pages. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time.
Vietnam War
Digital History. Good place to start!
Vietnam War
National Archives. Explore more records, information, articles and resources at the National Archives organized by subject area: Diplomacy, In Country [Vietnam], The War at Home, Post-Conflict Events
Vietnam War 1954–1975
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Vietnam War: An Overview
Vassar U
Vietnam War Bibliography
Clemson U. This is primarily a bibliography of books, but a moderate number of articles are listed, created by Edwin E. Moïse
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The most important thing to remember, when using this bibliography, is that many books deal with more than one aspect of the Vietnam War, but few are listed in more than one section of this bibliography. I have tried to do the best I could. In some cases I have listed an item in more than one section, but usually I have either listed it only under the section for what I thought was its main topic, or listed it under "miscellaneous."

There are many books listed here that I have not actually read; surely in some cases I must have misunderstood what the book was about, and put it in a completely inappropriate category. So be imaginative about which categories to check, and don't forget to look under "Miscellaneous."

U.S. government publications are listed separately. There are many subjects for which you will find relevant materials somewhere in the rather long list of congressional committee hearings. In some categories under general (non-government) publications, I have included a link at the end to a related section under government publications.

The number of items that can be found on the Internet, in full, has been increasing. I have tried to give the direct link in such cases. Superscript numbers in red, like this14 in the table of contents, indicate the number of items in a particular section to which I have been able to give a link to the full text, available online.

I hope that you will find something of use to you here. Good Luck!

Ed Moïse

Copyright © 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005, Edwin E. Moïse. This document may be reproduced only if this copyright notice is reproduced with it. Revised January 15, 2005.
Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics
National Archives
The Wars for Viet Nam: The Documents
Vassar. Declarations, Treaties, Addresses, Letters, Speeches

Impact of the Vietnam war

4.4 The Use and Effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam
Ohio State
5 Ways Vietnam War Changed America
CNN
Agent Orange Footprint Still Visible in Rural Areas of Central Vietnam
J Environ Public Health. 2014
Land of a Million Bombs
Legacies of War, Laos. From 1964 to 1973, as part of the Secret War operation conducted during the Vietnam War, the US military dropped 260 million cluster bombs – about 2.5 million tons of munitions – on Laos over the course of 580,000 bombing missions. This is equivalent to a planeload of bombs being unloaded every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years – nearly seven bombs for every man, woman and child living in Laos.
The Psychological Effects of the Vietnam War
Stanford U
The Vietnam War is Still Killing People
The New Yorker, 2016
Việt Nam Calls for More Int’l Support in War Consequence Settlement
Vietnam News
The War's Consequences
Digital History

Videos to Watch

Radio Broadcasts

The Mystery of Hanoi Hannah
NY Times covers Hanoi Hannah Radio Vietnam
The Search for Hanoi Hannah
Her name was Trinh Thi Ngo. We called her Hanoi Hannah. She called herself Thu Houng, "the fragrance of autumn". But her job was to chill and frighten, not to charm and seduce.
The Sounds of Vietnam
The Rock and Roll war.....
To most Americans, the Vietnam War has a rock and roll soundtrack. Almost every novel, memoir or oral history of the war by a veteran mentions the music that the author listened to in Vietnam. All the songs of the '60s were part of the life in a combat zone. Troops listened to Sony radios, Akai stereos and Teac tape decks and new troops arrived weekly with the latest records from the states. Many of the sound clips below were recorded on a reel to reel recorder in Vietnam. They were then sent home and transferred to cassette. The sound quality is not the best but it sounded good to us back then.
The Vietnam War: U.S. Involvement & Escalation
Hundreds of television & radio audio air check broadcasts, related to the Vietnam War, recorded & archived prior to the creation of The Vanderbilt Television News Archive which began recording and archiving News Broadcasts off the air on August 5, 1968.