Primary Source Spotlight: Vietnam War

Vietnam Veteran collections

• Personal Snapshots: Picturing the Vietnam War
• Select Vietnam veteran digitized collections
  • Vietnam War: Looking Back Part 1
  • Vietnam War: Looking Back Part 2
  • Vietnam War: Looking Back Part 3
  • Vietnam War: Looking Back Part 4

• All Vietnam veteran digitized oral history collections (some contain additional items such letters, photos, etc.)

Vietnam War images

• Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson standing among group of Vietnamese soldiers and Americans during a visit to Saigon, South Vietnam May 12, 1962
• Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara pointing to a map of Vietnam at a press conference Apr. 26, 1965
• Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara standing at podium in front of map of Vietnam during press conference Jun. 29, 1966
• Lt. Col. John Paul Vann (second from right) briefs his colleagues in Vietnam (curator note)
• Two bombs tumble from a Vietnamese Air Force A-1E Skyraider over a burning [Viet] Cong hideout 1967
• Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at anti-war demonstration, New York City 1967
• Demonstrators, marching in a downtown area, with flags and placards in support of the war in Vietnam 1967
• Anti-war demonstration in front of the White House Jan. 19, 1968
• A man and a woman watching a film footage of the Vietnam war on a television in their living room Feb. 13, 1968
• Wounded servicemen arriving from Vietnam at Andrews Air Force Base Mar. 8, 1968
• Sec. of State Dean Rusk testifying about the Vietnam War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Mar. 13, 1968
• Illinois delegates at the Democratic National Convention of 1968, react to Senator Ribicoff’s nominating speech in which he criticized the tactics of the Chicago police against anti-Vietnam war protesters Aug. 28, 1968 (second image)
• Congressman Alexander Pirnie reaching into a container of draft numbers Dec. 1, 1969
• Image set: Vietnam War memorials
• A Visual Guide to the Cold War: Vietnam War Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Vietnam War song recordings

• “DaNang Lullaby” 1965, song about “Operation Rolling Thunder,” sung by James P. “Bull” Durham, who served as a pilot during the Vietnam War
• “Jolly Green” 1968, sung by James P. “Bull” Durham “Jolly Green Giant” was a nickname for the Sikorsky HH-3E helicopter, used extensively to insert and extract troops during the Vietnam War
• “Tchepone” 1971, song about the bombing of Tchepone, Laos, during the Vietnam War sung by Chuck Rosenburg

Vietnam War documents

• Law at War: Vietnam 1964-1973
• American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, Hearings 1970
• Investigation of the My Lai Incident

Hannah Arendt Papers related to Vietnam War, 1965-68

• Artists’ Protest: End Your Silence
• Staughton Lynd case
• Alternatives to the Draft: A Political Analysis by David Greenburg
• War Resisters League
• Front National de Liberation du Sud Vietnam: Bulletin d’Information
• Participant war testimony compiled by the South Vietnamese People’s Committee for Solidarity with the American People
• On the problem of South Vietnam: National Liberation Front of Vietnam

The famous & the war in Vietnam

• Letter from John Wayne to President Lyndon B. Johnson Dec. 28, 1965 (curator notes)
• Stop the War in Vietnam Now! Sing Out! Feb.–Mar. 1966 (curator notes)
• Danny Kaye entertains troops onboard the USS Hancock Mar. 1966 (curator notes)
• Kissinger to Jules Feiffer asking help in publicizing Students for a Democratic Society Apr. 13, 1966 (curator notes)
• President Lyndon Johnson with Eartha Kitt in the White House Family Dining Room Jan. 18, 1968 (curator notes)
• Anti-war demonstration in front of the White House in support of Eartha Kitt Jan. 19, 1968 (curator notes)
• A Bob Hope USO show in Vietnam 1968 (curator notes)
• Jules Feiffer cartoon “I occupy buildings” May 25, 1969 (curator notes)
• Letter from Jules Feiffer to J. Gary Griffith of Case Western Reserve University Jun. 3, 1969 (curator notes)
• Jane Fonda speaks at University of Maryland May 22, 1970 (curator notes)
• Letter from Carl F. Ruenger to Bob Hope Jun. 7, 1970 (father of a fallen soldier)
• Letter from Richard Nixon to Bob Hope Jul. 13, 1970 (curator notes)
• Bob Hope in Vientiane, Laos, with Nguyen Van Tranh Dec. 23, 1971 (curator notes)
• Letter from George and Sally Hall and family to Bob Hope Jan. 21, 1972 (page 2 family of soldier curator notes)
• Sammy Davis, Jr., talks with members of the 1st Cavalry Division Feb. 1972 (curator notes)
• Letter from “Vickey” to Bob Hope ca. 1970s (daughter of a POW, curator notes)
• Letter from POW Fred Flom to Bob Hope Feb. 24, 1973 (curator notes)
• Letter from Bob Hope to Fred Flom May 3, 1973 (curator notes)
• Jokes for White House dinner honoring POWs May 24, 1973 (page 2 & curator notes)
• Telegram from James A. Klein to Bob Hope Apr. 8, 1975 (curator notes)
• Letter from Anne Underwood to Bob Hope Oct. 23, 1975 (page 2 mother of a fallen soldier, curator notes)

Vietnam War political cartoons

Herb Block

• After All, It Doesn’t Have to Be a One-Way Street Feb. 15, 1962 (curator notes)
• Why Don’t We Have the Thrifty Budgets of Ben Franklin’s Day? Jan. 18, 1963 (curator notes)
• Figure representing Diem-Nhu regime running away from Vietnam War fire Nov. 4, 1963 (curator notes)
• Kindly move over a little, gentlemen Jan. 26, 1965 (curator notes)
• The other ascent into the unknown  Jun. 10, 1965 (curator notes)
• Our position hasn’t changed at all Jun. 17, 1965 (curator notes)
• Ev tu? June 10, 1966 (curator notes)
• Uncle Sam carrying an M-16 rifle Jan. 28, 1968 (curator notes)
• Everything’s Okay—They Never Reached the Mimeograph Machine Feb. 1, 1968 (curator notes)
• It says here the economy needs cooling off Dec. 11, 1969 (curator notes)
• The Mini-and-Maxi Era Dec. 18, 1969 (curator notes)
• Taped Jan. 18, 1970 (curator notes)
• Dr. Kissinger, I Presume? Jun. 16, 1972 (curator notes)
• Now, as I was saying four years ago Aug. 9, 1972  (curator notes)

Jules Feiffer

• I occupy buildings May 25, 1969 (related letter and curator notes)

Bill Mauldin

• What to do till the Peace Corps comes (draft) Jul. 13, 1961 (curator notes)
• What to do till the Peace Corps comes (published) Jul. 13, 1961 (curator notes)
• Don’t forget your commitment Feb. 16, 1965 (curator notes)
• From this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety [Shakespeare, Henry IV] Apr. 13, 1965 (curator note)
• Up escalators May 4, 1965 (scroll to bottom of page to read curator note)

Pat Oliphant

• They won’t get us to the conference table . . . will they? Feb. 1, 1966 (curator notes)

Vaughn Shoemaker

• But How to Let Go—Gracefully 1965 (curator notes)

Paul Szep

• Vietnam Specters 1967 (curator notes)

Edmund Valtman

• My last employment ? – Vietnam Mar. 10, 1971 (curator notes)
• The Old Man and the Sea Oct. 31, 1972 (curator notes)

Clifford H. (Baldy) Baldowski Editorial Cartoon Collection related to Vietnamese Conflict 1961-1975 Digital Library of Georgia

1962-63 historical newspaper coverage of Vietnam

U.S. legislation related to the Vietnam War

Teaching resources

• Learning from the Source: Cartoonist Commentary-Vietnam War
• How did the President’s war-making powers evolve over the course of the Vietnam War? Teaching with Primary Sources program at the University of California, Davis
• The Vietnam War: One Veteran’s Experience Teaching with the Library of Congress May 25, 2012

Secondary sources

• In Country: The Vietnam War, 30 Years webcast
• Long Bình Post and the Vietnam War Worlds Revealed: Geography & Maps August 2, 2017
• U.S. Military Maps of Hue, Vietnam Worlds Revealed: Geography & Maps March 23, 2018
• Vietnam War: Air Power Folklife Today November 16, 2016
• The Vietnam War and the End of ‘American Exceptionalism’ podcast
• Vietnam: a country study text
• Will There Be Peace Again? Some Aspects of Vietnamese Representations of the Vietnam War and its Aftermath webcast