History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense / Secretaries of Defense Historical Series
Steven L. Rearden,
History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
vol. I, The Formative Years: 1947-1950. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1984. xi, 667 pp. This initial
volume contains little about Indochina.
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Doris M. Condit,
History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
vol. II, The Test of War, 1950-1953. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1988. xiv, 701 pp. There is a 17-page
chapter on Indochina.
D 1.2:H 62/3/v.2
Richard M. Leighton,
History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
vol. III, Strategy, Money, and the New Look, 1953-1956. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2001. xvi, 792 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/3/v.3
Robert J. Watson,
History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, vol.
IV, Into the Missile Age, 1956-1960. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1997. xiii, 1024 pp. A moderate amount
of Vietnam-related material.
D 1.2:H 62/3/v.4
Lawrence S. Kaplan, Ronald D. Landa, and Edward J. Drea,
History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, vol.
V, The McNamara Ascendancy, 1961-1965. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2006. xii, 664 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/3/v.5
Edward J. Drea,
Secretaries of Defense Historical Series, vol. VI,
McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965-1969. Washington, D.C.:
Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2011. xiii, 694 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/3/v.6
Richard A. Hunt, Secretaries of Defense Historical Series, vol. VII, Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973. Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2015. xx, 708 pp.
Transcripts of some news conferences given by U.S. secretaries of defense have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University:
Robert S. McNamara, August 4, 1964 (actually a few minutes after midnight, in the early morning of August 5). McNamara was discussing, inaccurately, the Tonkin Gulf incidents and the Pierce Arrow retaliatory airstrikes.
Robert S. McNamara, August 5, 1964
Robert S. McNamara, April 26, 1965
Robert S. McNamara, June 16, 1965
Robert S. McNamara, July 14, 1965
Robert S. McNamara, July 21, 1965 (2 pp.)
Robert S. McNamara, June 29, 1966
Robert S. McNamara, April 3, 1967
Robert S. McNamara, May 18, 1967
Robert S. McNamara, July 11, 1967
Robert S. McNamara, September 7, 1967
Clark Clifford, November 12, 1968
Melvin R. Laird, August 21, 1969
Melvin R. Laird, December 16, 1969
Melvin R. Laird, February 24, 1970
Melvin R. Laird, along with Col. Arthur Simons, November 23, 1970 (on the Son Tay POW rescue mission)
Melvin R. Laird, November 30, 1970
Melvin R. Laird, December 15, 1970
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the First Indochina War, 1947-1954. Washington, D.C.: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2004. xi, 285 pp.
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. 5: The Joint Chiefs
of Staff and National Policy, 1953-1954.
D 5.2:H 62/v.5
Willard J. Webb,
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs
of Staff and the Prelude to the War in Vietnam, 1954-1959. Washington: GPO, 2008. xiii, 229 pp.
D 5.2:H 62/4/954-59
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Joint Chiefs
of Staff and National Policy, vol. 7, 1957-1960. Washington: GPO, 2000. 286 pp.
D 5.2:H 62/v.7
The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960-1968.
Bound photocopies of Part I, covering the years 1960-1964, can be purchased from the Dalley Book Service.
The Virtual
Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University has placed online
the table of
contents for all three parts,
and the text of the chapters making up Part II,
chapter 17:
"The US Commitment Grows",
chapter 18:
"The Quantum Jump--Rolling Thunder",
chapter 19:
"Limited Deployment of US Forces",
chapter 20:
"Logistic Requirements - Shift to a War Footing",
chapter 21:
"Planning for Deployment - March-June 1965",
chapter 22:
"Growth of Forces in RVN to End of 1965",
chapter 23:
"Ground Combat Operations - RVN, July-December 1965",
chapter 24:
"Air, Naval, and Subsidiary Operations",
chapter 25:
"Rolling Thunder Continues",
chapter 26:
"Enemy Air Defenses - Rolling Thunder",
chapter 27:
"The Civil Side - Developments in RVN",
chapter 28:
"Chapter 28: The Search for a Peaceful Solution - 1965",
chapter 29:
"Less than War but No Peace: The Situation in January-February 1966",
chapter 30:
"Reinstating Rolling Thunder",
chapter 31:
"Rolling Thunder - Planning and Policy, February-June 1966",
chapter 32:
"Deployments and Forces--1966",
chapter 33:
"The War on the Ground--Strategy and Operations-1966",
chapter 34:
"Arc Light - Market Time - Game Warden",
chapter 35:
"Border Area Problems and the Barrier",
chapter 36:
"Operations Against North Vietnam, July 1966-January 1967",
chapter 37:
"Expanding the Base--Logistic Progress and Problems, 1966",
chapter 38:
"The GVN-1966",
chapter 39:
"Efforts Toward Negotiation - The Truce Periods 1966",
maps for
Part II,
Jack Shulimson [I believe "Schulimson" on the title page is a typo], The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960-1968, part 1. Washington, D.C.: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2011. xiv, 501 pp. Covers the years 1960-1963.
Graham A. Cosmas, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960-1968, part 2. Washington, D.C.: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2012. xvii, 641 pp. Covers the years 1964-1967.
Graham A. Cosmas, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1960-1968, part 3. Washington, D.C.: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2009. xii, 311 pp. Covers the years 1967-1968.
Willard J. Webb and Walter S. Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1971-1973. Washington, DC: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2007. xiii, 521 pp.
Walter S. Poole and Dale Andrade, Chairmen in Crisis: Planning the Air War against North Vietnam, 1964. Washington, DC: Office of Joint History, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2013. vi, 31 pp.
Steven L. Rearden, Council of War: A History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-1991. Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, 2012. xiii, 584 pp.
Christopher J. Lamb, The Mayaguez Crisis: Mission Command and Civil-Military Relations. Washington, DC: Joint History Office, Office of the Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2018. xxiii, 284 pp.
Speeches and Statements by Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, United States
Navy, as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2 July 1970 - 2 July 1974.
D 5.18:M 78
Willard J. Webb and Ronald H. Cole,
The Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Washington: Historical Division, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989.
D 5.2:C 34
Nathan S. Lowrey, The Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1949–2016. Washington, DC: Joint History Office, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2016. x, 391 pp. The bulk of the volume is individual profiles of each chairman (pp. 65-256) and each vice chairman (pp. 257-346).
The Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1949–2019. Washington, DC: Joint History Office, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, (2019?).
Vernon E. Davis,
The Long Road Home: U.S. Prisoner of War Policy
and Planning in Southeast Asia. Washington: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2000. vii, 613 pp.
D 1.2:P 93/5
Paul D. Mather,
M.I.A.: Accounting for the Missing in Action
in Southeast Asia. Washington: National Defense University Press, 1994.
xxiii, 207 pp. S/N 008-020-01260-2. Mather, an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, served with the
Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) from 1973 to 1988.
D 5.402:AC 7X
POW-MIA Fact Book. A pamphlet published by DOD in 1990.
D 1.2:P 93/3/990 (microfiche)
Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley,
Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia,
1961-1973. Washington, DC: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1998. xiii, 704 pp.
D 1.2:H 75/3
Armed Forces Information Service, Vietnam Review. A series of short pamphlets, apparently adapeted from the State Department's Vietnam Information Notes series. Actual publication dates may be later than nominal dates.
No. 1: Why We Fight in Vietnam. September 1967. 8 pp.
D 2.14:VR-1
No. 2: Search for Peace in Vietnam. September 1967. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-2
No. 3: Communist-Directed Forces in South Vietnam. September 1967. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-3
No. 4: Free World Assistance for South Vietnam. September 1967. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-4
No. 4A: Free World Assistance for South Vietnam, revised. April 1968. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-4A
No. 5: Viet Cong Terror Tactics in South Vietnam. November 1967. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-5
No. 7: Legal Basis for U.S. Military Aid to South Vietnam. November 1967. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-8
No. 8: Political Development in South Vietnam. February 1968. 4 pp.
D 2.14:VR-7
Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller),
The Economics of Defense Spending: A Look at the Realities.
Washington: GPO, 1972. 1+x+6+193 pp.
D 1.2:Sp 3
Blueprint for Aggression: The 'People's War'. DoD GEN-21. Armed Forces Information and Education, Department of Defense, 31 May 1966. A condensed version of "Long Live the Victory of People's War," by Lin Piao [Lin Biao], with an commentary by Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus R. Vance. The text of this pamphlet has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.
Defense Mapping Agency maps are kept updated, so they show current reality
rather than what existed during the war, but they are still most useful.
Some, not necessarily the most appropriate, can be found with SuDoc numbers
beginning
D 5.354
Department of Defense Annual Report.
D 1.1:
The Department of Defense, 1944-1978: Documents on Establishment
and Organization. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Historical Office,
1978.
D 1.2:Es8/944-78
Fact Sheet: Asia: The Crucial Arena. DoD FS-32. Armed Forces Information and Education, Department of Defense, 1966. A speech by President Lyndon Johnson, July 12, 1966. The text of this pamphlet has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.
Fact Sheet: Vietnam. DoD FS-26. Armed Forces Information and Education, Department of Defense, 1966. The text of this pamphlet has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.
History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense.
Vol. 1: Elliott V. Converse III,
Rearming for the Cold War, 1945-1960. Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2012. 780 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/19/v.1
vOL. 2: Walter S. Poole,
Adapting to Flexible Response, 1960-1968. Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2013. 503 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/19/v.2
Joint Logistics Review Board, Logistic Support in the Vietnam Era. 3 volumes, 18 monographs, and 5 classified appendices. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Installations and Logistics), 1970.
Volume 1. A Summary Assessment with Major Findings and Recommendations. vii, 75, 5 pp.
Volume 2. A Review of Logistic Support in the Vietnam Era: The Environment; The Logistic Posture:
1 January 1965; Logistic Responsibilities and Systems; Logistic Support in Southeast Asia; Impact of the Vietnam Conflict on Readiness in
Other Areas of the World. xi, 299, 15, 16 pp.
Volume 3. Monograph Summaries and Recommendations
Monograph 1. Advanced Base Facilities Maintenance
Monograph 2. Ammunition
Monograph 3. Automatic Data Processing Systems
Monograph 4. Common Supply
Monograph 5. Communications
Monograph 6. Construction
Monograph 7. Containerization
Monograph 8. DSA/GSA Support. The Defense Supply Agency and the General Services Administration.
Monograph 9. Excesses
Monograph 10. Financial Management
Monograph 11. Foreign Assistance
Monograph 12. Logistics Planning
Monograph 13. Maintenance
Monograph 14. Military Personnel in Operational Logistics
Monograph 15. Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants
Monograph 16. Procurement and Production
Monograph 17. Supply Management
Monograph 18. Transportation and Movement Control
Volume III, Monograph Summaries and Recommendations, in three parts: Front matter and summaries of Monographs 1-12, summaries of volumes 13-18, recommendations for Monographs 1-12, and recommendations of Monographs 13-18.
Monograph 5, Communications, in two parts: pp. i-vii, 1-72, A-1 to A-13, and pp. A-14 to H-9.
Monograph 8, DSA/GSA Support, in two parts: pp. i-vi, 1-91, and pp. 92-93, and Appendices A-C. The Defense Supply Agency and the General Services Administration.
Monograph 9, Excesses. 52 pp. plus four separately paginated appendices.
Monograph 10, Financial Management, in two parts: pp. i-iii, 1-93, and pp. 95-107, Appendices A-D.
Monograph 11, Foreign Assistance, in two parts: pp. i-iii, 1-58, A-1 to A-35, and pp. A-36 to C-8.
Monograph 15, Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants, pp. i-vi, 1-49, pp. 50-102 (includes table, p. 62, showing POL consumption in South Vietnam and Thailand, 1965-1968), pp. 103-145, A-1 to A-12, pp. A-13 to D-25, pp. D-26 to G-14, pp. G-15 to K-9, pp. L-1 to L-10 (Bibliography).
Monograph 16, Procurement and Production, in two parts: pp. i-iii, 1-15, and pp. 16-87.
Monograph 18, Transportation and Movement Control, in six parts: pp. i-v, 1-48, pp. 49-98, pp. 99-140, pp. 141-176, A-1 to A-22, pp. A-23 to C-8, and pp. C-9 to C-24.
Wilbur D. Jones,
Arming the Eagle : A History of U.S. Weapons Acquisition since 1775. Fort Belvoir, VA: Defense
Systems Management College, 1999. xii, 531 pp.
D 1.2:H 62/13
Michael B. Peterson, The Vietnam Cauldron: Defense Intelligence in the War for Southeast Asia. Washington, DC: Historical Research Division, Defense Intelligence Agency, 2012. Defense Intelligence Historical Perspectives, Number 2. iii, 48 pp.
A Pocket Guide to Vietnam. DoD PG-21B. 1971. 90 pp.
D 2.8:V 67/971
Walter S. Poole, History of Acquisition in DoD, vol. II, Adapting to Flexible Response, 1960-1968. Washinton, DC: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2013. xvi, 467 pp.
Admiral U.S.G. Sharp & General W. Westmoreland,
Report on the
War in Vietnam (as of 30 June 1968). Washington: GPO, 1969. v, 347
pp. The text has been placed on-line as
one huge file in
the Virtual
Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University, and some sections are also there
separately as shorter files, including
Appendix D, "Pacification,"
pp. 229-235,
Appendix F, "The State
of the Command," pp. 241-246
"Combat Fundamentals
for Advisors," pp. 247-249 (text of pocket-sized cards issued to U.S. Personnel in Vietnam).
D 101.2:V 67
Thomas C. Thayer, ed., A Systems Analysis View of the Vietnam War, 1965-1972, 12 vols. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service. Collected articles from the Southeast Asia Analysis Report, published 1967-1972 by the Southeast Asia Office under the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Systems Analysis).
Volume 1: The Situation in Southeast Asia. 280 pp.
Volume 2: Forces and Manpower. 227 pp.
Volume 3: Viet Cong - North Vietnamese Operations. 234 pp.
Volume 4: Allied Ground and Naval Operations. 257 pp.
Volume 5: The Air War. 330 pp.
Volume 6: Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (I). 200 pp.
Volume 7: Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (II). 297 pp.
Volume 8: Casualties and Losses. 242 pp.
Volume 9: Population Security.
Volume 10: Pacification and Civil Affairs. 189 pp.
Volume 11: Economics: War Costs and Inflation. 138 pp.
Volume 12: Construction and Port Operations in South Vietnam. 121 pp.
U.S. Casualties in Southeast Asia: Statistics as of April 30, 1985.
Washington: GPO, 1985. 20 pp.
The text
has been placed on-line in
the Virtual
Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.
D 1.2:C 27/2
Vietnam 10 Years Later:
What Have We Learned?. Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana: Defense Information School, 1984. 112 pp. A collection of
talks delivered at a five-day seminar at the Defense Information School
in 1983, centering on the question of how the US military handled its relations
with the press during the war.
D 101.2:V 67/3
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Copyright © 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only by permission. July 26, 2021.