Vietnam War Bibliography:

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and its regional subordinates

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Command History. Sanitized copies of the annual command histories are available to Federal Government employees (and to some people in the private sector) through the Defense Technical Information Center.
    They are also available for purchase by ordinary citizens from the National Technical Information Service. Most of them can be found if you enter the ADA number (given below) into the search field on the NTIS web site. NTIS sells various of these on paper, microfiche, or CD. It used to be possible to buy even the ones that were not listed on the web site, by phoning 1-800-553-6847 or (703) 605-6000 and giving the ADA number. I don't know whether this is still the case. In some cases the full texts are available online, free to the public, through STINET (see links in listing below). Some also have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University (see links in listing below).
    They are also available in the private sector, published on DVDs and CD-ROMs in Carr's Compendium of the Vietnam War.

Daily News Briefs. Daily publication of the Office of Information, MACV. Each issue was two pages. The Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, has placed online about fifty issues from 1964 and 1965. Examples:

Combined Strategic Objectives Plan. Issued jointly (and bilingually) by MACV and the Republic of Vietnam Joint General Staff, 7 November 1971. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in eight parts: English language front matter and sections 1-4, sections 4-9, sections 9-14, sections 14-17, remainder of section 17 of English language version; front matter and sections 1-4 of Vietnamese language version, sections 4-9, sections 10-15, sections 15-17.

Counterinsurgency Lessons Learned. Headquarters, United States Military Assistance command, Vietnam. Only nine in this series, so far as I am aware, have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University. I would be grateful to anyone who could tell me where more of these can be found, especially Nos. 19, 20, and 44.

Handbook for Military Support of Pacification. Saigon: Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, February 1968. ii, 59 pp., plus distribution list and annexes. This document has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-45, and pp. 46-59, distribution list, and annexes.

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Inspector General History, 1964-1972. Saigon: Office of the Inspector General, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, 1972. xvi, 162 pp., plus appendices. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts, the first of which ends on p. 77, in the middle of the chapter "Consolidation and Phasedown, 1969".

"Combat Operations: Minimizing Non-combatant Battle Casualties." MACV Directive Number 525-3, 7 September 1965. 4 pp. plus annex. The text.

The Observer. A newspaper published by the Command Information Division, Office of Information, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Available on microfilm (3 reels) from Scholarly Resources, of Wilmington, Delaware.

RF-PF Handbook for Advisors. MACV 9313/1. Handbook on the Regional Force (RF) and Popular Force (PF), important local supplements to the ARVN. Two versions of this have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:   January 1969 edition (ix, 98 pp.): Front matter and pp. 1-40, pp. 41-90, pp. 91-98.   November 1969 edition (vii, 119 pp.): Front matter and pp. 1-45, pp. 46-81, pp. 82-119.   January 1971 edition under the slightly altered title RF/PF Adivisors Handbook (vii, 123 pp. plus appendices): Front matter and pp. 1-36, pp. 37-86, pp. 87-123, and appendices.

Peoples Self Defense Force. November 1969. vi, 86 pp. English translation, published by MACV, of a Vietnamese-language publication intended for distribution by the Ministry of Interior, RVN. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 45-86.

Major General John H. Cushman, Senior Officer Debriefing Report, 14 January 1972. General Cushman had commanded the Delta Regional Assistance Command from 14 May 1971 to 14 January 1972. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Headquarters, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, produced daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly summaries of events. These unclassifed publications were written by the MACV Office of Information for release to the press. The Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, has placed online the texts of several of these reports:

The Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University has placed online the texts of several monthly reports of the U.S. commands for the various military regions of South Vietnam.

Combined Intelligence Center Vietnam (CICV). A number of documents produced by this organization have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:

Military Assistance Command Vietnam: Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligenc (MACJ2). Chronology of the organizational structure of MACV-J2, with dates various directorates operated under various names. Accompanied by item-by-item lists of the contents of twenty boxes of CICV reports on widely assorted topics in RG 472, National Archives, plus contents (may not be item-by-item) of fourteen boxes of reports on individual VC/NVA units. Posted on Facebook by Erik Villard.

Combined Military Interrogation Center (CMIC), CMIC Report Writing Guide, June 1971. 38 pp. The tables showing the US, Soviet, PRC, and VC/NVA designations of various weapons (p. 28), provinces and districts in North Vietnam as of January 1971 (pp. 29-31), RVN provinces and districts in South Vietnam (pp. 32-34), and Communist territorial units in South Vietnam as of September 1969 (pp. 35-37) may be useful. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Terminology for Laotian Studies, 16 January 1971. 8 pp. Quite a useful short reference guide. Includes not just terminology (acrnymns and words), but also a who's who of Laotian political and military affairs, and a listing of ethnic groups. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

SOG (originally Special Operations Group, later renamed Studies and Observations Group) was an organization established early in 1964 to handle covert operations in and near Vietnam. It is often called MACSOG, MACV-SOG, or MAC-V-SOG to indicate that it was subordinate to MACV. Its command histories were nominally annexes to the overall MACV command histories (see above) but were distributed separately, not to as wide an audience as got the overall MACV command histories. Portions of the SOG command histories, sanitized, have been published in the private sector (see SOG). Much smaller portions have also been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University:

Tour 365. "For Soldiers Going Home." This publication was distributed by MACV to soldiers completing their tours in Vietnam and returning to the United States. The Winter 1969 issue has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-43,   pp. 44-61. This included a brief summary of the history of the war; the chapter "Tet and Aftermath...1968" is pp. 35-41.

 

See also Microfilmed collections of U.S. military (including MACV) records

 

See also documents of the Combined Document Exploitation Center (CDEC)

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