Department of State Bulletin. This weekly bulletin contains public statements by the Secretary of State and other U.S. government figures, and other documents and policy statements. It is available online through HeinOnline.org if you are browsing through an institution that has paid the subscription fee.
Foreign Relations of the United States. Massive collections of
documents, indexed, supposed to be published by the State Department about
thirty years after the events, though recently they have been falling behind that schedule.
S 1.1:
For the years from 1955 to 1968, volumes have been published specifically on Vietnam: one volume for every three years from 1955 to 1960, one per year for 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1967, and two volumes per year for 1963, 1965, and 1968. The complete texts of all the Vietnam volumes for the Johnson and Kennedy administrations have been made available on the Internet (see below).
For the Nixon and Ford adminstrations, 44 printed volumes are planned, of which 42 have been published so far. But these are to be supplemented by 16 e-volumes, published only on the Internet.
Laos and Cambodia were grouped in with other areas of Asia from 1955 to 1960. Note that for the years 1958-1960, in addition to the main volume 1958-1960, volume XVI, East Asia Regional; Laos; Cambodia, there was a two-part microfiche supplement to volumes XV and XVI, with material on Cambodia in part 1 and material in Laos in part 2. Laos was then separated out in the volume 1961-1963, vol. XXIV, Laos Crisis, with additional material in the microfiche supplement to volumes XXII and XXIV. 1964-1968, vol. XXVIII, Laos, 841 pp., was published in 1998. Cambodia was included in 1961-1963, volume XXIII, Southeast Asia, and in 1964-1968, vol. XXVII, Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs. Documents on Laos and Cambodia were included in the Vietnam volumes for the period 1969-1972. Documents on Laos and a few on Cambodia from 1975 and 1976 were included in 1969-1976, volume E-12, Documents on East and Southeast Asia, 1973-1976.
There is also some relevant information in 1961-1963, vol. VIII, National Security Policy.
There is some useful information about Soviet relations with Vietnam in 1964-1968, vol. XIV, Soviet Union.
There was hardly anything on Chinese policy toward Vietnam in the section of 1961-1963, vol. XXII, Northeast Asia, that covered China; that material was in the Vietnam volumes instead. There was more on Chinese policy toward Vietnam in 1964-1968, vol. XXX, China, published in 1998, and in 1969-1976, volume XVII, China, 1969-1972, published in 2006.
1964-1968, vol. XXIX, part 1, Korea, published in 2000, includes discussion of how Korean troops were sent to Vietnam.
The State Department has been making the complete texts of
recent volumes available through the Internet, at its
Foreign
Relations of the United States web site.
The University of Wisconsin
made many of the older volumes available online at its own
Foreign
Relations of the United States web site, but that seems to have closed down since the State Department has been putting all of them online.
Recently the State Department has been making many volumes available online in .EPUB
format. List of .EPUB volumes, with links
1944, volume V: The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, the Far East. There is not a section for French Indochina. The section on Japan contains a few documents relating to French Indochina, of which only the one on pp. 1205-6 really deals with U.S. policy toward Indochina.
1945,
volume VI: The British Commonwealth, The Far East (French Indochina is pp. 293-315)
1945,
volume VII: The Far East: China (includes a few documents relevant to Indochina)
1946, volume VIII: The Far East (French Indochina is pp. 15-84)
1947, volume VI: The Far East (French Indochina is pp. 51-155)
1948, volume VI: The Far East and Australasia (French Indochina is pp. 19-56)
1949,
volume VII, The Far East and Australasia, Part 1 (French Indochina is pp. 4-118)
1949,
volume IX: China
1950, volume VI, East Asia and the Pacific. Indochina is pp. 690-963.
1951, volume VI, Asia and the Pacific, Part 1. Indochina is pp. 332-582.
1952-1954,
volume XII, East Asia and the Pacific, Part 1. Includes the negotiations that created the
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
1952-1954,
volume XIII, Indochina, Part 1
1952-1954,
volume XIII, Indochina, Part 2
1952-1954,
volume XVI, The Geneva Conference
1955-1957,
volume I: Vietnam.
1955-1957,
volume XXI: East Asian Security; Cambodia; Laos.
1958-1960,
volume I: Vietnam.
1958-1960,
volume XV: South and Southeast Asia
1958-1960,
volume XVI: East Asia-Pacific Region; Cambodia; Laos [the microfiche supplement has
not been placed online, so far as I am aware].
1958-1960,
volume XIX: China
1961-1963,
volume I: Vietnam, 1961
1961-1963,
volume II: Vietnam, 1962
1961-1963,
volume III: Vietnam, January-August 1963
1961-1963,
volume IV: Vietnam, August-December 1963. 1991. xxv, 793 pp.
1961-1963,
volume V: Soviet Union
1961-1963,
volume VI: Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges
1961-1963,
volume VIII: National Security Policy
1961-1963,
volume XXII: Northeast Asia. 1996. xxxvi, 823 pp. (This has also been placed online under the title
1961-1963,
volume XXII: China; Korea; Japan, which could be called faintly misleading because the volume also includes
a very short section--three documents--on Mongolia.)
1961-1963,
volume XXIV: Laos Crisis [the microfiche supplement has
not been placed online, so far as I am aware].
1961-1963,
volume XXV: Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters
1964-1968,
volume I: Vietnam, 1964. 1992. xxviii, 1108 pp.
1964-1968,
volume II: Vietnam, January-June 1965. 1996. xxxii, 798 pp.
1964-1968,
volume III: Vietnam, June-December 1965. 1996. xxxii, 791 pp.
1964-1968,
volume IV: Vietnam, 1966. 1998. xxxv, 1019 pp.
1964-1968,
volume V: Vietnam, 1967. 2002. xxxix, 1175 pp.
1964-1968,
volume VI: Vietnam, January-August 1968. 2002. xliii, 1018 pp.
1964-1968,
volume VII: Vietnam, September 1968-January 1969. 2003. xxxiii, 848 pp.
1964-1968,
volume X: National Security Policy
1964-1968,
volume XII: Western Europe (includes Canada)
1964-1968,
volume XIV: Soviet Union
1964-1968,
volume XV: Germany and Berlin
1964-1968,
volume XVII: Eastern Europe
1964-1968,
volume XXVI: Indonesia; Malaysia-Singapore; Philippines
1964-1968,
volume XXVII: Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs. 2000. xli, 946 pp. Australia,
New Zealand, and the United States: ANZUS and the Defense of Southeast
Asia (pp. 1-114); The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and President
Johnson's Plan for Economic Development of Southeast Asia (pp. 115-233);
Burma (pp. 234-254); Cambodia (pp. 255-571); Thailand (pp. 572-919).
1964-1968,
volume XXVIII: Laos. 1998. xxxii, 809 pp.
1964-1968,
volume XXIX, part 1: Korea. 1999.
1964-1968,
volume XXIX, part 2: Japan. 2006. xxxv, 330 pp.
1964-1968,
volume XXX: China. 1998. xxxiv, 773 pp.
1964-1968,
volume XXXIII: Organization and Management of Foreign Policy; United Nations. 2004.
1969-1976,
volume I: Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972
1969-1976,
volume II: Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969-1972
"The
NSC System"
"The
Intelligence Community and the White House"
"Managing
the Department of State"
"Foreign
Economic Policy"
"The
Nixon Administration and War Powers Legislation"
1969-1976,
volume V: United Nations, 1969-1972. 2004. xxxvii, 940 pp.
1969-1976,
volume VI: Vietnam, January 1969-July 1970. 2006. xxxviii, 1173 pp.
1969-1976,
volume VII: Vietnam, July 1970-January 1972. 2006. xxxvii, 1089 pp.
1969-1976,
volume VIII: Vietnam, January-October 1972. 2010. xxxviii, 1173 pp. John Carland, ed.
1969-1976,
volume IX: Vietnam, October 1972-January 1973. 2010. xli, 1198 pp. John Carland, ed.
1969-1976,
volume X: Vietnam, January 1973-July 1975. 2010. xxxix, 1062 pp. Bradley Lynn Coleman, ed. Includes Laos and Cambodia.
1969-1976,
volume XII: Soviet Union, January 1969-October 1970. 2006. xxv, 701 pp. (See also
Soviet-American Relations below.)
1969-1976,
volume XIII: Soviet Union, October 1970-October 1971. 2011. xxxi, 1129 pp. David C. Geyer, ed. (See also
Soviet-American Relations below.)
1969-1976,
volume XIV: Soviet Union, October 1971-May 1972. 2006. xxviii, 1257 pp. (See also
Soviet-American Relations below.)
1969-1976,
volume XV: Soviet Union, June 1972-August 1974. 2011. xxxi, 1061 pp. (See also
Soviet-American Relations below.)
1969-1976,
volume XVI: Soviet Union, August 1974-December 1976. 2012.
1969-1976,
volume XVII: China, 1969-1972. 2006. liv, 1175 pp. (See also the supplement, Volume E-13,
below.) Relations with China (both PRC and ROC) are pp. 1-1132; Mongolia is
pp. 1133-1137; "Questions Pertaining to Tibet" are pp. 1138-1153.
1969-1976,
volume XVIII: China, 1973-1976. 2007. xxxi, 1002 pp.
1969-1976,
volume XIX, Part 1: Korea, 1969-1972. 2010. xxvi, 462 pp. Daniel J. Lawler and Erin R. Mahan, eds. Contains a considerable number of documents
relating to the South Korean troops in Vietnam.
1969-1976,
volume XX: Southeast Asia, 1969-1972. 2006. xlviii, 744 pp. Covers Thailand,
the Philippines, and Indonesia.
1969-1976,
volume XXIX: Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, 1969-1972.
1969-1976,
volume XXXIV: National Security Policy, 1969-1972. M. Todd Bennett, ed. 2011. xxviii, 1064 pp.
1969-1976, volume XLII: Vietnam:
The Kissinger-Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973. John M. Carland, ed. 2017. xxvii, 1780 pp.
Electronic Volumes: These are published only online, not as bound volumes or on microfiche.
1969-1976,
volume E-1: Documents on Global Issues, 1969-1972. 2005.
1969-1976,
volume E-3: Documents on Global Issues, 1973-1976. 2009.
1969-1976,
volume E-7: Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972. 2005. The
Vietnam-related material is mostly in documents from 1972, when the United States became quite
annoyed about Indian criticism of American policy in Vietnam.
1969-1976,
volume E-8: Documents on South Asia, 1973-1976. 2007.
1969-1976,
volume E-12: Documents on East and Southeast Asia, 1973-1976. 2011. Chapter III, "Indochina" (documents nos. 64-95), deals with
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from May 1975 through 1976. There is also Vietnam-related material in other sections, such as Chapter II,
"Australia, New Zealand, ANZUS, Papua New Guinea" (documents nos. 26-63).
1969-1976,
volume E-13: Documents on China, 1969-1972. 2006. This is a supplement, published only
electronically--it will not be printed as a bound volume--to Volume XVII (above).
1969-1976,
volume E-15, Part 1: Documents on Eastern Europe, 1973-1976. 2008. There are a few interesting items here on the role of
Poland in the ICCS, but not a lot.
1969-1976,
volume E-15, Part 2: Documents on Western Europe, 1973-1976. 2014. xli, 1055 pp. Includes Canada (pp. 383-442).
Edward C. Keefer, John M. Carland, and Bradley L. Coleman, Guide to Sources on Vietnam, 1969-1975. Where major collections of official documents on policy toward Vietnam have been published, and where they are available in archives.
David C. Geyer and Douglas E. Selvage, eds.,
Soviet-American Relations: The Detente Years, 1969-1972. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian,
U.S. Department of State / GPO, 2007. 1075 pp. Foreword by Henry A. Kissinger. A collection combining American
and Soviet documents.
S 1.2:SO 8/15
American Foreign Policy: Current Documents. U.S. State Department, Historial Office, Bureau of Public Affairs. These annual volumes do not consist only--sometimes not even primarily--of American documents. Items issued by the United Nations, SEATO, Asian governments, and even the National Liberation Front are included. The volumes are available online through Hathi Trust.
1961.
Laos (pp. 982-1030)
Viet-Nam (pp. 1042-1057)
1962.
Cambodia (pp. 1002-5)
Laos (pp. 1066-85)
Viet-Nam (pp. 1096-1117)
1963.
Cambodia (pp. 740-743)
Laos (pp. 806-818)
Developments Affecting the Situation in the Republic of Viet-Nam (pp. 834-885)
1964.
Cambodia (pp. 845-871)
Laos (pp. 930-945)
Developments Affecting the Situation in the Republic of Viet-Nam (pp. 955-1005)
1965.
Cambodia (pp. 715-721)
Laos (pp. 789-790)
Developments Affecting the Situation in the Republic of Viet-Nam (pp. 822-925)
1967.
Laos (pp. pp. 791-793)
Developments Affecting the Situation in the Republic of Viet-Nam (pp. 818-1057;
includes some Cambodian government documents)
U.S. Department of State Electronic Reading Room: Declassified/Released Document Collections. The Department of State has made available online several very large collections of documents that were not originally open to the public. The ones relevant to the Vietnam War include:
Central Foreign Policy Files, created, 7/1973 - 12/1975. A very large collection of State Department message traffic (incoming and outgoing), with a search engine.
Kissinger Transcripts. This is a huge collection of transcripts of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's conversations, both in person and by phone, available as one of the choices on the search page State Department Collections.
Press Conferences and other public speeches of the secretaries of state. Texts of a number of these have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, July 2, 1969.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, August 11, 1969.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, August 20, 1969.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, December 23, 1969.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, March 23, 1970.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, May 13, 1970.
Transcript, CBS program "Face the Nation," June 7, 1970, with Secretary of State Rogers discussing the Cambodian incursion.
Transcript, Remarks, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Phu Tam Village, Ba Xuyen Province, July 6, 1970.
Transcript, Press Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Saigon, July 7, 1970.
Transcript, Secretary of State Rogers' inteview on NHK, Tokyo, July 9, 1970. Notable for Rogers' comments (p. 3) on the United States' desire to improve relations with China, and his belief that if China were willing to "talk sensibly about a settlement" of the war in Indochina, a settlement would be reached "very quickly."
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, July 15, 1970.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, October 9, 1970.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, December 23, 1970.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, January 29, 1971.
Transcript, News Conference, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, March 16, 1971.
Transcript, NBC program "Meet the Press," November 5, 1972, with Secretary of State William Rogers discussing the state of the Paris negotiations.
I. Milton Sacks, Political Alignments of Vietnamese Nationalists. Washington, D.C.: Office of Intelligence Research, U.S. Department of State, 1949. vii, 176 pp. A history of Vietnamese political groups, using a rather broad definition of "nationalism." The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in four parts: pp. i-vii, 1-41 (p. 42 missing); pp. 43-92; pp. 93-138, and charts; and pp. 139-176 (footnotes, index of names, chronology, bibliography).
Viet Minh Receiving Increased Shipments of Arms from Red China. 1950.
S 1.77/2:950/629
Indochina: The War in Southeast Asia. Office of Public Affairs, Department of State, October 1951. 11 pp. Far Eastern Series, no. 50. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Benjamin Bock and Cora H. Feld, with the assistance of Helene L. De Long, United States Policy and Diplomacy Regarding Vietnam, July 1954-September 1956. Research Project No. 756. Historical Studies Division, Historical Office, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of State, June 1971. vii, 226 pp. A detailed and heavily documented account, declassified in 1997. The text (missing a few pages) has been placed at a State Department web site, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-110 and pp. 112-226.
A Threat to the Peace: North Vietnam's Effort to Conquer South Viet-Nam
(released December 8, 1961; often called the first Vietnam White Paper,
occasionally the Jorden Report). Department of State Publication 7308. Part I: vi, 53 pp.
Part II--The Appendices. iii, 102 pp.
S 1.38:110/pt.1, 2
The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the
Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in five parts:
Part I: Front matter and pp. 1-23,
pp. 24-53.
Part II--The Appendices:
Front matter and pp. 1-32,
pp. 33-68,
pp. 69-102.
Viet-Nam: The Struggle for Freedom. Department of State Publication 7724, Far Eastern Series 127. August 1964. 31 pp. plus considerable unpaginated front matter. Questions and answers about the situation and U.S. policy; interesting for the not particularly veiled threat that there might be additional attacks on North Vietnam, beyond the ones that had just occurred August 5, 1964 (Question #28, p. 25). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Aggression from the North: The Record of North Viet-Nam's Campaign
to Conquer South Vietnam (generally known as the second Vietnam White
Paper). Department of State publication 7839, issued 26 or 27 February
1965, later reprinted as House Document no. 136, 89th Congress, 1st Session.
It has been suggested that the centerpiece of the evidence for this white
paper (the capture on February 16, 1965 of an infiltration vessel delivering
munitions to PLAF forces in South Vietnam) had been faked by the CIA, but
these suspicions are unfounded; the capture was genuine.
S 1.38:130
The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the
Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts:
Main Text and
Appendices.
Working Paper on the North Vietnamese Role in the War in South Vietnam. Mimeographed, 1968. Part or all of this important collection has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.
Main text. Includes useful tables of things like infiltration from North Vietnam and origins of Communist weapons in South Vietnam by years.
A preliminary draft has also been placed on-line in two parts: Front matter and pp. I-1 to II-19 and pp. III-1 to F-10.
A longer preliminary draft has been placed on-line in four parts: Front matter and part I; part II and pp. 1-19 of part III; pp. 20-35 of part III; footnotes; illustrated catalog of Soviet and Chinese weapons types used by Communist forces in Vietnam; documentary attachment; last two pages of documentary attachment.
Annex. This large collection of documents, most of them interrogation reports and English translations of captured Communist documents, is the most important part of the Working Paper.
Part a: Front matter and some (not all) of the items with numbers 1 to 27.
Item 19 as a separate scan. Items 19 and 204 appear to be variant copies of essentially the same document, reporting some pretty aggressive decisions made at a COSVN meeting March 18, 1956. I am not sure this document is authentic.)
Part b: Items 28 to 31 (Item 30 is a U.S. Department of State intelligence brief, July 11, 1957, dealing with the status of the Geneva Accords);
Part c: Item 34 (letter of March 28, 1960, from the Nam Bo Regional Committee);
Part d: Items 35 to 38;
Part e: Items 41 to 47;
Part f: Items 48 to 51;
Part g: Items 52 to 53;
Part a: Items 55 to 68
Item 65 as a separate scan. A speech by "Anh Sau" (actually Le Duc Tho; mistakenly identified in the translation as Nguyen Chi Thanh), probably about mid-1966, laying out a very optimistic picture of the present and future state of the war, greatly exaggerating U.S. casualties and giving interesting figures on current Communist strength.
Part b: Items 70 to 83;
Part c: Items 84 to 86;
Part d: Items 87 to 88;
Part e: Items 89 to 94;
Part f: Items 95 to 101
Item 95: Interrogation of a soldier of the PAVN 66th Regiment, 304th Division, captured late 1965 in Pleiku province. 16 pp. (pages in scrambled order).
Item 96: Interrogation of an officer of the PAVN 6th Regiment, captured March 1966 in Quang Tri province. 4 pp.
Item 98: Interrogation of a private first class of the PAVN 7th Battalion, 18B Regiment, 325th Division, captured March 1966 in Pleiku province. 11 pp. Interesting for the man's summary of bomb damage to land targets in the Pierce Arrow airstrikes of August 5, 1964, indicating more extensive bombing than shows in U.S. records.
Item 99: Interrogation of a member of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the PAVN 95th Regiment, 325th Division, captured mid-1966 in Pleiku province. 3 pp.
Item 100: Preliminary interrogation (by a Lao officer) of an officer of the PAVN 98th Support Regiment, who had served in Laos from May 1964 onward, and defected in 1967. 3 pp.
Item 101: Follow-up interrogation of the same officer. 2 pp.
Part g: Items 102 to 104
Item 200, "Viet Minh Policy document on Post-Geneva strategy, probably issued by the Central Committee of the Lao Dong Party to the Eastern Interzone of Nambo, obtained November, 1954";
Item 204 (Items 19 and 204 appear to be variant copies of essentially the same document, reporting some pretty aggressive decisions made at a COSVN meeting March 18, 1956. I am not sure this document is authentic.).
Item 210: intelligence summary, "The Nambo (South Vietnam) Regional Committee");
Item 301: The "CRIMP Document", a history of the early stages of the insurgency in South Vietnam, probably written around 1963, captured during Operation CRIMP in 1966. 42 pp.
Item 302: A letter of March 1966 "presumably" written by Le Duan. 27 pp. The heading of the letter says it was from "Anh Sau." This should have been Le Duc Tho. Le Duan called himself Anh Ba, not Anh Sau.
Item 303, a talk by General Nguyen Van Vinh at the Fourth Congress of COSVN in April 1966. 20 pp.
Surplus Property: Disposal of Excess Military Property in Viet-Nam,
Agreement between the United States and Viet-Nam, effected by exchange
of notes signed Saigon Nov. 9, 1968. ii, 5 pp.
S 9.10:6586
Who's Who in North Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: Office of External Research, U.S. Department of State, 1972. xxiv, 324 p. (Not a lot of words per page, so the amount of information is not as great as the page count would lead one to expect.) The Center for Research Libraries, in Chicago, has this, call number E-4137 (paper) and MF-1892 (negative microfilm).
Act of the International Conference on Viet-nam between the United States of America and Other Governments.
Signed at Paris March 2, 1973. Washington: GPO, 1973. 37 pp.
S 9.10:7568
Viet-nam Information Notes was a series of pamphlets issued by the Office of Media Services, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of State; these pamphlets were frequently re-issued in revised versions. The series was a subset of a broader series including pamphlets on other parts of Asia. SuDoc numbers were based on the position of an item in the broader series, and on how many times it has been revised. Thus the first example listed below is the fifth revision of the pamphlet that was #1 in Viet-nam Information Notes but #155 in the broader series:
No. 7: Viet Cong Terror Tactics in South Vietnam, revised August
1968. 7 pp.
S 1.38:162/2
No. 16: Basic Data on North Vietnam, February 1970.
S 1.38:186
Robert H. Stroup, Rural Income and Expenditure Sample Survey of Vietnam,
Initial Report, July 1967 (AID/fe-257). 396 pp.
S 18.2:V 67/6
A large number of AID publications and documents have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Agency for International Development Economic Assistance to Vietnam: Fact Sheet. Washington: Agency for International Development Information Staff, May 1966. 9 pp. The text.
Director of the United States Agency for International Development, Vietnam, Report to the Ambassasor. Annual reports on AID operations in Vietnam.
Report on the year 1968. January 10, 1969. 43 pp.
Report on the year 1971. January 1, 1972. 44 pp.
Report on the year 1972. January 1, 1973. pp. 1-34, pp. 35-53.
John D. Donoghue, My Thuan: A Mekong Delta Village in South Vietnam. Saigon: Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group, May 1961 (mimeographed). Reprinted (slightly modified) Washington: Agency for International Development, 1963. vi, 65 pp. My Thuan village of Binh Minh district, Vinh Long, was chosen to be studied (visited in April and June, 1960) because it was accessible by road, and was one of the few villages in the district still secure enough to be visited safely. It was an overwhelmingly Hoa Hao area, but most administrators were Catholic and didn't trust the Hoa Hao. front matter and pp. 1-43, and pp. 45-65.
Robert W. Komer, The Other War in Vietnam: A Progress Report. Washington: Agency for International Development, 1966. 54 pp. The text.
John D. Montgomery, ed., Cases in Vietnamese Administration. Washington: Agency for International Development, (1962?). xvi, 216 pp. An AID reprint of material written in 1959, in connection with a seminar at the National Institute of Administration in Saigon. pp. i-xvi, 1-39; pp. 40-91; pp. 92-146; pp. 147-198; and pp. 199-216.
Public Administration Bulletin, later Public Administration Bulletin Vietnam. Saigon: Office of Public Administration [from December 1968 onward, the Public Administration Division], Agency for International Development. This usually appeared monthly. The texts of many issues have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University. For example:
No. 8 (October 14, 1963). 18 pp. Includes populations of chief towns. Text.
No. 9 (November 5, 1963). 4 pp. The composition of the new government, following the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem; the creation on October 15, 1963, of the province of Hau Nghia. Text.
No. 17 (October 31, 1964). 6 pp. Text.
No. 18 (November 30, 1964). 10 pp. Text.
No. 19 (December 31, 1964). 10 pp. Includes the area, population, and number of administrative villages for each province. Text.
No. 20 (January 15, 1965). 7 pp. Lists province and district chiefs. Text.
No. 21 (March 2, 1965). 8 pp. Includes National Legislative Council created February 17, 1965. Text.
No. 22 (April 1, 1965). 6 pp, plus an appendix of 8 pp. listing province and district chiefs, mayors, etc. Text.
No. 23 (May 31, 1965). 4 pp, plus an appendix of 8 pp. listing province and district chiefs, mayors, etc. Text.
No. 24 (August 31, 1965). 13 pp, plus an appendix of 8 pp. listing province and district chiefs, mayors, etc. Text.
No. 25 (November 2, 1965). 11 pp. Includes figures on assassination and kidnapping of local officials by month, April to September 1965. Text.
No. 29 (July 1, 1966). 98 pp. Includes names of province and district chiefs, and some other officials. pp. 1-50, pp. 51-98.
No. 30 (August 1, 1966). 49 pp. Includes (pp. 9-10) the text of Law No. 004/65, May 17, 1965, defining illegal political activities. Also maps of the four military zones (Corps Tactical Zones), tables of the population of each province and major town, and tables of the numbers of refugees living in temporary shelter in each province. Text.
No. 31 (September 1, 1966). 53 pp. Text (not quite complete; two tables of organization are missing around p. 45).
No. 32 (Oct. 1, 1966). pp. 1-49 and pp. 50-95.
No. 33 (Nov. 1, 1966). 90 pp. Includes (pp. 85-88) the RVN decree of September 24, 1966 re-creating the province of Sa Dec, with a list of the districts, cantons, and villages that had been taken from Vinh Long to make Sa Dec, a map of IV Corps, and a table of the populations of procinces and chief towns in IV Corps. In two parts: pp. 1-49 and pp. 50-90.
No. 34 (Dec. 1, 1966). 42 pp. The text.
No. 35 (Feb. 1, 1967). 42 pp. Includes discussion of village and hamlet elections. pp. 1-49, pp. 50-99, pp. 100-131.
No. 36 (April 1, 1967). 89 pp. Includes a memo from Director, Region III, OCO (I believe this was John Paul Vann), "False Returnees in Chieu Hoi Centers," March 9, 1967, warning of Viet Cong infiltrators among the Chieu Hoi (p. 68). In two parts: pp. 1-49 and pp. 50-89.
No. 37 (May 1, 1967). 96 pp. Includes the text of the Constitution that went into effect April 1, 1967 (pp. 4-32); documents on the Open Arms (Chieu Hoi) Program (pp. 58-70); detailed statistics on the refugee problem, by provinces (p. 71); personnel and staff of the National Assembly (pp. 72-80). In two parts: pp. 1-49 and pp. 50-96.
No. 38 (June 1, 1967), "Special Issue: The Village Elections". In two parts: front matter and pp. 1-47 and pp. 48-74.
No. 39 (August 1, 1967). 96 pp. Includes the texts of laws dated 15 June 1967 on presidential (pp. 1-19) and senatorial (pp. 20-37) elections. In two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-48 and pp. 49-84, and tables of organization.
No. 40 (August 15, 1967). "Special Issue: The Hamlet Elections." 35 pp. Results of hamlet elections held from 14 May to 11 June 1967. Front matter and text.
No. 43 (April 1, 1968). 142 pp. Includes President Thieu's State of the Nation speech to the National Assembly, January 25, 1968 (pp. 1-53), Thieu's speech to the National Assembly on the Tet Offensive, February 8, 1968 (pp. 54-73), biographical information on members of the cabinet (pp. 81-103). Front matter and pp. 1-46, pp. 47-96, pp. 97-142, pp. 143-147.
No. 44 (June 1, 1968). 100 pp. Includes membership of the Tran Van Huong cabinet appointed May 25, 1968 (pp. 1-2); President Thieu's speech of March 21, 1968 (pp. 8-17); texts of Ngo Dinh Diems's Circular No. 115-a/TTP/VP and Ordinance 57-a, both dated 24 October 1956, on administrative structure of Vietnam, which among other things said province chiefs appointed village councils (pp. 49-58); a number of documents on land reform (pp. 68-92). Front matter and pp. 1-45 and pp. 46-92. There should be another section, charts, pp. 93-100, but I have not located it.
No. 45 (October 1, 1968). In two parts: front matter and pp. 1-46 (includes RVN documents on an anti-corruption drive) and pp. 47-86.
No. 46 (December 1, 1968). Includes (pp. 44-55) a directory of key RVN personnel
down to the level of district chief, as of November 1968. In two parts:
front matter
and pp. 1-46 and
pp. 47-75.
S 18.38:46
No. 48 (April 1, 1969). 98 pp. In three parts: front matter and pp. 1-46 and pp. 47-96, and pp. 97-98.
No. 51 (November 1, 1969). Includes (pp. 2-5) the decree of September 1, 1969, naming the new cabinet under Tran Thien Khiem. In two parts: front matter and pp. 1-45 and pp. 46-95.
No. 52 (February 1, 1970). In two parts: front matter and pp. 1-46 and pp. 47-95.
No. 55 (February 1, 1971). 92 pp. Translated texts of recent RVN laws; organization charts of various ministries. In two parts: front matter and pp. 1-46 and pp. 47-92.
Special Bulletin. The US AID Mission to Vietnam issued this series of bulletins daily from February 9 to 20, 1968, and intermittendly thereafter,
in response to the crisis created
by the Tet Offensive. Nos. 1-17 are available online as a single large .PDF. In the listing below,
page numbers refer to the electronically numbered pages in this .PDF, not the original page numbers as printed in the Special Bulletin.
No. 1: February 9, 1968 (pp. 1-4)
No. 2: February 10, 1968 (pp. 5-9)
No. 3: February 11, 1968 (pp. 10-17)
No. 4: February 12, 1968 (pp. 18-25), with a map supplement (pp 26-31), that has maps of every district of
Saigon except District 7.
No. 5: February 13, 1968 (pp. 32-38)
No. 6: February 14, 1968 (pp. 39-47)
. . .
No. 17: March 9, 1968 (pp. 137-39)
Truong Ngoc Giau and Lloyd W. Woodruff, The Delta Village of My Thuan: Some Administrative and Financial Aspects. Washington: Agency for International Development, 1963. vi, 94 pp. Originally written under the auspices of the Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group. My Thuan village of Binh Minh district, Vinh Long (see also under Donohue, above, for another study of this village). The text 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. 1-44, and pp. 45-94.
United States Economic Assistance to South Viet Nam, 1954-1975: An Overview. Washington: Agency for International Development, October 14, 1975. A lot of useful data; not just expenditures, but organizational charts, numbers of personnel employed, etc. The full text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University: part one and part two.
"USAID Projects in Vietnam". 1973. A cumulative listing of projects, covering the whole period from 1954 to mid 1973, mostly in Vietnam, but some in Cambodia and Laos.
United States Operations Mission to Vietnam (USOM). Several publications have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University:
United States Operations Mission to Vietnam, Cumulative Activity Report (on Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) through June 30, 1954. (Saigon?): (1954?). 76 pp. Front matter and pp. 1-10 pp. 11-23 pp. 24-35 pp. 36-46 pp. 47-57 pp. 58-70 pp. 71-76, and maps showing province boundries in South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tonkin as of 1954.
United States Operations Mission to Vietnam, Building Economic Strength: Annual Report for the 1958 Fiscal Year, July 1, 1957, to June 30, 1958. pp. 1-19, pp. 20-42, pp. 43-62, pp. 63-81.
United States Operations Mission to Vietnam, Saigon [title on cover] or A Booklet of Helpful Information for Americans in Vietnam [title on title page]. Saigon, May 1958. Prepared by the American Women's Association of Saigon. 44 pp. plus map.
United States Operations Mission to Vietnam, Annual Statistical Bulletin, No. 4, Data Through 1960. May 1961. pp. i-iiii, I-XXII, 1-19, pp. 21-64, pp. 65-107, pp. 109-130.
Vietnam Moves Ahead: Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1960. Front matter and pp. 1-25, pp. 26-48, pp. 49-71.
Vietnam Meets Its Challenge: USOM Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1961. November 20, 1961. 79 pp. Front matter and pp. 1-31 pp. 32-60 pp. 61-79 ("Public Safety" is pp. 61-63).
United States Operations Mission, Operational Report, 1963-1964. (Saigon?): Agency for International Development, (1964?). 94 pp. Foreword by James S. Killen. Front matter and pp. 1-19 pp. 20-45, pp. 46-72, pp. 73-94,
Vietnam Economic Data. Washington: Agency for International Development, September 1972. 24 pp. A lot of data for so few pages, in statistical tables. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Lloyd W. Woodruff, Local Administration in Viet-Nam: Its Future Development. Saigon: Michigan State University Advisory Group [and] National Institute of Administration, Republic of Viet-Nam, June 1961. Report No. 3, Local Administration Series. v, 416 pp. Much more of this deals with present and past conditions than the title would suggest. Includes some documents, essays by persons other than Woodruff, and comparisons with other Third World countries. The full text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in multiple parts, from front matter and pp. 1-45 to pp. 395-416. To access the parts between the first and last, substitute b, c, d, e, f, g, or h for the a near the end of the URL for the first part.
Lloyd W. Woodruff, assisted by Nguyen Ngoc Yen, Local Administration in Vietnam: The Number of Local Units. Washington: Agency for International Development, 1963. viii, 45 pp. Describes the administrative structure as of October 1959. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Many declassified State Department documents have been published on microfilm. See Microfilmed and CD-ROM Document Collections.
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