Examples are provided for two of the tasks. The Nation Digital Archive is a fully searchable electronic version of the magazine's complete backfile. - Tim O'Brien. Declassified reports based on U.S. surveillance. To mark that anniversary, here are forty quotes that tell the story of the Vietnam War: If the Buddhists wish to have another barbecue, Ill gladly supply the gasoline and a match, Buddhist monks had set themselves on fire, would go under any day if we dont do something, quoting a U.S. major on the decision to bomb and shell Ben Tre. The conflict between unified Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge began almost immediately with a series of border raids, eventually escalating into theCambodianVietnamese War. This chemical has since received widespread attention, especially because it was part of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, or Agent Orange, then being used to defoliate forests in the Vietnam War. We have reached an important point where the end begins to come into view. General William C. Westmoreland speaking to the National Press Club on November 21, 1967 as part of a Johnson administration effort to shore up sagging public support for the war. Eisenhower praises the progress in South Vietnam (October 1960), John F. Kennedys inauguration speech (January 1961) The war exacted anenormous human cost: estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 966,000to 3million. This website is created and maintained by Alpha History. I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to mistake such a historic mistake.Senator Wayne Morse(D-OR) on theSenates impending voteto adopt theGulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964. We believe that peace is at hand. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger speaking at a White House press conference about the Paris Peace negotiations on October 26, 1972, two weeks before the presidential election. They were part of an allied force led by the United States. You shall meet your undoing by our hands. How dare you bandits trespass on our land? But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win." Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh in a warning to French colonialists in 1946. Another extensive list from Mount Holyoke College focusing on the Vietnam War. By the time United States troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Vietnam War had become one of the longest, most controversial conflicts in American history. Numbers have dehumanized us. Colonel Robert Heinl: The Collapse of the Armed Forces (1971) A collection of primary source documents related to the Korean War. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone. With the exception of primary sources, all content on this website is Alpha History 2018. Naturally the common people don't want war. The Korean War and its Origins: Truman Library. } else { Following the end of the war, theSino-Soviet splitre-emerged and theThird Indochina Warbegan. Declare the United States the winner and begin de-escalation.Senator George Aiken (R-VT)offering adviceto President Lyndon Johnson on October 19, 1966 on how to handle the politics of reducing the U.S. commitment in Vietnam. Richard Pyle covered the Vietnam War for The Associated Press from 1968 to 1973 as a field correspondent and, from 1970-73, as Saigon bureau chief. In contrast to most images of a war that still reverberates decades later, they show soldiers. 1961 Attributed remark to journalist James Reston, following Kennedy's meeting with Khrushchev, Jun. "If, when the chips are down, the worlds most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.President Richard Nixon in a nationwide address on April 30, 1970 explaining his decision to invade Cambodia. We, of course, are saddened indeed by the events in Indochina. Our morning rush through crowded streets is not to cry murder but to hit that trough before somebody else gobbles our share. Vietnam War Primary Sources The Virtual Vietnam Archive Huge archive of mostly personal items from the war, including documents, photographs, slides, negatives, oral histories, artifacts, moving images, sound recordings Rutgers Oral History Archives - Vietnam War Veteran's History Project: Vietnam War "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. Augustine Heard, an American traveller, reports on Indochina (1886) }); In those sources, Ho Chi Minh explained why the Vietnamese were fighting and that they wanted to be free and independent. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam. President Gerald Fordsstatement announcing the evacuation of United States personnel from the Republic of Vietnam on April 29, 1975. 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. I think a long protracted war will disclose our weakness, not our strength.Deputy Secretary of State George W. Ball answering President Lyndon Johnsons questionat a White House meeting on July 21, 1965 about whether the United States could win a war in the jungle rice-paddies of Vietnam. Content created by Alpha History may not be copied, republished or redistributed without our express permission. The Vietnam War divided the nation into those who supported the war (Hawks) and those who were against the war (Doves). This is not a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. Should I become PresidentI will not risk American livesby permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies. The signs of the Vietnam War protestors said "Make Love not War!" US security briefings on Ngo Dinh Diem and his regime (1958-1960) I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went. Newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson at a White House meeting on November 24, 1963 responding to U.S. ambassador to South VietnamHenry Cabot Lodge, Jr.telling him that Vietnam would go under any day if we dont do something.. John F. Kerry. We will not grow tired. A US reporter discusses South Vietnamese military weaknesses (1973) "Mission With LeMay: My Story". I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your President. President Lyndon Johnson telling the nation on March 31, 1968 that he would not seek reelection. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The commitment of five hundred thousand Americans has settled the issue of the importance of Vietnam. They tied his hands behind his back, dragged him out, kicking and punching him while swearing continuously. Ali gave what became known as his "Black is Best" speech, in which he exhorted students to abandon society's concept of them and to fashion their own, based upon pride in themselves and their people: All you need to do is know yourself to set yourself free. Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again. Country music was set to the more humble beat of the red-blooded, bloodthirsty American heartland. Cross examination of Lieutenant William Calley (1970) Our long-term objectives are to see installed a self-governing nationalist state which will be friendly to the US We have an immediate interest in maintaining in power a friendly French Government, to assist in the furtherance of our aims in Europe. US news report on the imminent fall of Saigon (April 1975) Richard M. Nixon Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? Kennedy pledges support for Diem, South Vietnam (December 1961) This war has already stretched the generation gap so wide that it threatens to pull the country apart. The largest archive on the war in the world. Rusk, McNamara urge US involvement in Vietnam (November 1961) Australians in Vietnam; Quotes; Checklist; The following selection of quotes gives an insight into the personal thoughts and reflections of Australians who served in Vietnam. Like giving cobalt treatment to a terminal cancer case. The Media Vietnam was the first "television war" in the United States. They include diaries, letters, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and other manuscripts. Excerpts from Gen. Petraeus's 1987 doctoral thesis. Votes: 11 Sun Tzu Vietnam Agent orange in vietnam Agent orange vietnam End of vietnam war (561) 297-6911, Welcome to the Vietnam War Primary Source Guide, The French & Indochina - prelude to U.S. involvement into Vietnam, U.S. Foreign Relations and Policy regarding Vietnam War, United States engagement during the Vietnam War, MEDIA - The Big Picture: Stay Alert, Stay Alive (National Archives), Operation Ranch Hand ( 1962 - 1971) [to clear vegtation], The Big Picture: Stay Alert, Stay Alive (National Archives). Declassified documents from the Warsaw Pact and NATO about war plans from both sides, crises, foreign affairs of China and India, roles of specific countries like Poland or Hungary within these alliances, intelligence, and more. Robert F. Kennedys Kansas State University speech (March 1968) We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living. A small group of abolitionists writing and speaking eventually led to the end of slavery. For more coverage of the Korean War on the Digital Archive, see the . The Marines of Mike Company had walked into an ambush laid by over 2,500 well-camouflaged North Vietnamese warriors. //]]>. But the turmoil they experience isnt who they are; the PTSD invades their minds and bodies., We were children of the 1950s and John Kennedy's young stalwarts of the early 1960s. The collection includes 1) News Features & Internal Communications; and 2) Washington, D.C. Bureau Collection. In doing so, however, all of the texts . My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And perhaps because they won. Provides information on the sixties, including articles, personal narratives, primary documents, and much more. Welcome to the Vietnam War Primary Source Guide. Over breakfast coffee we read of 40,000 American dead in Vietnam. Foreign Relations of the United States. The suicide note of Hanoi governor Hoang Dieu (1882) -Gen. Curtis LeMay, May 1964. This archive, containing 21,477 pages of documents received in response to VVAW's Freedom of Information Act requests, chronicles the group's organizing activities across the country. Read declassified CIA materials, including files on clandestine operations! This astonishing Vietnam War primary source is an excerpt from the famous Pentagon Papers that revealed America's controversial decisions on the war. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of U.S. combat troops in Vietnam on March 8, 1965. he received a medical deferment from the draft during the Vietnam War because of the alleged presence of . by the epic class-action lawsuit filed by U.S. Vietnam veterans against the makers of Agent Orange, and by the Environmental Protection Agency's ban on most commercial uses of 2,4,5-T. William A. Buckingham has written the only historical study of this impor-tant phase of the Vietnam war and one of the first analyses of a neglected