research topics on vietnam war

Vietnam War Research Paper Topics

Welcome to iResearchNet’s comprehensive guide on Vietnam War research paper topics . This page is tailored specifically for students studying history who have been tasked with writing a research paper on this pivotal period of global conflict. Here, you will find a wealth of thought-provoking and diverse research topics that will allow you to delve into the complexities and impacts of the Vietnam War.

100 Vietnam War Research Paper Topics

The Vietnam War stands as one of the most significant and contentious conflicts of the 20th century, leaving an indelible mark on global history. For students studying this era, exploring the multitude of Vietnam War research paper topics is a compelling opportunity to gain insights into the complexities of war, diplomacy, society, and culture. In this section, we present an extensive and diverse list of research paper topics, meticulously organized into ten categories. Each category offers ten thought-provoking Vietnam War research paper topics, inviting students to delve into various facets of the conflict and its far-reaching impact. Whether you are interested in the war’s origins, military strategies, social ramifications, or the aftermath, this comprehensive list will inspire and guide you in crafting a well-informed and engaging research paper.

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Causes and Background of the Vietnam War

• French Colonialism in Vietnam: The Seeds of Conflict
• Ho Chi Minh and the Rise of Vietnamese Nationalism
• The Role of the United States in the Early Stages of the Conflict
• The Domino Theory and its Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy
• Assessing the Impact of World War II on the Vietnam War
• Roots of Anti-Communist Sentiments in the U.S. Government
• Examining the Geneva Accords and their Implications for Vietnam’s Future
• The Influence of the Cold War on the Vietnam Conflict
• The Interplay of Economic Interests and Colonial Ambitions in Indochina
• Religious and Ethnic Factors in the Conflict: Buddhism, Catholicism, and Cao Dai.

Military Strategies and Tactics

• Guerrilla Warfare and Its Impact on the Vietnam War
• The Tet Offensive: A Turning Point in the Conflict
• The Role of Media in Shaping Public Perception of the War
• Air Warfare: Operation Rolling Thunder and its Effectiveness
• The Use of Chemical Agents in the War: Agent Orange and Napalm
• The Battle of Ia Drang: Analyzing U.S. Troop Deployments
• The Ho Chi Minh Trail: A Supply Line that Shaped the War
• U.S. Strategic Bombing Campaigns and Their Consequences
• The Vietnamization Policy and Its Effects on the Conflict
• Evaluating the Role of Special Forces in Vietnam: Green Berets and Navy SEALs.

Social and Cultural Aspects of the War

• The Anti-War Movement in the United States: Origins, Key Figures, and Impact
• Media Coverage and Its Influence on Public Opinion
• Music of Protest: Folk, Rock, and the Counter-Culture Movement
• The Role of Women in the Vietnam War: Nurses, Volunteers, and Activists
• The Plight of Prisoners of War (POWs) and Missing in Action (MIAs)
• Protests and Resistance in Vietnam: Voices from the Viet Cong
• The Effects of PTSD on Veterans and Their Reintegration into Society
• Ethnic Minorities in the War: African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics
• The Impact of the Draft on American Society and Attitudes toward the War
• Artistic Expressions of the War: Literature, Film, and Photography.

Diplomacy and Peace Negotiations

• Paris Peace Accords: Negotiating an End to the Vietnam War
• The Role of Diplomacy in Resolving the Conflict: Successes and Failures
• Challenges and Obstacles to Peace Talks: Ideological, Political, and Military
• The Influence of Public Opinion on Peace Negotiations
• The Nixon-Kissinger Approach to Diplomacy: Realpolitik and Detente
• Assessing the Role of China and the Soviet Union in the Peace Process
• The Problem of Dual Recognition: North Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government
• Economic Sanctions and their Role in Negotiations
• The Impact of the Anti-War Movement on Diplomatic Efforts
• The Continuing Legacy of the Vietnam War in U.S. Foreign Policy.

Human Rights and War Crimes

• My Lai Massacre: Uncovering the Atrocities and Accountability
• Agent Orange and its Aftermath: Environmental and Human Health Impacts
• The Ethics of Targeted Killings and Assassinations during the War
• The Role of the International Red Cross and Humanitarian Efforts
• The Treatment of POWs in North Vietnamese Camps
• War Crimes Trials and the Pursuit of Justice: The Case of Lieutenant William Calley
• The Impact of the War on Children and Civilians: Orphans and Refugees
• War Crimes and Atrocities Committed by All Sides: A Balanced Perspective
• Examining the Legal and Moral Arguments of Bombing Civilian Targets
• The Ongoing Debate on War Crimes and Historical Reconciliation.

Impact and Aftermath of the Vietnam War

• Veterans’ Experiences and Challenges After the War: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• The Economic Impact of the War on Vietnam and the United States
• The Reconciliation Process between Vietnam and the United States
• The Legacy of the Vietnam War in U.S. Politics and Presidential Power
• The Vietnam War and Environmental Destruction: Deforestation and Agent Orange
• The Influence of the Vietnam War on Military Strategy and Doctrine
• The Vietnam War and the Emergence of the “Military-Industrial Complex”
• The Impact of the War on Asian-American Communities in the United States
• The Effects of the Vietnam War on American Public Opinion and Trust in Government
• The Emergence of Vietnam War Literature and its Cultural Significance.

The Role of Women in the Vietnam War

• Female Combatants in the Viet Cong: Roles and Contributions
• Nursing and Medical Care during the War: Women on the Frontlines
• Women’s Activism and Participation in the Peace Movement
• The Experience of American Military Nurses in Vietnam
• Women in Intelligence Agencies: Spies and Operatives
• The Impact of the War on Vietnamese Women: Challenges and Resilience
• Women as War Correspondents and Journalists
• Female Representation in the North Vietnamese Government and Army
• The Role of Women in the Anti-War Movement: Voices for Peace
• The Evolution of Gender Roles in Vietnamese Society during the War.

Intelligence and Counterintelligence

• The Role of the CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies in Vietnam
• Codebreaking and Communication Interception: Decrypting Enemy Messages
• Espionage and Double Agents in the Conflict: Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen
• Assessing the Effectiveness of Military Intelligence in Vietnam
• The Tet Offensive and Intelligence Failures: Lessons Learned
• Psychological Warfare and Propaganda: Deception in the Vietnam War
• The Phoenix Program: Intelligence-Led Counterinsurgency Efforts
• The Role of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) in Shaping the War
• Intelligence Sharing between the United States and its Allies
• Evaluating the Role of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Gathering Information

Regional and Global Implications of the Vietnam War

• The Domino Theory and its Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy
• The Vietnam War’s Influence on Cold War Dynamics
• Vietnam as a Case Study in Nation-Building and Intervention
• The Impact of the Vietnam War on Southeast Asia: Regional Stability and Conflicts
• Assessing the Influence of the Vietnam War on Latin American Revolutionary Movements
• The Role of Australia and New Zealand in the Vietnam War: ANZUS Treaty Obligations
• China’s Involvement in the Vietnam War: Motives and Consequences
• The Soviet Union’s Support for North Vietnam: Political and Military Aims
• The Vietnam War and Africa: The Pan-Africanist Movement’s Response
• The Vietnam War and European Allies: NATO’s Dilemmas and Responses

Comparing the Vietnam War to Other Conflicts

• Vietnam War vs. Korean War: A Comparative Analysis of Strategies and Outcomes
• The Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War: Lessons Learned and Repercussions
• Assessing the Similarities and Differences between the Vietnam and Iraq Wars
• Comparing Vietnam and World War II: The Role of Technology and Total War
• The Vietnam War and the Gulf War: Asymmetrical Warfare in Modern Conflicts
• The Vietnam War and the French-Algerian War: Colonial Legacies and Revolutions
• Vietnam War vs. The American Revolutionary War: Fighting for Independence
• The Vietnam War and the Falklands War: Island Conflicts and National Identity
• Comparing the Vietnam War to the Russo-Japanese War: Imperial Ambitions and Defeats
• The Vietnam War and the Spanish Civil War: International Interventions and Ideological Battles

You have now explored a vast array of Vietnam War research paper topics, spanning from the causes and background of the conflict to its far-reaching consequences on the global stage. By delving into these categories, you have the opportunity to uncover the multi-dimensional nature of the Vietnam War, analyze its intricacies, and grasp its profound implications. Whether you are fascinated by military strategies, diplomatic efforts, social aspects, or the aftermath, these topics will serve as a stepping stone to crafting an engaging and insightful research paper. Remember to select a topic that aligns with your interests, access credible sources, and stay objective in your analysis. Embark on your research journey with zeal, and let the knowledge you gain from these Vietnam War research paper topics contribute to a deeper understanding of this transformative period in history.

Vietnam War and Its Range of Research Paper Topics

The Vietnam War, spanning from 1955 to 1975, was a momentous conflict that not only reshaped the geopolitics of Southeast Asia but also left a profound impact on global history. Its intricate tapestry of political, military, social, and cultural dimensions provides a vast array of research paper topics for students studying history. Understanding the scope and significance of this war allows researchers to explore a myriad of intriguing themes that shed light on the complexities of human conflict, diplomacy, and societal transformation.

At the core of Vietnam War research lies the examination of its causes and background. Topics in this category delve into the historical underpinnings of the conflict, including the role of French colonialism in Vietnam, the rise of Vietnamese nationalism under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, and the interplay of major powers like the United States and the Soviet Union in shaping the conflict’s trajectory. Investigating the roots of the war not only provides insights into the events that led to the outbreak of hostilities but also highlights the significance of broader historical contexts, such as the Cold War and the post-World War II era.

Military strategies and tactics employed during the Vietnam War form another intriguing avenue for research. The war’s unique nature, characterized by guerrilla warfare and asymmetrical tactics, challenges conventional notions of military engagements. Students can explore topics such as the Tet Offensive, which marked a turning point in the conflict, the use of psychological warfare and propaganda, and the effects of chemical agents like Agent Orange and napalm. Additionally, investigating the impact of media coverage and the role of journalists during the war sheds light on how public perception can influence the outcomes of armed conflicts.

The social and cultural aspects of the Vietnam War offer yet another captivating realm of research. The anti-war movement in the United States, with its origins in the counterculture of the 1960s, transformed public opinion and challenged the government’s war policy. Vietnam War research paper topics in this category can delve into the music of protest, analyzing how folk and rock songs became anthems for peace, as well as examining the impact of war on civilians, particularly women, children, and ethnic minorities. The experiences of veterans and the challenges they faced upon returning home, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), also provide fertile ground for exploration.

Diplomacy and peace negotiations during the Vietnam War open doors to study the intricacies of international relations and the complexities of conflict resolution. Vietnam War research paper topics may include an analysis of the Paris Peace Accords and the negotiations that led to a cease-fire, the role of third-party mediators, and the impact of public opinion on diplomatic efforts. Evaluating the challenges and obstacles faced during peace talks can offer valuable lessons on the difficulties of finding common ground in highly contentious and protracted conflicts.

Addressing issues of human rights and war crimes during the Vietnam War allows students to examine the darker aspects of armed conflicts. The My Lai Massacre, in which American soldiers killed unarmed Vietnamese civilians, represents a watershed moment in the war, raising questions about accountability and justice. Research topics in this category can explore the use of chemical agents like Agent Orange and its long-term environmental and health impacts, as well as the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIAs). Analyzing war crimes and atrocities committed by all sides underscores the complexities of moral and legal judgments in times of war.

Beyond the active conflict, exploring the impact and aftermath of the Vietnam War provides a holistic understanding of its enduring legacy. Research topics in this area may focus on the experiences of veterans and the challenges they faced upon returning to civilian life, as well as the economic repercussions on both Vietnam and the United States. Assessing the ongoing reconciliation process between the two nations highlights the significance of post-war diplomacy and healing. The war’s environmental consequences, such as deforestation and the lingering effects of chemical warfare, also demand examination to better comprehend the far-reaching ecological impact of armed conflicts.

The Vietnam War’s influence extended beyond its immediate region, influencing the course of global politics and military strategy. Students can explore topics on the regional and global implications of the war, including its impact on the Cold War dynamics and the emergence of the “domino theory” as a guiding principle for U.S. foreign policy. Investigating the roles of other nations, such as China and the Soviet Union, in the conflict also illuminates the complexity of alliances and geopolitical strategies.

Moreover, comparing the Vietnam War to other historical conflicts enriches historical analysis and provides valuable insights into the dynamics of warfare. Vietnam War research paper topics in this category may explore the similarities and differences between the Vietnam War and the Korean War, the Soviet-Afghan War, the Iraq War, and other conflicts. Such comparative studies offer opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of different military strategies, the impacts of international involvement, and the lasting legacies of various armed struggles.

In conclusion, the Vietnam War presents an expansive and diverse range of research paper topics that encompass politics, military strategy, social change, human rights, and global implications. As students embark on their research journey, they will uncover the multifaceted nature of this transformative conflict, gaining valuable insights into the complexities of war and its far-reaching consequences. By immersing themselves in the study of these Vietnam War research paper topics, students will not only enrich their understanding of history but also contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the enduring impact of the Vietnam War on the world stage.

How to Choose Vietnam War Research Paper Topics

Selecting a compelling and well-suited research paper topic is a crucial first step in crafting an engaging and insightful academic paper. As you explore the vast landscape of Vietnam War research topics, it is essential to choose a subject that aligns with your interests, expertise, and academic goals. This section offers expert guidance and ten essential tips to assist you in navigating the process of selecting the most suitable Vietnam War research paper topic. By following these recommendations, you will not only discover a topic that captivates your curiosity but also ensures that you have ample resources and relevant materials to support your investigation. Embark on this journey of exploration and analysis, and let your passion for history guide you toward a topic that allows you to make a meaningful contribution to the understanding of this transformative period in global history.

• Understand Your Interests and Expertise : Begin the process of selecting a research paper topic by reflecting on your personal interests and expertise. Think about the aspects of the Vietnam War that fascinate you the most, whether it be its historical origins, military strategies, cultural impact, or diplomatic efforts. Consider your previous coursework, readings, and discussions in history classes to identify areas that have captivated your attention. By choosing a topic that aligns with your interests and knowledge, you are more likely to stay engaged and motivated throughout the research and writing process.
• Focus on Specific Aspects or Time Periods : The Vietnam War spans two decades and encompasses a wide range of events and themes. To narrow down your research paper topic, consider focusing on specific aspects or time periods within the war. For example, you could explore the causes and consequences of a particular battle, the experiences of soldiers during a specific year, or the impact of a particular policy or strategy. Focusing on a specific aspect allows you to delve deeper into the subject matter and provide a more nuanced analysis of the historical context.
• Consider Relevance and Contemporary Implications : As you explore different research paper topics, consider the relevance of your chosen subject matter to contemporary issues and debates. How does the Vietnam War’s history connect to present-day challenges, such as conflict resolution, foreign policy, or social justice? Understanding the contemporary implications of your research topic not only adds relevance to your paper but also allows you to contribute to ongoing discussions and debates about historical legacies.
• Evaluate the Availability of Sources and Materials : Before finalizing your research paper topic, assess the availability of credible and reliable sources. Check whether there is sufficient literature, primary documents, and scholarly articles related to your chosen topic. A well-supported research paper requires access to a diverse range of sources to strengthen your arguments and provide a comprehensive analysis. Ensure that your topic has enough resources to support your research and avoid topics with limited or outdated information.
• Seek the Guidance of Your Professor or Instructor : Consulting with your professor or instructor can provide valuable insights and suggestions for your research paper topic. They can help you identify areas that need further exploration, recommend reputable sources, and guide you in refining your research questions. Professors often appreciate students who show enthusiasm and initiative in selecting topics related to course content, as it demonstrates a genuine interest in the subject matter.
• Look for Gaps in Existing Research : Research topics that address gaps in existing literature or challenge prevailing interpretations can make a significant contribution to historical scholarship. Investigate areas that have received less attention or have not been thoroughly explored in previous research. By shedding new light on understudied aspects of the Vietnam War, you can offer fresh insights and expand the existing body of knowledge.
• Balance Well-Known and Lesser-Known Topics : Consider balancing well-known topics with lesser-known or overlooked aspects of the Vietnam War. While popular subjects, such as the Tet Offensive or the anti-war movement, offer ample resources and discussions, exploring less familiar topics can yield unique and original research. By delving into lesser-known events, individuals, or policies, you can uncover hidden stories and bring new perspectives to the forefront.
• Analyze the Significance and Impact of the Chosen Topic : Assess the historical significance and broader impact of your chosen topic within the context of the Vietnam War. How did your topic influence the course of the war, the lives of people involved, or the historical narratives that emerged afterward? Understanding the broader implications of your research topic adds depth to your paper and allows you to contextualize its relevance within the larger historical framework.
• Choose Topics that Resonate with Current Events : Exploring research paper topics that resonate with current events and contemporary issues can infuse your study with relevance and broader societal implications. Consider how historical themes related to the Vietnam War connect to modern-day conflicts, international relations, or social movements. By drawing parallels between past and present, you can demonstrate the continued relevance of historical analysis in understanding present challenges.
• Stay Passionate and Motivated Throughout the Research Process : Above all, choose a Vietnam War research paper topic that ignites your passion and curiosity. A topic that genuinely excites you will sustain your motivation and dedication during the research process, even when faced with challenges or complexities. Your enthusiasm for the subject matter will shine through in your writing, making your research paper more engaging and impactful for your readers.

The process of selecting a research paper topic on the Vietnam War demands careful consideration, critical thinking, and a genuine interest in historical exploration. By following these ten essential tips, you can identify a topic that aligns with your interests, is well-supported by resources, and contributes to the existing body of knowledge on this transformative period in global history. Whether you choose to delve into well-known events, unearth lesser-known stories, or investigate the contemporary relevance of historical themes, your research endeavor will enrich your understanding of the Vietnam War and its enduring impact on the world. Embrace the opportunity to contribute to historical scholarship, and embark on a journey of discovery that will leave a lasting legacy in the field of history.

How to Write a Vietnam War Research Paper

Once you have selected a compelling Vietnam War research paper topic, the next step is to embark on the writing process. Writing a research paper on the Vietnam War requires careful planning, thorough research, and a structured approach to effectively present your findings and analysis. This section will provide you with expert guidance and ten essential tips to help you craft a well-organized, insightful, and compelling research paper that showcases your understanding of this significant historical period.

• Develop a Clear Thesis Statement : Craft a concise and focused thesis statement that outlines the main argument or central point of your research paper. Your thesis statement should reflect the specific aspect of the Vietnam War you are exploring and the main conclusions you aim to draw from your research. It provides the backbone of your paper and guides readers on what to expect from your analysis.
• Organize Your Research : Organize your research materials and sources systematically to facilitate efficient writing. Create an outline or structure for your paper, dividing it into sections or chapters based on the main points you want to cover. This organization ensures a logical flow of ideas and helps you avoid redundancy or confusion in your writing.
• Conduct In-Depth Research : Thoroughly investigate primary and secondary sources related to your chosen topic. Use reputable academic journals, books, historical documents, interviews, and other reliable materials to support your arguments. Balance your research between different perspectives and viewpoints to provide a comprehensive and well-rounded analysis.
• Incorporate Strong Evidence : Support your arguments with strong and relevant evidence from your research. Use direct quotes, statistics, and specific examples from primary sources and scholarly literature to validate your claims. Cite your sources accurately using the appropriate citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian) to give credit to the original authors and avoid plagiarism.
• Analyze and Interpret Findings : Analyze the evidence you have gathered and interpret its significance within the context of your research question. Explain how the evidence supports your thesis and the broader implications of your findings. Provide critical insights and thoughtful interpretations to demonstrate your understanding of the Vietnam War and its complexities.
• Develop Well-Structured Paragraphs : Organize your ideas into well-structured paragraphs that each focus on a single topic or argument. Begin each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that introduces the main point, followed by supporting evidence and analysis. Use transitions to connect your paragraphs and maintain a smooth flow of ideas.
• Use Engaging and Clear Language : Write in a clear and concise manner, avoiding jargon or unnecessary complexity. Use engaging language to captivate your readers and maintain their interest throughout your research paper. Avoid long, convoluted sentences and opt for straightforward and coherent writing.
• Provide Historical Context : Offer sufficient historical context to contextualize your research and help readers understand the significance of your findings. Explain the broader historical background, events, and developments that led to the Vietnam War. Providing context enhances the readers’ comprehension of your paper and reinforces the relevance of your research.
• Address Counterarguments : Acknowledge and address counterarguments or alternative viewpoints related to your research topic. Demonstrating an awareness of differing opinions strengthens your paper and showcases your ability to engage in scholarly discourse. Present counterarguments objectively and explain why your research supports your own thesis.
• Conclude with Impact : Craft a strong and impactful conclusion that summarizes your main findings, restates your thesis, and reflects on the broader significance of your research. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion, and instead, leave readers with a lasting impression of your research and its contributions to the understanding of the Vietnam War.

Writing a research paper on the Vietnam War is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor that allows you to deepen your understanding of this transformative period in history. By following the ten essential tips outlined in this section, you can approach the writing process with confidence and structure, ensuring that your research paper is well-organized, insightful, and compelling. Remember to develop a clear thesis statement, conduct thorough research, and incorporate strong evidence to support your arguments. Analyze and interpret your findings, provide historical context, and address counterarguments to showcase your depth of understanding. With engaging and clear language, present your research in a coherent and impactful manner. As you conclude your paper, leave readers with a lasting impression of your research’s significance and contributions to the field of historical scholarship. Embrace this opportunity to share your knowledge and insights, and let your Vietnam War research paper be a testament to your passion for history and commitment to academic excellence.

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80 Vietnam War Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for Vietnam war essay topics? Being the largest conflict in the US history, Vietnam war is definitely worth analyzing.

• 🔝 Top 10 Essay Topics
• 💡 Essay: How to Write
• 🏆 Best Essay Examples & Topic Ideas
• 💣 Most Interesting Topics
• 🔍 Research Topics & Questions

Why did the US lose the Vietnam war? Who won the war and how did that happen? There are many questions about the conflict that wait to be answered. Other options for your Vietnam war essay are to focus on the US involvement or talk about the lessons of the conflict.

Whether you are planning to write an argumentative essay, research paper, or thesis on the Vietnam war, this article will be helpful. Here we’ve collected top Vietnam war research questions, titles. Essay examples are also added to add to your inspiration.

🔝 Top 10 Vietnam War Essay Topics

• Vietnam war: the causes
• US involvement in the Vietnam war
• Vietnam war: the key participants
• The causes of the conflict in Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin incident and its role in the Vietnam war
• Why did the US lose the Vietnam war?
• War crimes in the cause of the conflict in Vietnam
• Vietnam war: the role of women
• Weapons and technology in the Vietnam war
• Vietnam war and its influence on popular culture

💡 Vietnam War Essay: How to Write

Chemical warfare, civilian peace protests, and an overwhelming number of casualties are all central circumstances of a Vietnamese-American 19-year conflict that garnered attention all over the world.

Reflecting all these topics in a Vietnam War essay is essential to writing an excellent paper, as well as other structural and informational points. In the prewriting stages:

• Research your issue. Doing so will not only help you choose among various Vietnam War essay topics but also help you start assembling a list of sources that can be of use. Compiling a bibliography early on will allow you to gauge how well covered your subject is and whether you can approach it from different viewpoints. Use various book and journal titles to give your work academic credibility.
• Write a Vietnam War essay outline. This action will help you distribute the weight of your ideas evenly between sub-themes. In turn, doing so will allow you to create a smooth flowing, interconnected narrative of whichever issue you choose.
• Compose a title for your paper. Vietnam War essay titles should be both reflective of their author’s stance and representative of the chosen methodological approach. Since your title is the first thing a potential reader sees, it should grab their attention in the best way.
• Read available sample essays to see which tools and techniques may work in your own paper. While plagiarism is punishable in the academic world, there are no repercussions for getting inspiration or pretending to grade an essay for yourself. Good examples may be just the thing you need to write an excellent paper yourself!

Now you are ready to begin writing. Layering your paper with the appropriate information is only one aspect of essay writing, as you should also:

• Begin your introduction by placing a Vietnam War essay hook in it. This catch can be a remarkable piece of information, a quote from a famous person, or an opposing viewpoint on the subject. Whichever you choose, placing a hook allows you to interest your readers and secure their interest for the duration of your paper.
• Use appropriate terminology. A war-related paper may call for an in-depth understanding of technology, while an ideology related one requires more event-related knowledge. Choose your words according to the specifics of your issue and use them to write a comprehensive and well-rounded essay.
• Understand the cause and effect war environment. Clearly define the links between events and make sure your audience understands all the intricacies of the issue. A timeline, written by you or found online, should help you trace these connections, creating an interflowing essay.
• Recognize the effect of seemingly background events. The recognition of a soldier’s civil rights and the rise of a movement that called for American citizens to return to their home continent is not battlefield-related but greatly impacted politics regarding the issue. Remember that there may be connections between seemingly unrelated problems, and finding them is your goal as an essayist.
• Stick to your Vietnam War essay prompt and the received instructions. Ignoring the specified word count in favor of drafting a more extensive coverage of the problem is not worth losing a grade on a suburb essay.

Always check the rubric that your instructor provided to receive good grades.

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🏆 Best Vietnam War Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

• Similarities and Differences Between Korean and Vietnam Wars There were also several differences such as the way of development of the conflicts where the Korean War was during three years, and the Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle, the participation of the Chinese […]
• Music as a Weapon During the Vietnam War Music to the soldiers in Vietnam acted as a tool to remind all troops of the responsibility that they had taken by being on the battlefield.
• Why Did the United States Lose the Vietnam War? The Office of the Secretary of Defense had become demoralized due to the events that had taken place; hence, it was unwilling to escalate the war further due to the decline of the army troops […]
• Photos of Vietnam War The role of the media in the Vietnam War also raises issues of what the media ought to censor and report to the public.
• The Vietnam War in the “Child of Two Worlds” Therefore, in the future, he is like to live in the outside world rather than in the inside one. Therefore, Lam wants to start a new life in the US and forgets his roots, which […]
• Causes and Effects of the Vietnamese War To the U.S.the war was a loss, because the reunion of South and North Vietnamese citizens marked the end of the war, hence U.S.’s undivided support for the southern region yielded nothing, apart from numerous […]
• How the Vietnam War Polarized American Society It galvanized the enemy and opponents of the war in both Vietnam and America and led many to question the ethics of the campaigns.
• Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War The Vietnam War caused unintended consequences for the civil rights movements of the 1960s as it awakened the African-Americans’ consciousness on the racism and despotism that they experienced in the United States.
• The Use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War The Association of American Advancement of science prompted the US government to allow investigations into the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam in 1968.
• How Did the Media Shape Americans’ Perceptions of the Vietnam War? At the heart of this war, the media is believed to have shaped the Americans perception about the war. Technology in this moment made it possible for television to film some incidents in the war […]
• Protests and Music of the Vietnam War As the public absorbed the announcement, and the truth behind the war, they were angered by the fact that many American lives had been lost in the war, and the fact that the government was […]
• Vietnam War in the “Platoon” Movie by Oliver Stone In the context of the war, the confrontation between two non-commissioned officers, the cruel-hearted Barnes and the humane Elias, is depicted.
• Political and Social Forces During and After the Vietnam War The political forces in the aftermath of the Vietnam War centered around balancing between the Cold War and the maintenance of public support.
• Researching and Analysis of the Vietnam War A Chinese leader inspired by the Soviet Union and the Chinese, Ho Chi Minh, formed a union to aid the resistance against the French occupiers in Vietnam and the Japanese.
• The Vietnam War and the Tet Offensive In this presentation, the discussion of the impact of Tet Offensive on the United States and the role of media in military events will be discussed.
• The Artistic Legacy of Maya Lin: A Cultural Response to the Vietnam War Major confrontations as the signs of a shift in cultural perspectives and attitudes have always defined the development of art, the Vietnam War being one of the infamous examples of the phenomenon.
• Vietnam War: History and Facts of War That Began in 1959 The Second Indochina War began in 1959, five years after the division of the country, according to the Geneva Agreement. South Vietnam’s troops failed to substitute American soldiers, and in 1974 the peace agreement was […]
• The Vietnam War: Diplomatic Mechanisms Connected With the USA The onset of the Vietnam War exposed the vagaries in the American political and administrative systems in terms of issues of diplomacy, presidency, and even in cultural and social matters.
• “The Green Berets” Film About the Vietnam War According to the plot, one American journalist named George Beckworth is to cover the topic of the military involvement of the USA in this war.
• Vietnam War: David Halberstam’s “The Making of a Quagmire” In his account, the author of the book The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era, is categorical about the dealings of the Americans in the Vietnamese affair.
• “A Time of War: The United States and Vietnam” by Robert D. Schulzinger These events relate to the activities and interests of the Americans, the French and Vietnamese which preceded the beginning and the aftermath of the war.
• Interview Report: Memories of the Vietnam War Locker about the way he happened to take part in the Vietnam War, he said that he was drafted but, anyway, at that time he thought that it was his destiny as he wanted to […]
• Ho Chi Minh’s Influence in the Vietnam War He was the leader of the Vietnam independence movement and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which was governed by the communists.

💣 Most Interesting Vietnam War Topics

• “Vietnam War Generation Journal” by Aaron Over the years, the American people realized that the lived of the US soldiers were wasted for achieving the ambitious goals of the American leaders.
• How the Vietnam War Influenced the Iraq War? During the Vietnam era, the neo-conservatism movement expanded due to the political polarization occurring in the country between the anti-war, anti-American sentiments of the counterculture and neo-cons who championed blind patriotism.
• Impact of the Vietnam War and Results of the Cold War It galvanized the enemy and opponents of the war in both Vietnam and America and led many to question the ethics of the campaigns.
• The Vietnam War in American History Since early fifties the government of the United States began to pay special attention to Vietnam and political situation in this country, because, it was one of the most important regions in the Southeast Asia.
• How TV Showed the Vietnam War At the dawn of television media emergence, the coverage of the Vietnam War was subjective as the opinion of the public was manipulated by the government to get the desired reaction from the Americans to […]
• Vietnam War on Television Thus, the research paper will be written in accordance with the following working thesis statement: At the dawn of television media emergence, the coverage of the Vietnam War was subjective as the opinion of the […]
• Vietnam War Overview in Media Since the defeat of Saigon in April 1975, two opposing representations, the mirror theory, and the elitist opinion theory have appeared to clarify how the media impacted the results of the war.
• “The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War” by Downs At the very outset, it was clear to the soldiers that the war in Indochina was not being conducted in terms of the glory myths on which they had been raised. The second part of […]
• French Involvement in Vietnam War Even though in the overwhelming majority of cases, the author focuses attention on the history of Vietnam since the Involvement of the French troops in the nineteenth century, he also gives background information as to […]
• Vietnam War Perceptions of African American Leaders Externally, the country was embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam and internally, rejection of the ‘establishment’ typified by the ‘Counter-culture movement’ and the Black Civil rights movement was gaining momentum.
• Vietnamese Culture and Traditions: The Role in Vietnam War It was this division that left America with little understanding of how the rest of the world lives and how the country can effectively help others even in times of war.
• My Lai Massacre During Vietnam War American soldiers of Company assaulted the hamlet of My Lai part of the village of Son My in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam on 16 March 1968.
• American Government’s Involvement in the Vietnam War According to John Kerry, although the main idea behind the decision made by the U.S.government at the time seemed legitimate given the rise in the threat of communism taking over democracy, the execution of it […]
• American History During the Vietnam War In the quest to figure out the events that took place in the history of America, I had an opportunity to interview a close family friend who was one of the African American soldiers during […]
• The Vietnam War on the Network Nightly News This evidence refuting the use of attrition by the American troops indicate that the strategy was ineffective and as such, it gave their enemies a leeway to capitalize on it and intensify the combat.
• China-Vietnam Opposition or the Third Vietnam War The Korean War, numerous military operations in the Middle East, and the Vietnam War were preconditioned by the clash of ideologies and parties unwillingness to make a compromise.
• Vietnam War vs. War on Terror in the Middle East The starting point for the War on Terror is considered to be the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and other locations which led to the deaths of thousands.
• The Vietnam War and Its Effects on the Veterans Although numerous books and articles contain memories of those who lived to tell the tale, the best way to learn about the Vietnam War and to understand how war changes people is to talk to […]
• Vietnam War: The Results of Flawed Containment The neo-orthodox perspective on the war in Vietnam consisted of criticism towards United States policies in the sense that civilian and military leaders of the country were unsuccessful in developing achievable and realistic plans with […]
• Vietnam War and American Revolution Comparison Consequently, the presence of these matters explains the linkage of the United States’ war in Vietnam and the American Revolution to Mao’s stages of the insurgency.
• Vietnam War in “A Path to Shine After” by James Post The author uses the contrast between a peaceful life of the veteran and his experience as a soldier to highlight the senselessness and cruelty of war.
• Vietnam War Experiences in David Vancil’s Poems For these reasons, the majority of the works devoted to the given issue tend to demonstrate the horrors of war and factors that impacted people.
• America in Vietnam War: Effects of Involvement However, the involvement of America in the war has made other countries around the world to question its principle of morality.

🔍 Vietnam War Research Topics & Questions

• African American Soldiers During Vietnam War In the 1960s and 70s, African Americans battled racial discrimination at home in the United States but also faced similar if not the same tension as a member of the Armed Forces while fighting in […]
• Contribution of Women in the Vietnam War Special emphasis will be given to nurses because without their contribution, so many soldiers would have lost their lives or suffered from deteriorating conditions in the War Some of the nurses in the Vietnam War […]
• The American Strategic Culture in Vietnam War Spector further emphasizes that the involvement of the United States in both phases of the Vietnam War was due to Harry Truman, the then president of the United States, who did not support communism, but […]
• Hanoi and Washington: The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a conflict that was military in nature, occurred between the years 1954 and 1975, and was between the communists and the non-communists.
• America’s Failure in Promoting Its Politic in Vietnam Existing literature purports that, part of America’s agenda in Vietnam was to stop the spread of communism and in other literature excerpts, it is reported that, America was persuading North Vietnam to stop supporting the […]
• Vietnam War in the Book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien The Irony of being at war is that Peace and conflict are both inevitable; it is the way we handle either of the two that determines our opinion of life in general both in the […]
• Anti-War Movement and American Views on the Vietnam War The fact that people started to take part in demonstrations and openly protest any drafting and involvement of the United States in the war, created even more attention towards the Vietnam Conflict.
• The Vietnam War: Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy Leadership Roles On November 1, 1995, Eisenhower’s action to give military training to the government of South Vietnam marked the official start of the U.S.involvement in the Vietnamese conflict.
• The Vietnam War Causes The aftermath of the Second World War had the South Vietnam controlled by the French and the North Vietnam controlled by Viet Minh.
• The Vietnam War: A Clash of Viewpoints With the help of the most realistic descriptions and the vivid pictures of woes that soldiers had to take in the course of the battles, the author makes the people sink into the mind of […]
• China’s Support for North Vietnam in the Vietnam War As of the time of the war, the capital city of South Vietnam was Saigon while that of the North was Hanoi.
• The Role of Women in the Vietnam War For example, women in the Navy Nurse Corps and Army Nurse Corp were sent to take part in the Vietnam War and the Korean War.
• Appy, C. and Bloom, A., Vietnam War Mythology and the Rise of Public Cynicism, 49-73 The first myth is that the intervention of the US in the Vietnam War was devoid of any political interests and colonial based ambition contrary to that of the French.
• Vietnam Women Soldiers in the Vietnam War and Life Change After the War In 1968, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong forces attacked all the major cities of South Vietnam and even the US embassy followed where the war could not stop but in the year 1973 […]
• Vietnam War: The Battle Where There Could Be No Winners Inflamed by the ideas of the patriotic behavior and the mission of protecting the interests of the native land, the American soldiers were eager to start the battle.
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 Is a Turning Point in Vietnam War The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that occurred in August 7, 1964, was one of the major turning points in the United States military involvement into the flow of the Vietnam War.
• The Vietnam War’s and Student’s Unrest Connection An example of such protests were held by the by the University of Washington during the national strikes that took an approximate one week as a reaction to the Kent University shootings and a culmination […]
• Vietnam War: John Kerry’s Role Kerry’s actions during the Vietnam war that eventually led to his acquisition of the Purple Heart is a as a result of his ability to stop the actions of the enemy as evident in their […]
• Views on Vietnamese War in the Revisionism School Though United States did not involve itself into the war in order to break the dominance of Soviet Union, it wanted to gain politically and economically.
• Stories From the Vietnam War In the dissonance of opinions on the Vietnam War, it appears reasonable to turn to the first-hand experiences of the veterans and to draw real-life information from their stories.
• Concepts of the Vietnam War The fear to go to Vietnam and participate in a war that many believed America will inevitably lose, continued to engulf their life even more.
• Analysis of the Vietnam War Timeline 1961-64 In essence, the analysis of JWPs in this war would entail critical exploration of the jus in bello, with the aim of determining the combatants and non-combatants, and this is important in the sense that […]
• Politics in the 1960s: Vietnam War, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Berlin Wall However, in recent years following the collapse of the Soviet Union between1980 1990 and the opening of Vietnam to the outside world in the same period it is possible to understand the motives of both […]
• The Vietnam War Outcomes The Vietnam War was and is still considered the longest deployment of the U. In conclusion, both the U.S.and the Vietnam governments have a lot to ponder regarding the outcome of the Vietnam War.
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Vietnam War

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. 

Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even after President Richard Nixon signed the  Paris Peace Accords  and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

Roots of the Vietnam War

Vietnam, a nation in Southeast Asia on the eastern edge of the Indochinese peninsula, had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century.

During World War II , Japanese forces invaded Vietnam. To fight off both Japanese occupiers and the French colonial administration, political leader Ho Chi Minh —inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism —formed the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam.

Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Ho’s Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, taking over the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as president.

Seeking to regain control of the region, France backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of Vietnam in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as its capital.

Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a nation modeled after other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted a Vietnam with close economic and cultural ties to the West.

Did you know? According to a survey by the Veterans Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million troops who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction were markedly higher among veterans.

HISTORY Vault: Vietnam in HD

See the Vietnam War unfold through the gripping firsthand accounts of 13 brave men and women forever changed by their experiences.

When Did the Vietnam War Start?

The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in the war began in 1954, though ongoing conflict in the region had stretched back several decades.

After Ho’s communist forces took power in the north, armed conflict between northern and southern armies continued until the northern Viet Minh’s decisive victory in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. The French loss at the battle ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina.

The subsequent treaty signed in July 1954 at a Geneva conference split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th Parallel (17 degrees north latitude), with Ho in control in the North and Bao in the South. The treaty also called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956.

In 1955, however, the strongly anti-communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem pushed Emperor Bao aside to become president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN), often referred to during that era as South Vietnam.

The Viet Cong

With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union , and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam.

With training and equipment from American military and the CIA , Diem’s security forces cracked down on Viet Minh sympathizers in the south, whom he derisively called Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communist), arresting some 100,000 people, many of whom were brutally tortured and executed.

By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem’s repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army in firefights.

In December 1960, Diem’s many opponents within South Vietnam—both communist and non-communist—formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime. Though the NLF claimed to be autonomous and that most of its members were not communists, many in Washington assumed it was a puppet of Hanoi.

Domino Theory

A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam advised a build-up of American military, economic and technical aid in order to help Diem confront the Viet Cong threat.

Working under the “ domino theory ,” which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many other countries would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he stopped short of committing to a large-scale military intervention.

By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.

Gulf of Tonkin

A coup by some of his own generals succeeded in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas .

The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam persuaded Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson , and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to further increase U.S. military and economic support.

In August of 1964, after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution , which gave Johnson broad war-making powers, and U.S. planes began regular bombing raids, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder , the following year.

The bombing was not limited to Vietnam; from 1964-1973, the United States covertly dropped two million tons of bombs on neighboring, neutral Laos during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos . The bombing campaign was meant to disrupt the flow of supplies across the Ho Chi Minh trail into Vietnam and to prevent the rise of the Pathet Lao, or Lao communist forces. The U.S. bombings made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world.

In March 1965, Johnson made the decision—with solid support from the American public—to send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam. By June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, and military leaders were calling for 175,000 more by the end of 1965 to shore up the struggling South Vietnamese army.

Despite the concerns of some of his advisers about this escalation, and about the entire war effort amid a growing anti-war movement , Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. In addition to the United States, South Korea , Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale).

William Westmoreland

In contrast to the air attacks on North Vietnam, the U.S.-South Vietnamese war effort in the south was fought primarily on the ground, largely under the command of General William Westmoreland , in coordination with the government of General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon.

Westmoreland pursued a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory. By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as “free-fire zones,” from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained. Heavy bombing by B-52 aircraft or shelling made these zones uninhabitable, as refugees poured into camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities.

Even as the enemy body count (at times exaggerated by U.S. and South Vietnamese authorities) mounted steadily, DRV and Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting, encouraged by the fact that they could easily reoccupy lost territory with manpower and supplies delivered via the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Cambodia and Laos. Additionally, supported by aid from China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam strengthened its air defenses.

Vietnam War Protests

By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust the government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s repeated claims that the war was being won.

The later years of the war saw increased physical and psychological deterioration among American soldiers—both volunteers and draftees—including drug use , post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ), mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers and noncommissioned officers.

Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel deserted, and a robust anti-war movement among American forces spawned violent protests, killings and mass incarcerations of personnel stationed in Vietnam as well as within the United States.

Bombarded by horrific images of the war on their televisions, Americans on the home front turned against the war as well: In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a massive Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon . Opponents of the war argued that civilians, not enemy combatants, were the primary victims and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.

Tet Offensive

By the end of 1967, Hanoi’s communist leadership was growing impatient as well, and sought to strike a decisive blow aimed at forcing the better-supplied United States to give up hopes of success.

On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam.

Taken by surprise, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces nonetheless managed to strike back quickly, and the communists were unable to hold any of the targets for more than a day or two.

Reports of the Tet Offensive stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops, despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. With his approval ratings dropping in an election year, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam (though bombings continued in the south) and promised to dedicate the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than reelection.

Johnson’s new tack, laid out in a March 1968 speech, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris that May. Despite the later inclusion of the South Vietnamese and the NLF, the dialogue soon reached an impasse, and after a bitter 1968 election season marred by violence, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency.

Vietnamization

Nixon sought to deflate the anti-war movement by appealing to a “silent majority” of Americans who he believed supported the war effort. In an attempt to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced a program called Vietnamization : withdrawing U.S. troops, increasing aerial and artillery bombardment and giving the South Vietnamese the training and weapons needed to effectively control the ground war.

In addition to this Vietnamization policy, Nixon continued public peace talks in Paris, adding higher-level secret talks conducted by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger beginning in the spring of 1968.

The North Vietnamese continued to insist on complete and unconditional U.S. withdrawal—plus the ouster of U.S.-backed General Nguyen Van Thieu—as conditions of peace, however, and as a result the peace talks stalled.

My Lai Massacre

The next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U.S. soldiers had mercilessly slaughtered more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.

After the My Lai Massacre , anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of protest marches and gatherings throughout the country.

On November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D.C. , as over 250,000 Americans gathered peacefully, calling for withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

The anti-war movement, which was particularly strong on college campuses, divided Americans bitterly. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous.

As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. Tens of thousands of soldiers received dishonorable discharges for desertion, and about 500,000 American men from 1965-73 became “draft dodgers,” with many fleeing to Canada to evade conscription . Nixon ended draft calls in 1972, and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year.

Kent State Shooting

In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there. The South Vietnamese then led their own invasion of Laos, which was pushed back by North Vietnam.

The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America. During one, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio , National Guardsmen shot and killed four students. At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police.

By the end of June 1972, however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation.

The Pentagon Papers

A top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 was published in the New York Times in 1971—shedding light on how the Nixon administration ramped up conflict in Vietnam. The report, leaked to the Times by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, further eroded support for keeping U.S. forces in Vietnam. 

When Did the Vietnam War End?

In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969).

More than two decades of violent conflict had inflicted a devastating toll on Vietnam’s population: After years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. Warfare had demolished the country’s infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly.

In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. resumed in the 1990s.

In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict in Vietnam from 1965-73; this massive spending led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices.

Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war (who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians) and its supporters (who saw them as having lost the war), along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange , millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.S. planes on the dense forests of Vietnam.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.

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Studying the Vietnam War

How the scholarship has changed..

Two American soldiers in Pleiku, South Vietnam, home to an American airbase in May 1967.

—Everett Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

These are boom times for historians of the Vietnam War. One reason is resurgent public interest in a topic that had lost some of its salience in American life during the 1990s. At that time, the end of the Cold War and surging confidence about U.S. power seemed to diminish the relevance of long ago controversies and the need to draw lessons from America’s lost war. But then came the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: grueling conflicts that, in key respects, resembled the war in Southeast Asia three decades earlier. Critics complained that George W. Bush had mired the nation in “another Vietnam,” and military strategists focused anew on the earlier war for clues about fighting insurgents in distant, inhospitable places. For their part, historians seized the opportunity to reinterpret Vietnam for a younger generation and especially to compare and contrast the Vietnam conflict with America’s new embroilments.

Soldiers of The Army of the Republic of Vietnam in 1968.

—Gado Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Marine D. R. Howe treats PFC. D. A. Crum's wounds during the battle for Hue on June 2, 1968.

—US Marines Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

More recently, intense public interest in the war has been sustained by fiftieth anniversaries of the war’s most harrowing years for the United States. Publishers have used these occasions to release high-profile histories, including Mark Bowden’s widely reviewed  Hue 1968 , a sprawling account of the largest battle between U.S. and Communist forces during the 1968 Tet Offensive. The media are taking part as well. During 2017 and early 2018, the  New York Times  is publishing an online series of approximately 130 op-eds focused on the events of 1967. The biggest moment of all is due in late September: the premiere of the much anticipated 18-hour documentary on the war from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, an event certain to inspire new waves of commentary about Vietnam and to rekindle debate in living rooms across the nation.

But there is another, less noticed reason for renewed attention to the Vietnam War: Spectacular new source material has transformed the possibilities for writing about the subject. Some of this new documentation has emerged from U.S. archives as a result of declassification in the last decade or so. Records from the Nixon and Ford presidencies (1969–1977), especially, are making it possible for historians to write with more confidence and in greater detail about the final stages of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, long a relatively neglected era of the war.

Indeed, the last phase of U.S. military operations has recently spawned an especially contentious debate on one of the most fundamental controversies about Vietnam: Could the United States and its South Vietnamese allies have won the war if the American public had not turned against it? Provocative new works by Lewis Sorley and Gregory Daddis lead the way in arguing for and against, respectively, the notion that the U.S. military could have secured overall victory, if not for crumbling political support within the United States.

Meanwhile, writing about every phase of American decision-making has been enhanced by the release of audio recordings that U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard Nixon made of important meetings, telephone conversations, or both. Because these often convey the mood and emotions of senior policymakers, they are invaluable in helping historians gain a richer understanding of the motives that underlay decision-making about the war. It is now possible, for example, to hear Lyndon Johnson’s anguish about escalating the U.S. role in 1964 and 1965. LBJ’s doubts, along with his obvious awareness of the problems that would beset U.S. forces if he escalated the war in Vietnam, have led many historians to scrap the once dominant idea that leaders in Washington, ignorant of Vietnamese politics and blinded by Cold War assumptions about the dangers of communism, walked step-by-step into a “quagmire” that no one had anticipated. The old question—How could Americans have been so ignorant?—has been replaced by a new one: Why did U.S. leaders commit the nation to war despite abundant doubts and accurate knowledge of the obstacles they would confront?

The most impressive new source material, however, has emerged from countries other than the United States. As recently as 30 years ago, historians were limited to U.S. and West European sources, making it impossible to write with authority about Vietnam itself or decision-making by North Vietnam’s allies, China, the Soviet Union, and Eastern European nations. Everything changed with the end of the Cold War. East European nations went furthest in opening their archives to researchers. For its part, the Russian government opened some Soviet-era records, most notably the records of the Communist party. China and Vietnam, where the end of the Cold War did not produce dramatic political change, lagged behind, yet even those governments gradually permitted access to some records from the Cold War years. Most strikingly, the Vietnamese government opened troves of material amassed by the defunct regime in Saigon that ruled below the seventeenth parallel during the heyday of U.S. involvement.

The result has been a large and growing body of new work by ambitious and linguistically skilled scholars eager to explore fresh dimensions of the war. Historians Mark Philip Bradley, Robert K. Brigham, William J. Duiker, Christopher Goscha, David S. Marr, and Sophie Quinn-Judge led the way in examining Vietnam’s experience, drawing on newly available Vietnamese sources to produce pathbreaking studies around the turn of the century. A younger generation of scholars, most of whom wrote dissertations rooted in extensive research in Vietnam, has built on those accomplishments and even, for the first time, begun delving into decision-making by the Communist government in Hanoi. Meanwhile, historians of Soviet and Chinese foreign policy, most notably Ilya Gaiduk, Chen Jian, and Qiang Zhai, have used new documentation to examine the complex relationships between the Vietnamese Communists and their superpower patrons.

Unquestionably, archival openings in Russia and China, just as in Vietnam, remain partial and selective, leaving studies rooted in newly accessible material—stunning as it may be—highly susceptible to debate and revision as more documentation becomes available. Yet, measured against the near impossibility of doing this kind of work just three decades ago, historians have made remarkable progress toward rethinking the Vietnam War as an episode not just in U.S. history but also in Vietnamese and world history. Historians, in short, increasingly appreciate the war for what it was at the time: a multisided conflict involving numerous Vietnamese and international actors and driven by extraordinarily complicated and shifting motives. 

What precisely has this new research in non-U.S. sources revealed thus far? Three examples point to the variety and significance of the new discoveries. First, studies of Chinese foreign policy have revealed details of North Vietnam’s dependence on its mighty neighbor to the north in the years before the Cultural Revolution, which greatly diminished China’s ambitions abroad. Despite historical tensions between Vietnam and China, newly available sources show definitively that Chinese military helped train and advise Vietnamese Communist forces from as early as 1950 and played an especially pivotal role in the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Vietnamese victory that ended French colonialism and dealt a major blow to the West in the Cold War.

More strikingly, new documents clarify the vast amounts of equipment and even manpower that China provided to North Vietnam during the later fighting that involved U.S. combat forces. According to historian Qiang Zhai, China sent everything from military gear and weapons to table tennis balls, playing cards, sewing needles, and vegetable seed under a series of agreements with North Vietnam. At the same time, Qiang Zhai asserts, a total of 320,000 Chinese soldiers served in North Vietnam between June 1965 and March 1968, peaking at 170,000 during 1967. To be sure, Chinese forces were not assigned combat roles. But Zhai observes that they enabled North Vietnam to send more of its own forces to southern battlefields by performing valuable functions such as repairing bridges and rail lines, building and relocating factories, and manning antiaircraft guns. Such tasks could, of course, be hazardous, not least because of U.S. bombing of some parts of North Vietnam. According to Zhai’s sources, 1,100 Chinese soldiers died in North Vietnam and another 4,200 were wounded.

President Lyndon B. Johnson visits with U.S. troops on his trip to Vietnam in October 1966.

—LBJ Library

Second, new sources from Vietnam are exposing the complexity of decision-making among Communist leaders in Hanoi. For many years, historians assumed that North Vietnamese leaders marched in lockstep and permitted no dissent. This view was sustained in part by the belief that the regime in Hanoi was totalitarian to its core and utterly subservient to its most powerful leaders, above all Ho Chi Minh. Recent discoveries have, however, called all of this into question. For one thing, historians Lien-Hang Nguyen and Pierre Asselin have revealed that Ho Chi Minh—long assumed to have been the preeminent North Vietnamese leader all the way to his death in 1969—in fact, lost a great deal of influence around 1960.

The pivotal figure thereafter was Le Duan, a Southern-born revolutionary who remained relatively obscure to Western historians until recent years. Thanks to recent publications, though, it’s clear that Le Duan, a firebrand eager to throw enormous blood and resources into the effort to reunify his country under Communist leadership, dominated decision-making in Hanoi during the peak years of American involvement. Understanding the importance of Le Duan and the hawks who surrounded him helps enormously to appreciate the escalatory pressures that operated on the Vietnamese side, even as Lyndon Johnson and his aides stepped up the American commitment in the mid 1960s. We can now see that leaders on both sides rejected diplomacy and banked on military victory, a tragic convergence of hawkishness that fueled escalation.

The dominance of the hawks in Hanoi does not mean, though, that there were no contrary voices once they were in the driver’s seat. Scholars working with Vietnamese sources have discovered evidence of substantial factionalism within the Hanoi regime throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. Broadly speaking, some high-ranking North Vietnamese leaders, including Ho Chi Minh, prioritized consolidation of Communist rule above the seventeenth parallel and were wary of major expenditures of lives and treasure to bring about reunification. Others, including Le Duan, strongly favored reunification—even at the cost of a major war likely to draw in the United States—over all other North Vietnamese priorities. New studies of the war show that North Vietnamese policy flowed from the interplay of these two points of view. During the late 1950s, the moderate faction held sway, and the result was a period of relative peace in Vietnam. With the triumph of the hawks, however, Hanoi embraced a new war and transformed North Vietnam into a full-fledged police state in order to keep the skeptics at bay.

Third, the new scholarship has shed valuable new light on the nature of the South Vietnamese state that endured from its beginning in 1954 to its collapse in 1975. Was South Vietnam merely a puppet of the United States, an artificial creation doomed to fall apart whenever Washington withdrew its economic and military assistance? Or was it a viable nation with a legitimate government that, absent the onslaught by northern Communists, could have endured as a stable, pro-Western entity into the indefinite future? For many years, the debate was more a matter of polemics than historical inquiry. Opponents of the war argued that the United States hitched itself to a hopeless Potemkin experiment led by venal, authoritarian leaders, while supporters saw South Vietnam as a beleaguered young nation that, for all its faults, was doing its best to resist Communist aggression.

Unsurprisingly, much of the new scholarship rooted in Vietnamese sources has argued for a gray area between these two extremes. Historians such as Edward Miller and Jessica Chapman focus especially on the late 1950s and early 1960s, suggesting that the South Vietnamese government headed by Ngo Dinh Diem possessed a degree of legitimacy and popular support unrecognized by Diem’s critics at the time or since. To be sure, they also point out the government’s inability to expand its base further among the South Vietnamese population. But they show that the South Vietnamese state possessed a remarkable amount of agency that its leaders might have exercised differently. All in all, these historians have helped restore the Vietnamese to the center of their own history.

What do all these revelations mean for how we should understand the Vietnam War in its totality? Clearly, the new work in non-American sources holds implications for primordial questions about the U.S. role in Vietnam. Was the U.S. commitment to Vietnam justified by any genuine security interests in the region? Why did the United States fail to achieve its objectives despite monumental effort? Might different decisions by American leaders have led to a different outcome? Knowing more about the international and Vietnamese contexts makes it far more possible than ever before to form authoritative opinions about questions that cannot logically be answered fully on the basis of U.S. sources alone. But the new work also underscores the possibility of addressing questions that transcend the American experience and viewing the Vietnam War within the context of, for example, decolonization, the international Communist movement, and the Sino-Soviet split. The good news is that, given the range of new and still-to-be-released source material and robust interest in the war four decades after it ended, historians are sure to move forward energetically on both tracks. The boom times may stick around for a while.

Mark Atwood Lawrence teaches at the University of Texas in Austin. He is author of Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam and The Vietnam War: A Concise International History .

Funding information

In addition to a  $1 million production grant  to GWETA for  The Vietnam War , NEH has supported, with a  $300,000 grant , public discussions nationwide of this difficult subject and the epic documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. NEH has also funded numerous projects on the Vietnam War as a subject of ongoing scholarship, including the work of two scholars mentioned in this article: Edward Miller, a professor at Dartmouth who received a  summer stipend  supporting research and writing based on field work conducted in Vietnam, and Lien-Hang Nguyen, who received a  Public Scholar grant  to support work on a book for a general audience about the Tet Offensive of 1968. As major anniversaries of the Vietnam War appear on the calendar, NEH has also supported a number of projects documenting oral histories of the Vietnam War, including a project at the  Catawba County Library  in North Carolina interviewing Hmong immigrants who were refugees from Laos during the Vietnam War and a project with the Maryland Humanities Council working with students who learn to take oral histories from Maryland veterans of the Vietnam War. “LBJ’s War,” a series of podcasts from Public Radio International that has been praised recently in the media, was supported by a  $150,000 grant .

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This article is available for unedited republication, free of charge, using the following credit: “Originally published as 'Studying the Vietnam War: How the Scholarship Has Changed' in the Fall 2017 issue of  Humanities  magazine, a publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”  Please email us  if you are republishing it or have any questions.

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108 Vietnam War Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on vietnam war, 🎓 interesting vietnam war essay topics, 👍 good vietnam war research topics & essay examples, 💡 simple vietnam war essay ideas, ❓ vietnam war essay questions.

• Vietnam War in Political Cartoons
• Music During the Vietnam War: An Intangible Weapon
• The Vietnam War From 1955 to 1975
• The Vietnam War and American Music
• Veterans After the Vietnam War
• Effects of the Vietnam War
• “The Vietnam War: An Intimate History”: Book Review
• The United States’ Loss in the Vietnam War The Vietnamese War escalated in 1969 after Kissinger and Nixon agreed on a strategic decision. The essay will look into the reasons why the United States lost the Vietnam War.
• America’s Vietnam War and Its French Connection The Vietnam war is probably one of the most infamous military conflicts that the United States took part in in the second half of the 20th century.
• Oliver Stone’s Interpretation of the Vietnam War The paper discusses whether the use of a film could be studied as an effective medium for detailing the facts of historical events.
• Ideology Warfare Before and After Vietnam War The Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975 can be classified as ideology warfare, with communist forces supporting North Vietnam and anti-communist coalitions supporting South Vietnam.
• The Vietnam War Reasons from Primary Sources Some of the infamous takeaways from the Vietnam War were the guerilla tactics employed by the Vietnamese fighters, the Truman Doctrine, and the rise of the US pacifist movement.
• Why Vietnam War Was Unpopular: Media Coverage and Antiwar Movement This essay will examine the reasons media coverage and the antiwar movement made the Vietnam War unpopular and argue the opposite opinion.
• The Trauma of the Vietnam War Le Thi Diem Thuy shows that the repression of this trauma separates family members from each other as they try to conceal their feelings from the others.
• The Chicanos in the Vietnam War This paper analyzes the Vietnam War which caused the draft of hundreds of thousands of men (García). There were dissatisfaction among people with the draft process not being fair.
• The Political, Economic and Social Effects of the GI Bill and the Vietnam War The paper discusses the GI Bill of Rights and the war in Vietnam greatly influenced the standards of living during the post-war period.
• The Vietnam War and the United States Involvement Shortly after World War II ended, the United States of America was involved in a divisive conflict, the Vietnam War, which lasted for two decades.
• American Experience of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War is one of the most confusing and complicated wars in the history of humanity. It is significant for the United States as it has influenced its population.
• Chain of Command in Vietnam War The 6 levels of the chain of command in connection to the limited war ideology in Vietnam will be examined including soldiers, division commanders, and up to the President.
• Vietnam War and Iraq War: US Involvement in the War Vietnam and Iraq were both wars of choice and involved deceit and misrepresentation by the U.S. government. There are many similarities between Iraq and the Vietnam War.
• Student’s Unrest and Socio-Political Outcomes of the Vietnam War in America The paper examines the thesis that student unrest catalyzed the larger American public’s rise against the US’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
• Vietnam War – American Experience Since 1945 The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular war that the United States ever took part in. there was great loss of life and major financial repercussions.
• The Vietnam War and the Cold War The Vietnam War and the Cold War were escalated by the assumption that the communist movement would spread out to other Asian states in the south east region.
• Peace & Global Security: Vietnam War & Israel-Palestine Conflict Military conflicts are difficult to approach from an objective standpoint. Often being emotionally dueled in addition to the political agenda by which they are supported.
• National Security and Press Media in Vietnam War This paper explains how national security collided with Press Media on societal issues. It reflects on events that took place during the Vietnam War.
• Central Intelligence Agency in Vietnam War A military confrontation between North and South Vietnam in the 20th century took place for almost 20 years. They were receiving substantial support from two superpowers.
• Vietnam War History: A Cold War Triggered by Vietnam’s Decision of Resisting Colonial Powers Vietnam War was a cold war era military conflict which had started in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1st November 1954 to 30th April 1975.
• Asian Studies: The Vietnam War’s Key Points There were several key points in the Vietnam War that have decided its course and the way people thought about the events taking place.
• Advancing the Peace Movement: Music During the Vietnam War
• S. Involvement in the Vietnam War and the Creation of Myths
• American Leaders and the Vietnam War: Lessons We Should Learn
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in U.S. Vietnam War Soldiers
• Bombs Away: Different Reactions to the Vietnam War in “Across the Universe”
• African Americans During the Vietnam War
• Difficulties Associated With Fighting the Vietnam War
• Technological Differences Between Vietnam War and the Gulf War
• Censorship Policies During the Vietnam War
• Agent Orange and Napalm in the Vietnam War
• Facts About Vietnam War as One of the Most Unique Wars Ever Fought by the United States
• Chemical Weapons During the Vietnam War
• Reasons for the Rise of the Anti-Vietnam War Movement in the USA
• The Working Class’s Loss of Faith in the American Government During the Vietnam War
• Paternity Deferments and the Timing of Births: U.S. Natality During the Vietnam War
• Martin Luther King’s Voice Against the Vietnam War
• Cultural and Political Views of the Vietnam War
• Recruitment and the Draft During the Vietnam War
• Aviation’s Impact Upon the U.S. Military and Economy During the Vietnam War
• Ethical Journalism During the Vietnam War
• Conditions That Influenced Sino-Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War
• Secret Economics: The Economic Impact of the Vietnam War
• American Foreign Policy After the Vietnam War
• How the Vietnam War Changed the Nature of Conflict in the World
• Anti-war Movement During the Vietnam War
• Factors That Make the Vietnam War Unique
• American Politics During the Vietnam War
• Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Presidency and the Vietnam War
• Before, During, and After the Vietnam War
• Endurance and Change: The Vietnam War
• Vietnam War and Its Effects on Society During the 1960s
• America’s Strengths and Weaknesses Highlighted During the Vietnam War
• Police Brutality During the Vietnam War
• Cambodia: Vietnam War and Indochinese War
• Shattered Youth: How the Vietnam War Changed a Generation
• Freeze Frame: Photographer Philip Jones Griffiths’ Depiction of the Vietnam War
• Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War
• Executive Power: The Role of Lyndon B. Johnson in the Vietnam War
• Diplomatic Presidential and Cultural Lessons of the Vietnam War
• President Nixon: Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal
• Changing Attitudes Towards the Vietnam War in Australia
• Racial Segregation and the Military During the Vietnam War
• Anti-Communism and the Vietnam War in Australia
• General William Westmoreland’s Attrition Strategy During the Vietnam War
• Drug Testing During the Vietnam War
• Comparing the Iraq War and the Vietnam War
• Geneva Convention Violations Represented by the Vietnam War
• Emotional Effects During Vietnam War
• Argument Opposing the American Involvement in the Vietnam War
• Cultural Revolution During the Vietnam War
• In What Three Countries Was the Vietnam War Fought?
• Why Was the Vietnam War Was Called a Dirty War?
• What Effect Did the Vietnam War Have on the Power of the President?
• What Role Did Religion Play in the Vietnam War?
• What Caused the Vietnam War?
• What Was the Outcome of the Vietnam War?
• What Were the Vietnam War Protesters in the US Called?
• How Did the Cold War Lead to the Vietnam War?
• How Was Napalm Used in the Vietnam War?
• How Were the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War Alike?
• Why Is the Vietnam War an Example of Decolonization?
• How Long Was the Vietnam War?
• What Position Did America’s Hawks Take During the Vietnam War?
• How Did the Vietnam War Affect the Society?
• What Was Ho Chi Minh’s Role in the Vietnam War?
• Who Was the Leader of Vietnam During the Vietnam War?
• Why Did Civil Rights Leaders Oppose the Vietnam War?
• How Many Vietcong Died During the Vietnam War?
• How Did the Vietnam War Change Journalism?
• What Countries Were Involved in the Vietnam War?
• What Effects Did the Vietnam War Have on American Popular Culture?
• How Did Physical Geography Affect the Vietnam War?
• Did Richard Nixon End the Vietnam War?
• What Impact Did the Vietnam War Have on the American People?
• Did a Peace Movement End the Vietnam War?
• Who Served as the Secretary of Defense During the Vietnam War?
• What Year Did the US Enter the Vietnam War?
• What Did the Nixon Administration Do About the Vietnam War?
• How Did Imperialism Cause the Vietnam War?
• How Did the Vietnam War Influence the Foreign Policy of Richard Nixon?

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Articles on Vietnam War

Displaying 1 - 20 of 117 articles.

Hopes that Biden will quit his reelection campaign ignore the differences – and lessons – of LBJ and 1968’s Democratic catastrophe

Philip Klinkner , Hamilton College

Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against the Vietnam War offers lessons on how to fight for peace in the Middle East

Hajar Yazdiha , USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Henry Kissinger was a global – and deeply flawed – foreign policy heavyweight

Amelia Hadfield , University of Surrey

Henry Kissinger has died. The titan of US foreign policy changed the world, for better or worse

Lester Munson , University of Sydney

Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge

Sophal Ear , Arizona State University

The Exorcist at 50: a terrifying film that symbolises the decline of America’s faith and optimism

Aislinn Clarke , Queen's University Belfast

How cartoonist Bruce Petty documented the Vietnam War – and how his great satire keeps finding its moment

Robert Phiddian , Flinders University

2001: A Space Odyssey still leaves an indelible mark on our culture 55 years on

Nathan Abrams , Bangor University

Not just a youth movement: history too often forgets older protesters

Effie Karageorgos , University of Newcastle

The New York Times worried that publishing the Pentagon Papers would destroy the newspaper — and the reputation of the US

Kevin M. Lerner , Marist College

Australia’s ties with Vietnam are important in their own right – not just in relation to the US and China

Liam Byrne , The University of Melbourne

Kissinger at 100: his legacy might be mixed but his importance has been enormous

André Carvalho , King's College London ; Anurag Mishra , Jawaharlal Nehru University , and Zeno Leoni , King's College London

‘Courage is contagious’: Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to release the Pentagon Papers didn’t happen in a vacuum

Christian Appy , UMass Amherst

André Dao’s brilliant debut novel explores his grandfather’s ten-year detention without trial by the Vietnamese government

Tess Do , The University of Melbourne

Why Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to college graduates still matters today

Susan Farrell , College of Charleston

White power movements in US history have often relied on veterans – and not on lone wolves

Kathleen Belew , Northwestern University

As Biden announces his re-election bid, the ghosts of Vietnam still haunt him on Ukraine

Ronald W. Pruessen , University of Toronto

Backlash against K-pop star Hanni shows Vietnam still struggles with the legacy of the war

Quoc Tan Trung Nguyen , University of Victoria

How Jimmy Carter integrated his evangelical Christian faith into his political work, despite mockery and misunderstanding

Lori Amber Roessner , University of Tennessee

Chinese balloon saga is part of a long history of U.S.-China tensions

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A U.S. delegation handed over Kennedy School research on the Vietnam War to officials in Hanoi during President Biden’s recent visit.

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Documenting unseen legacies of Vietnam War

Biden helps deliver Kennedy School research documenting possible sites of Vietnamese soldiers’ remains during historic visit to Hanoi

Ash Center Communications

During his historic visit to Hanoi earlier this month, President Biden helped deliver a trove of research uncovered by a team of Harvard Kennedy School historians that documents the possible fate of hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers who went missing in action during the Vietnam War.

The records, handed over by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and two American veterans of the Vietnam War in a ceremony at the National Assembly, were the culmination of months of careful research in wartime archives by a team of historians with the Rajawali Institute ’s Unseen Legacies project at the Kennedy School.

Led by Tony Saich and Hai Nguyen, a Vietnam War historian, the Unseen Legacies team spent months combing through battlefield documents captured by U.S. and allied forces in Vietnam, records from the People’s Army of Vietnam, and interviews with veterans and military experts.

“As an institution, we’ve had the honor of helping to nurture the U.S.-Vietnam relationship over decades,” said Saich, director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia. “Our work speaks to both the dark pasts of the war and the bright future that lies ahead as partners in the region.”

During the war, millions of pages of captured North Vietnamese and Viet Cong documents were analyzed for their potential intelligence value. Only a fraction of this cache was ever translated into English. After their intelligence value faded, these records were preserved in a haphazard manner — making it a challenge for historians and others to provide a more comprehensive analysis of this collection of remarkable firsthand accounts and other evidence from the front lines.

But the documents held in the U.S. — as well as similar ones in Vietnam — eventually became the focus of military officials and civilian leaders working to identify possible locations of service members’ remains. “We knew that the archives contained information that could potentially lead us to burial sites providing identifying information of those still missing,” Nguyen said.

“There are still an estimated 200,000 soldiers still unaccounted for. … Every burial place that we help identify or personal artifact that we can return helps a family find some degree of closure.” Hai Nguyen, historian

As the U.S. and Vietnam began the process of political rapprochement in the 1990s, identifying and recovering the remains of war dead from both sides became an early area of cooperation.

“For Vietnam, much as in the U.S., locating the remains of those who died in combat retains extraordinary political potency,” said Saich, who traveled to Vietnam with Nguyen in the spring to help repatriate records and other personal effects identified through the Unseen Legacy project team’s archival searches. “It’s quite remarkable how the two countries have used this emotionally charged issue to build trust on both sides over the years.”

Officials on both sides began to scour their wartime archives for information that could lead investigators to the remains of missing service members. With funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, Nguyen began assembling a team of researchers in the U.S. and Vietnam to launch a systematic review of the captured documents and help uncover information on Vietnamese combatants still listed as missing in action.

“It’s quite remarkable how the two countries have used this emotionally charged issue to build trust on both sides over the years.” Tony Saich, director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia

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To help prepare for Biden’s visit, Nguyen and his team worked to provide Pentagon officials with detailed findings on the location of possible Vietnamese war dead, which the president’s delegation could present to their Vietnamese counterparts as part of the Department of Defense’s longstanding efforts to identify the remains of combatants from both sides of the conflict.

After months of sifting through countless captured tactical plans, battle reports, unit rosters, death notices, journals, even personal effects, the Unseen Legacies researchers prepared a report detailing the possible locations of 563 individual Vietnamese war dead. During their research, they also came across personal artifacts such as letters and diaries from Vietnamese soldiers, which will be returned to surviving family members.

For Nguyen and his team with the Unseen Legacies project, Biden’s visit helped shine a light on the unheralded and often tedious work of researching these decades-old archives.

“It was incredibly gratifying to see the reaction to what we’re doing, but there are still an estimated 200,000 soldiers still unaccounted for — along with 300,000 unidentified remains waiting to be unidentified in Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “Nearly half a century after the fighting stopped, countless families still have no idea what happened to their loved ones. Every burial place that we help identify or personal artifact that we can return helps a family find some degree of closure.”

Saich agreed. “I’ve spent much of my career nosing about archives, and it’s hard to think of a more impactful project than this,” he said. “The work, in its own small way, helps draw two former foes closer together — and heal some of the remaining wounds of the war.”

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Vietnam War Resources

Finding ebooks and print books in the library, library resources, library databases, government documents, stetson vietnam site, government websites, oral histories, the antiwar movement, miscellaneous, ask a librarian.

Library Shelf Browsing

Browse the library shelves for books about the Vietnam War in this call number area:

DS        DS   557 to   559.9

The First Fight

Deepening Involvement

Naval Air War

Primary sources

• The Avalon Project The Lillian Goldman Law Library (Yale) offers digital documents from the 1950 & 60s on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Links are provided to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text.
• Virtual Vietnam Archive Contains 7 million pages of scanned materials, including documents, photographs, slides, negatives, oral histories, artifacts, moving images, sound recordings, maps, and collection finding aids. All non-copyrighted and digitized materials are available for users to download.
• Report of the Department of the Army review of the preliminary investigations into the My Lai incident Vol. 1 of the Peers Inquiry contains the narrative report of the investigation. The report, which is divided into twelve chapters and two annexes, includes the 29 March 1969 letter from Ronald L. Ridenhour reporting the incident to the Secretary of Defense, the mission statement of the Inquiry, findings and recommendations, maps, an extensive table of contents, and a 26-page glossary.
• My Lai incident Vol. 2 Vol. 2 of the Peers Inquiry, entitled "Testimony," is further subdivided into a series of 32 "books," and is comprised of approximately 20,000 pages of testimony and summaries of testimony by over 350 witnesses

Veterans issues

• Vietnam Veterans of America
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

U.S. allies

• Australia and the Vietnam War
• New Zealand and the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

United States involved from 1965 to 1975

After many frustrating years of attempting to maintain the existence of a noncommunist government in South Vietnam, the United States in 1973 agreed to end active participation in the war, and two years later, North Vietnam successfully unified all of Vietnam into a single communist country.

American involvement in Vietnam was an application of the Containment Policy, which was a long-standing commitment of U.S. foreign policy makers to stop the expansion of communism (also called Marxist-Leninism). Before 1954, the U.S. government financially supported French colonialism in Vietnam because Ho Chi Minh and other rebel leaders were dedicated communists. After 1954, Vietnam was “temporarily” divided into two countries, with the South having a noncommunist government and the North having a Marxist-Leninist system. The South Vietnamese confronted an insurgency of pro-communist guerrilla fighters, called the Viet Cong. Although most of the Viet Cong were poor peasants living in the South, many “volunteers” from the North were among the insurgents. Beginning in 1965, regular U.S. combat troops directly participated in the war, and U.S. bombers attacked North Vietnam on a massive scale.

(Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2015)

Try these subject search terms in the OneSearch (link above):

These subject terms can also be used in the "OneSearch" box on the library page (link below):

• OneSearch (advanced search page) This link opens in a new window Search WorldCat plus Academic Search Complete and Proquest Research Library to find book, eBooks, scholarly articles, news, and more.
• Vietnam Resources The library's Vietnam page features links to library books & videos, archival collections, the November 2015 Stetson Theatre Arts Performance ‘Reflections on Vietnam’, Vietnam websites, and online groups.
• Vietnam in the Stetson University Digital Archives Links to more than 900 digitized photos, documents, and memorabilia from the Stetson University Archives collection.

MIA Searchable Database

• The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database This database contains 163,820 records, 160,334 of which are linked to pdfs of the original documents. It is designed to assist researchers in accessing U.S. Government documents pertaining to U.S. unaccounted-for military personnel from the Vietnam conflict as of December 1991. The title of this collection is “Correlated and Uncorrelated Information Relating to Missing Americans in Southeast Asia.” The U.S. Department of Defense, POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) declassifies these documents and releases them to the Federal Research Division to make them available to the public.
• Pentagon Papers 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. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues. On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. There are 48 boxes and approximately 7,000 declassified pages. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time.
• Images of Inherited War: Three American Presidents in Vietnam This study examines how cognitive forces shape grand wartime strategy across successive presidential administrations. By analyzing Vietnam through the lens of image and cognitive theory, the author attempts to answer the question, How did presidential image affect agendas and outcomes during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations? Specifically, the author examines the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon through key decision points and policy shifts during the Vietnam War in an effort to unveil the substantial cognitive forces with which presidents must contend, and often counter, when they inherit war.

Online Documents

Congressional Hearings

• Health effects of the Vietnam War : the aftermath
• Agent Orange in Vietnam : recent developments in remediation
• Legacies of war : unexploded ordnance in Laos

The library has many more documents relating to the Vietnam War; search the catalog (see Finding Ebooks and print books box above) for a comprehensive list. A few are pictured to the left.

Internet Resources

• Stetson Vietnam War Era Remembrance Site Stetson University’s Vietnam Remembrance site honors alumni who served in Vietnam or during that era (1964-1975). The site is located just north of Griffith Hall in an outdoor space that encourages meditation on national service during a time of war that tested our campus and America.
• The LBJ Library Vietnam Conflict online exhibit Online resources on the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library website pertaining to Vietnam. The images, speeches, letters and videos in this online exhibit provide an overview of President Johnson's perspective on the Vietnam conflict.
• Nixon Presidential Library & Museum Virtual Library Over 2,000 digital items in the Nixon Presidential Library pertaining to Vietnam.
• Research in Military Records: Vietnam War The National Archives has a wealth of records and information documenting the U.S. experience in the Vietnam conflict. These include photographs, textual and electronic records, audiovisual recordings, exhibits, educational resources, articles, blog posts, lectures, and events.
• Vietnam War Commemoration Site created to thank and honor veterans of the Vietnam War and their families, to highlight the service of the armed forces and the contributions of federal agencies and organizations, as well as contributions made on the home front, to highlight the advances in technology, science, and medicine related to military research conducted during the War, and to recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by US allies during the Vietnam War.
• The Rutgers Oral History Archives Records the personal narratives of New Jersey residents and/or Rutgers University alumni, faculty or staff who served on the home front and overseas during the Vietnam War.
• Veterans History Project Collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
• Vietnam Era Oral History Project Interviews with sixteen veterans of the Vietnam war.
• Antiwar and Radical History Project A University of Washington multimedia web project that chronicles the social impact of war and the rich history of antiwar activity in the Northwest. Includes video oral histories, hundreds of photographs and documents, GI underground newspapers, movement biographies, and research reports.
• FBI Files on the Antiwar Movement Digitized FBI files on : Mario Savio (1942-1996), Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), Kent State, Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam, American Friends Service Committee, Howard Zinn (1922-2010), Cardinal Francis J. Spellman (1889-1967), Jane Addams (1860-1935), and Edward Paul Abbe.
• FBI Files on Vietnam Veterans Against the War This archive contains 21,477 pages of documents received in response to the organization's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
• Oral History of Utah Peace Activists Transcripts and audio of interviews with Utahns who have been active in peace and justice endeavors since World War II. Dr. Kathryn French interviewed over 125 people in many walks of life who have devoted much of their lives to working for a better world.
• The Pacifica Radio/UC Berkeley Social Activism Sound Recording Project Contains primary source media resources related to social activism and activist movements in California in the 1960's and 1970's. The Project is currently presented as a series of topical timelines, arranged on different subject tabs, which explore key Pacifica Radio Archive Social Activism recording collections.
• Vietnam War Ephemera Collection Selections from Vietnam War era ephemera collection of printed ephemera including pamphlets, posters, manifestos, newsletters, booklets, and open letters created by the various Seattle-area and University of Washington manifestations of American civil rights and protest movements of the late 1960's and 1970's.
• Antiwar Movement Curriculum, Stanford History Education Group A lesson plan for students to investigate images of the war, study a timeline of opposition to it, and read anti-war speeches to determine why so many Americans opposed the war in Vietnam.
• King and Vietnam Curriculum An educational curriculum, featuring activities and documents highlighting the views of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Vietnam War.
• The Things They Carried The Things They Carried is a critically-acclaimed literary exploration of soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War, which was one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in American history. The Things They Carried helps readers understand both what the war was like and the ambivalence Americans felt. It combines humor and horror, fact and fiction, and irony in order to portray American soldiers with compassion.
• Vietnam War Bibliography Created by Edwin E. Moïse (professor of history at Clemson University), this is primarily a bibliography of books, but some articles are listed. Special effort was made to list articles for which the full texts are available online.
• The Wars for Viet Nam This site, developed around the course materials for Robert Brigham's first-year seminar on the Vietnam War at Vassar College, offers visitors an opportunity to examine some original sources, including numerous official documents. Brigham was one of the first American scholars given access to Hanoi’s archives on the war. Included are his translations of some of the Hanoi documents, offered for examination and study.
• Last Updated: Jan 8, 2024 12:52 PM
• URL: https://guides.stetson.edu/vietnamwar

Have a question? Ask a librarian! Email [email protected]. Call or text 386-747-9028.

Vietnam War Resources at the BPL

• Introduction

Newspapers and Magazines

Us government document sets, other document sets, images and video.

• Secondary Sources
• Research Services

Related Guides

• Government Information by John Devine Last Updated Oct 12, 2023 87 views this year
• Historic Congressional Committee Hearings and Reports by John Devine Last Updated Mar 20, 2024 5125 views this year
• Newspapers at the BPL by Diane Parks Last Updated Mar 29, 2024 8967 views this year

Organization of Government Documents

Unlike most items in the BPL collection, most US government documents are organized using the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) Classification Scheme , which classifies materials based on the government body that produced them. The document below lists the alphabetic symbols used to classify documents according to this scheme. 

• SuDoc Classification Scheme

Resources at UMass Boston

The collections of UMass Boston's University Archives & Special Collections are freely accessible to the public and include a variety of materials relating to the conflict, including photographs, captured documents, and oral histories.

See their guide to Selected Resources Documenting the Vietnam War for more information.

• Vietnamese Publications
• MAAG/MACV Observer
• Domestic US Newspapers
• Contemporary Magazines

The BPL offers access to partial runs of two mostly English-language Vietnamese newspapers published by entities opposed to the United States. These offer a valuable alternative perspective of and counterpoint to official U.S. accounts of the course of the conflict and its underlying causes and objectives.

South Viet  Nam in Struggle , published in Hanoi by the National Liberation Front of South Viet Nam (better known in the US as the Viet Cong), provides an account of that entity's actions against U.S. occupation in South Vietnam.

It includes descriptions of military actions against U.S. and Republic of Vietnam (RVN) forces by the People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, articles relating the South Vietnamese struggle to broader anti-colonial and anti-imperalist struggles worldwide, and discussions of events internationally, including in the United States, as they relate to support for the cause of South Vietnamese liberation. Some articles are in French.

The BPL has scattered print volumes of this publication, which may be requested from the Archival Center for in-library use at any library location using the call number PER DS557.A69S68 . The BPL also has this publication on microfilm covering Dec. 1968- Dec. 1972 (with some gaps), which may be requested from the Research Services desk in the Washington room on the second floor of the McKim building at the Central Library for viewing using the call number DS557.A69S68 . 

At right is the front page from February 1, 1969. The photograph caption reads: "Ho Thien Nga, one of the eleven girls of Hue city 'iron squad' which has put to flight a US battalion after wiping out 120 GI's."

Where South Viet Nam in Struggle  covered the conflict with the US in the south, the Hanoi-published  Vietnam Courier  was the corresponding English-language publication for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, generally referred to in the US as North Vietnam.

As with the publication above, the  Vietnam Courier  provides a valuable alternative perspective on the course of US military action against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the ultimate motivations behind that action. 

The BPL has bound volumes of the  Vietnam Courier  covering 1968-1976, though the 1973-1976 volume is described as "incomplete." These volumes are held at the Archival Center under the call number PER DS557.A7A28 .

At right, a front page from August 12, 1968 details victories against U.S. forces, "satellite mercenaries," and the "puppet administration," and provides the latest count of US aircraft shot down over the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. 

The  Observer  was published in Saigon "for the U.S. forces in Viet Nam." It provides a U.S. military perspective on the ongoing conflict in the region, including morale-boosting articles and coverage alleging the positive impact the presence of U.S. forces was having on the civilian population of the Republic of Vietnam. 

The MAAG/MACV designation refers to the changing official name of the U.S. military presence in Vietnam. The  Military Assistance Advisory Group  was the  name given to U.S. forces that arrived in 1950 to assist the French in the First Indochina War. As U.S. military involvement intensified, the  Military Assistance Command, Vietnam  was created in 1962, and it ultimately absorbed MAAG Vietnam in 1964.

The BPL has the  Observer  on microfilm from August 1962 to January 1973; it may be requested from the Research Services desk in the Washington room on the second floor of the McKim building at the Central Library for viewing using the call number DS557 .O27x (L-692).

At right, the front page of the June 27, 1964 issue includes a photograph of three captured members of the People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam.

These sets include the 476-reel  Underground Newspaper Collection  (and Hoover Institution Supplement ) and the 9-reel  University of Missouri-Columbia Library Underground Newspaper Collection .

Printed guides to both collections are available on request from the Research Services desk in the Washington room on the second floor of the Central Library . The indexes list newspapers by title and location, indicate dates of coverage, and refer to the appropriate reel numbers within each set.

Unfortunately there is no subject index for these sets, but the UMC set does include brief summaries of topics covered by each title, and in some cases relevant content can be predicted using titles alone: the Underground Newspaper Collection includes issues of  such publications as  AWOL, Antiwarrior, Viet Report, Vietnam GI, Vietnam News & Reports,  and  Indochina Chronicle . 

Also useful for working with these sets may be  Voices from the Underground , a 2-volume reference guide to the Vietnam War era underground press, available for in-library use only from the Delivery Desk at the Central Library. 

At right is a cover from a 1968 issue of the draft-resister publication  Counterdraft.

While most of the titles in these collections have an antiwar stance, a full spectrum of political views is represented, including content from such diverse titles as  American Communist and the anti-Communist newsletter  Counterattack.

For example, at right is the first page of Normand Poirier's article "An American Atrocity" from the August 1969 issue of  Esquire , which reported on the rape of a Vietnamese woman and the murder of her and her family by a group of US Marines in Xuan Ngoc.

The BPL has extensive collections of magazines from the Vietnam War period in print and on microfilm. For more information on identifying what magazines the BPL has, see the Journals and Magazines at the BPL guide.

A useful resource for finding relevant content in contemporary magazines is  Reader's Guide Retrospective , which indexes the contents of a wide range of magazines and other periodicals published during this period. It is accessible remotely (with a valid BPL card or eCard number and PIN) using the link below:

• Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window Comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Covers subjects in Art, Business, Education, Foreign Affairs, Health, History, Journalism, Medicine, Politics, Popular Culture, Religion, Science, Sports, Technology and more. Coverage: 1890-1982.
• Intelligence Reports
• Presidential and Executive Office Documents
• Congressional Documents
• Foreign Relations Series

This microfilm set and its supplement consist of a collection of intelligence reports produced by the Central Intelligence Agency regarding events in Southeast Asia (primarily Vietnam) from 1946-1979. The documents include cables, memos, weekly reports, and biographic reports on key individuals, providing a useful sense of the chronological development of the information gathered by the US intelligence community over a large swathe of time.

The printed guides for the first set and the supplement are essential for effective use of the microfilm sets. Both guides are kept in the government documents collection and may be requested along with the sets themselves from the Research Services desk in the Washington room on the second floor of the McKim building at the Central Library .

Each guide includes two indexes. First is a reel index reflecting the organization of the documents by region, starting with documents covering all of Southeast Asia followed by documents on individual countries, with documents appearing chronologically within each geographic unit. Following the reel index is a subject index, which allows for easy identification of documents relevant to specific subjects, such as Civilian casualties, Coups d'etat, and the Phoenix Program. The guides to the initial set and the supplement are also available online. 

Vietnam and Southeast Asia, Special Studies, 1960-1980

Most of the documents are from military and Defense Department sources, but the set also includes a variety of think tank reports, including many by the  Rand Corporation . 

As with the CIA Research Reports, the accompanying  printed guide  is essential for effective use of this collection, and is organized similarly: a regional index in which reports are listed chronologically is followed by a subject index for easy location of relevant documents on subjects such as Chemical warfare, Military psychology, Morale, and Strategic bombing. The guide has also been  made available online . 

The contents of this 11-reel microfilm set are rather well summarized by the title. The printed guide, which has also been digitized and made available online , states that the set "documents relations between the White House and the media during the Vietnam War era, revealing how the White House attempted to create and control a favorable perception of the war by the media and the public"

As with all microfilm sets, this set may be requested for viewing at the Research Services area in the Washington room on the second floor of the McKim building at the Central Library . 

The War in Vietnam: Classified Histories by the National Security Council

This 8-reel microfilm set actually covers only1964-1968 and is derived from a compilation of then-classified correspondence and military, intelligence, and diplomatic documents.

Topics covered include the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the increase of US military presence in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, and a huge range of other material.

The somewhat confusing  printed guide  to the set (which, despite the catalog record, should actually be requested from the Government Documents collection using the call number  DS557.4.V58 1981x ) has also been  made available online . 

Relevant items in the collections of the BPL include the  Congressional Record , accessible online and remotely using your valid BPL card or eCard number and PIN through ProQuest Congressional .

The BPL also has a large collection of Congressional hearings, which are variously available in print, on microfiche, and in digitized form. As a reminder, many hearings not digitized by the BPL have been digitized by other institutions and may be found in HathiTrust  and/or the Internet Archive . 

Please see the Congress portion of the Government Information guide for more information about finding and using additional types of Congressional documents and information. 

The portions of the series relevant to the Vietnamese conflict are described in the Guide to Sources on Vietnam, 1969-1975 .

The BPL has some volumes of this series in print and on microfiche, but most if not all of the materials relating to the Vietnamese conflict are also available in electronic format through the Office of the Historian's website above.

• Paris Peace Talks Transcripts, 1968-1973
• Miscellaneous Vietnam Pamphlets

The BPL has a 12-reel microfilm set containing transcripts and other documents from the peace negotiations that led to the signing of the  Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-Nam . The associated documents consist primarily of handouts alleging commission of war crimes by various parties involved in the conflict.

The guide to the set, which is also available online , includes a chronological listing of transcripts and documents as well as a subject index indicating which issues were raised by which side and identifying the sessions at which those topics were discussed. 

Additional details regarding the military's implementation of the peace agreement may be found in Walter Scott Dillard's  Sixty Days to Peace  (also available online at Hathitrust ). 

The photo at right depicts the signing of the peace agreement on January 27, 1973.

Most content seems to be in English but there are also some items in French and Vietnamese. Unfortunately an index to this set does not appear to exist. Below are examples of just a couple of the documents in this set: a 1956 report on "Achievements of the Campaign of Denunciation of Communist Subversive Activities (First Phase)" and an issue of the  Vietnam Bulletin  published by the Office of Cultural Affairs & Information of the Embassy of [The Republic of] Vietnam in the United States. 

This set may be requested from the Research Services desk in the Washington room on the second floor of the McKim building at the Central Library using the call number  DS557 .A5A3 .

Published Photograph Collections

The Boston Public Library has a variety of books consisting significantly or primarily of photographs of the Vietnam War. A list of these titles, described as 'Pictorial works,' may be found here . A recent example is below.

This resource includes thousands of photographs taken during the war both in Vietnam and in the United States. The advanced search feature can be used to limit searches to specific locations and time ranges to precisely locate relevant portions of the collection.

Remote access to this resource is available using your valid BPL card or eCard number and PIN. 

BPL Collections - Domestic Events

A variety of photographs of pro- and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the Boston area from the BPL's Print Department  have been digitized, and may be viewed in Digital Commonwealth , which also contains digitized photographs and other material from a variety of other institutions in Massachusetts.

Local News Footage

The Boston TV News Digital Library , to which the BPL contributed its WHDH film collection, includes some footage of local events relating to the Vietnam War, such as pro and anti-war demonstrations and interviews with academic and political figures.

Documentary Films

To the extent that they reproduce original footage captured during the conflict, documentary films can be a source of primary source material. A list of documentary films relating to the Vietnam War and accessible through the BPL may be found here . 

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• Next: Secondary Sources >>
• Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 3:21 PM
• URL: https://guides.bpl.org/vietnamwar

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Vietnam: Online Research Resources and Books

Han Viet Tu Dien [Sino-Vietnamese Dictionary]

Author: Dao Duy Anh

Publisher: Van Hoa Thong Tin, 2005, reprinted the first addition published in 1932.

Open Access Journals

Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, University of Hawaii This website provides online Journal articles about law and policy study in Asia-Pacific regions. Browse the journal or type a related topic in search after connecting to the link.

Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science - Economics and Business Administration

Scientific articles published by HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION are completed scientific researches in the fields of Economics and Business Administration.

Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science - Engineering and Technology

Scientific articles published by HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ENGINEEING AND TECHNOLOGY are completed scientific researches in the fields of Engineering and Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science - Social Sciences

Scientific articles published by HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - SOCIAL SCIENCES are completed scientific researches in the fields of Social Sciences. (In English)

Journal of Asian Studies This is a website of the Journal of Asian Studies. It covers a range of research topics about Asia, and some articles are free for download.

Journal of International Economics and Management

The JIEM publishes original research papers relating to all aspects of economics and management ranging from theoretical studies to quantitative or analytical studies addressing concerns viewed from international, regional, and local dimensions that are of interest to the general readers of the journal.

Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia This website provides reviews of socio-political topics related to Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Type a related topic in search after connecting to the link.

Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Đà Lạt

Digital Collections

Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaii This website contains a collection of 1502 contemporary photographs of Vietnam.

Digital Library of Hán-Nôm This collection from the National Library of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation includes images and metadata for over 1,000 ancient texts in  Hán and Nôm, the former ideographic writing systems of Vietnam. The texts cover the classics, as well as history, philosophy, and literature.

Hamilton Library’s Asia Digital collection (University of Hawaii) This site contains a digital collection of old Vietnamese photographs.

SEAsite, Southeast Asia Picture Database (Northern Illinois University) This site provides a collection of photograph of a contemporary Vietnam.

Southeast Asia Vision Collection (Cornell University Library) This site provides full download of old texts and rare books collection about Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Type a related topic in search after connecting to the link.

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School This is a project by the Yale University for a collection of war documents in the Indochina-Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The Digital Library of the Commons, Indiana University This site provides full download of articles about Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Type a related topic in search after connecting to the link.

Vietnam Studies Association of Australia This website contains photographs from the Vietnamese Revolution, 1945-1954. The photographs come from the Museum of the revolution in Hanoi and some are from collections in France. (Click on Picture gallery)

Vietnamese Propaganda Photo Collection (University of Wisconsin-Madison) This is a collection of 175 black and white photographs about military, economy and political activities during the war period. Each picture comes with introduction and description and is classified into different themes.

Vietnam War

The Vietnam Project This is a project by the Texas Tech University. It contains a collection of documentary of the Vietnam War and oral history of events during the war period.

The Vietnam War Declassification Project This website contains records and files of war in the Indochina in the 1970s that are now stored in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Scanned version of documents and photographs are available online.

Vets with a Mission This website provides a history of the Vietnam War and photo archives of the U.S veterans during the war period in Vietnam. It also has initiative programs to heal the relationship among the two nations.

Vietnam: Yesterday and Today This website provides information related to the Vietnam War. It contains contents and topics of publications which are important for the understanding of the Vietnamese conflicts.

Vietnam War Bibliography This websites provides a collection of research articles, maps during the Vietnam War and bibliography for further research and study about the Vietnam War.

Vietnam War Bibliography This website provides reference documents related to researches and studies guides about the Vietnam War.

Vietnam War Oral History Project                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The Vietnam War Oral History Project gathers, documents, preserves, and disseminates histories of the Vietnam War.

Overseas Vietnamese Communities

Talawas An online journal updated daily, based in Germany, focuses on literature, politics, history, and contemporary social issues of Vietnam. Talawas is the most vibrant and important forum of the Vietnamese intellectuals outside and inside of Vietnam.

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Vietnam War Fast Facts

CNN Editorial Research

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the Vietnam War.

Causes of Vietnam War

1883-1945 – Cochin-China, southern Vietnam, and Annam and Tonkin, central and northern Vietnam, along with Cambodia and Laos make up colonial empire French Indochina.

1946 – Communists in the north begin fighting France for control of the country.

1949 – France establishes the State of Vietnam in the southern half of the country.

1951 – Ho Chi Minh becomes leader of Dang Lao Dong Vietnam, the Vietnam Worker’s Party, in the north.

North Vietnam was communist. South Vietnam was not. North Vietnamese Communists and South Vietnamese Communist rebels, known as the Viet Cong, wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunite the country.

Other Facts

1954 – North Vietnamese begin helping South Vietnamese rebels fight South Vietnamese troops, thus BEGINS the Vietnam conflict.

April 30, 1975 – South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam as North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon, ENDING the Vietnam conflict.

The war was estimated to cost about $200 billion.

Anti-war opinion increased in the United States from the mid-1960s on, with rallies, teach-ins, and other forms of demonstration.

North Vietnamese guerrilla forces used the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of jungle paths and mountain trails, to send supplies and troops into South Vietnam.

The bombing of North Vietnam surpassed the total tonnage of bombs dropped on Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II .

Today, Vietnam is a communist state.

US Troop Statistics

Source: Dept. of Defense

8,744,000 – Total number of US Troops that served worldwide during Vietnam 3,403,000 served in Southeast Asia 2,594,000 served in South Vietnam

The total of American servicemen listed as POW/MIA at the end of the war was 2,646. As of April 12, 2024, 1,577 soldiers remain unaccounted for .

Battle: 47,434 Non-Battle: 10,786 Total In-Theatre: 58,220

1.3 million – Total military deaths for all countries involved

1 million – Total civilian deaths

September 2, 1945 – Vietnam declares independence from France. Neither France nor the United States recognizes this claim. US President Harry S. Truman aids France with military equipment to fight the rebels known as Viet Minh.

May 1954 – The Battle of Dien Bien Phu results in serious defeat for the French and peace talks in Geneva. The Geneva Accords end the French Indochina War.

July 21, 1954 – Vietnam signs the Geneva Accords and divides into two countries at the 17th parallel, the Communist-led north and US-supported south.

1957-1963 – North Vietnam and the Viet Cong fight South Vietnamese troops. Hoping to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States sends more aid and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese government. The number of US military advisers in Vietnam grows from 900 in 1960 to 11,000 in 1962.

1964-1969 – By 1964, the Viet Cong, the Communist guerrilla force, has 35,000 troops in South Vietnam. The United States sends more and more troops to fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, with the number of US troops in Vietnam peaking at 543,000 in April 1969. Anti-war sentiment in the United States grows stronger as the troop numbers increase.

August 2, 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin – The North Vietnamese fire on a US destroyer anchored in the Gulf of Tonkin. After US President Lyndon Johnson falsely claims that there had been a second attack on the destroyer, Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which authorizes full-scale US intervention in the Vietnam War. Johnson orders the bombing of North Vietnam in retaliation for the Tonkin attack.

August 5, 1964 – Johnson asks Congress for the power to go to war against the North Vietnamese and the Communists for violating the Geneva Accords against South Vietnam and Laos. The request is granted August 7, 1964, in a Congressional joint resolution.

January 30, 1968 – Tet Offensive – The North Vietnamese launch a massive surprise attack during the festival of the Vietnamese New Year, called Tet. The attack hits 36 major cities and towns in South Vietnam. Both sides suffer heavy casualties, but the offensive demonstrates that the war will not end soon or easily. American public opinion against the war increases, and the US begins to reduce the number of troops in Vietnam.

March 16, 1968 – My Lai Massacre – About 400 women, children and elderly men are massacred by US forces in the village of My Lai in South Vietnam. Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. is later court-martialed for leading the raid and sentenced to life in prison for his role but is released in 1974 when a federal court overturns the conviction. Calley is the only soldier ever convicted in connection with the event.

April 1970 – Invasion of Cambodia – US President Richard Nixon orders US and South Vietnamese troops to invade border areas in Cambodia and destroy supply centers set up by the North Vietnamese. The invasion sparks more anti-war protests, and on June 3, 1970, Nixon announces the completion of troop withdrawal.

May 4, 1970 – National Guard units fire into a group of demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio. The shots kill four students and wound nine others. Anti-war demonstrations and riots occur on hundreds of other campuses throughout May.

February 8, 1971 – Invasion of Laos – Under orders from Nixon, US and South Vietnamese ground troops, with the support of B-52 bombers, invade southern Laos in an effort to stop the North Vietnamese supply routes through Laos into South Vietnam. This action is done without consent of Congress and causes more anti-war protests in the United States.

January 27, 1973 – A cease-fire is arranged after peace talks.

March 29, 1973 – The last American ground troops leave. Fighting begins again between North and South Vietnam, but the United States does not return.

April 30, 1975 – South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam as North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon , now called Ho Chi Minh City.

May 25, 2012 – US President Barack Obama signs a proclamation that puts into effect the “Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War ” that will continue until November 11, 2025. Over the next 13 years, the program will “honor and give thanks to a generation of proud Americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced.”

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Regions & Countries

Younger americans stand out in their views of the israel-hamas war.

Americans’ views about the Israel-Hamas war differ widely by age, as do their perceptions about discrimination against Jewish, Muslim and Arab people in the United States . Younger Americans, in particular, stand out on these issues.

Here’s a closer look at age differences in Americans’ opinions about the war, based on a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February among 12,693 U.S. adults.

Pew Research Center conducted this survey to explore age differences in views of the Israel-Hamas war. We surveyed a total of 12,693 U.S. adults from Feb. 13 to 25, 2024. Most of the respondents (10,642) are members of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, an online survey panel recruited through national random sampling of residential addresses, which gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection.

The remaining 2,051 respondents are members of three other survey panels – Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, SSRS’s Opinion Panel, and NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak Panel – who were interviewed because they identify as Jewish or Muslim.

We “oversampled” (i.e., interviewed a disproportionately large number of) Jews and Muslims to provide more reliable estimates of their views on the topics covered in this survey. But these groups are not overrepresented in the national estimates reported here, because we adjusted for the oversampling in the weighting of the data. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, religious affiliation and other categories. In total, 1,941 Jewish and 414 Muslim respondents participated in this survey.

While the sample design was identical for Jews and Muslims, the resulting sample sizes are different. There are two main reasons for this. The Jewish population in the United States is roughly double the size of the Muslim population . Consequently, national survey panels have roughly twice as many or more Jewish panelists as Muslim ones. In addition, decades of research on survey nonresponse has shown that some groups in the U.S. are more likely to participate in surveys than others. Generally speaking, Jewish adults are more likely to participate in surveys than Muslim adults.

Sample size limitations also prevent us from looking at age differences within the U.S. Muslim population, though we are able to look at age differences within the U.S. Jewish population.

The survey also included questions about where people were born and whether people identify as Arab or of Arab origin. Because of insufficient sample size, we are unable to analyze Arab Americans or Americans of Israeli or Palestinian descent separately.

In this survey, Jews and Muslims are defined as U.S. adults who answer a question about their current religion by saying they are Jewish or Muslim, respectively. Unlike our 2020 report on Jews in America , this report does not separately analyze the views of “Jews of no religion” (i.e., people who identify as Jewish culturally, ethnically or by family background but not by religion).

For more information on how we conducted this survey, refer to the  ATP’s Methodology  and the  Methodology  for this analysis. Here are the questions on views and knowledge of the Israel-Hamas war  used in this analysis, and on  perceptions of discrimination since the war began .

Younger Americans are more likely to sympathize with the Palestinian people than the Israeli people. A third of adults under 30 say their sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Palestinian people, while 14% say their sympathies lie entirely or mostly with the Israeli people. The rest say their sympathies lie equally with both, with neither or that they are not sure.

Older Americans, by comparison, are more likely to sympathize with Israelis than Palestinians. For example, among people ages 65 and older, 47% say their sympathies lie entirely or mostly with the Israeli people, while far fewer (9%) sympathize entirely or mostly with the Palestinians.

Among those under 30, however, there are wide partisan differences in views on this question and others. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under 30 sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians (28% vs. 12%). Democrats and Democratic leaners sympathize far more with the Palestinians than the Israelis (47% vs. 7%).

Younger Americans have a more favorable opinion of the Palestinian people than the Israeli people. Six-in-ten adults under age 30 have a positive view of the Palestinian people, compared with 46% who see the Israeli people positively.

Older Americans, by contrast, are more likely to have a favorable opinion of the Israeli than Palestinian people.

Views of the Israeli people have soured among younger Americans in recent years. The share of adults under 30 with a favorable view of the Israeli people has fallen 17 percentage points since 2019, while views of the Palestinian people have not changed over this span. Older Americans’ views of both Israelis and Palestinians have remained largely unchanged.

Americans differ by age over why and how Israel is fighting Hamas. Adults under 30 are less likely than older Americans to say that Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid: 38% say this, compared with around half or more in each older age group.

Younger adults are also less likely than older people to see Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack as acceptable – and more likely to see it as unacceptable. Some 46% of adults under 30 say the way Israel is carrying out its response is unacceptable, including 32% who call it completely unacceptable. Among older age groups, no more than around a third see Israel’s response as unacceptable.

Favorability of the Israeli government is also relatively low among the youngest U.S. adults. Around a quarter (24%) of Americans under 30 have a favorable view of the Israeli government, compared with half or more of those 50 and older.  

There are notable age differences even among Jewish Americans: Younger Jews are more critical than older Jews of Israel’s approach to the war and have a less favorable view of Israel’s government.

Americans also differ by age over why and how Hamas is fighting Israel. Among younger Americans, 34% say Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel are valid, while 30% say they are not valid and 35% are unsure. Older Americans are less likely to see Hamas’ reasons for fighting as valid – and far more likely to see them as not valid. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans 65 and older, for example, say Hamas’ reasons are not valid.

When it comes to how Hamas carried out its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, a majority of younger Americans (58%) say it was unacceptable. But this view is more widespread among older Americans. For instance, 86% of people 65 and older say the way Hamas carried out its attack was unacceptable.

Few younger Americans think President Joe Biden is striking the right balance in the Israel-Hamas war. Only 12% of adults under 30 say this, while 36% say Biden is favoring the Israelis too much – up from 27% in December 2023 – and 10% say he is favoring the Palestinians too much.

Older Americans are somewhat more likely to say Biden is either striking the right balance or favoring the Palestinians too much.

Younger Americans are generally less supportive of a U.S. role in the conflict – and especially opposed to military aid to Israel. Only 16% of adults under 30 favor the U.S. providing military aid to Israel to help in its war against Hamas, compared with 56% of those 65 and older.

When it comes to humanitarian aid to Gaza, Americans under 30 are somewhat less likely than those 65 and older to favor it. (Much of this difference is because more younger Americans say they are unsure.)

Taken together, 46% of U.S. adults under 30 do not endorse either kind of aid asked about in our survey. This is more than twice the share among those 65 and older (21%).

In addition, adults under 30 are about twice as likely to say the U.S. should play no role in diplomatically resolving the Israel-Hamas war as they are to say the U.S. should play a major one (29% vs. 13%), though a third support a minor role. Older Americans, meanwhile, are more likely to support a major U.S. role.

Americans differ by age in their personal experiences related to the war. Adults under 30 are the most likely age group to say they have stopped talking to someone in person or unfollowed or blocked someone online because of something that person said about the Israel-Hamas war (16% say this).

Younger adults are also particularly likely to have been offended by something someone said around them about the war (24% say this). More younger Democrats than younger Republicans report experiencing this (27% vs. 20%).

Older adults, for their part, are more likely to report having been offended by something they saw on the news or social media about the war. They are also much more likely to be closely following news about the war.

Younger Americans are less likely than older people to see increased discrimination against Jews since the start of the war, but they are more likely to see increased discrimination against Muslims and Arabs.

About half (47%) of adults under 30 say discrimination against Jews in the U.S. has increased since the war began. By comparison, 73% of adults 65 and older say the same.

But while 47% of adults under 30 also say discrimination against Arabs in the U.S. has increased since the beginning of the war, this view is less common among those 65 and older (38%).

Attitudes about discrimination have also changed over time. Today, 31% of adults under 30 say Jews are facing a lot of discrimination in American society – up from 20% who said the same in 2021. Over this same period, though, the share of Americans 65 and older who say Jews face a lot of discrimination has more than doubled to 50%, up from 21%. This now-sizable age gap in views of discrimination against Jewish people was not present in 2021.

There are some age differences in Americans’ views of what kinds of speech should be allowed when it comes to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians . Across age groups, majorities say people in the U.S. should be allowed to express support for and opposition to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, as well as Palestinians having their own state. Majorities across age groups also say that calls for violence against Jews or Muslims should not be allowed.

While most adults under 50 do not think people in the U.S. should be allowed to express calls for violence against Jews or Muslims, they are still somewhat more likely than those 50 and older to think such violent expressions should be allowed.

And among those under 30, there are some significant differences by party. In particular, around one-in-five young Republicans think calls for violence against Jews and Muslims should be allowed, while only around one-in-ten young Democrats take that position.

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U.S. veterans have mixed views of Afghanistan withdrawal but are highly critical of how Biden handled it

Two decades later, the enduring legacy of 9/11, majority of u.s. public favors afghanistan troop withdrawal; biden criticized for his handling of situation, after 17 years of war in afghanistan, more say u.s. has failed than succeeded in achieving its goals, the iraq war continues to divide the u.s. public, 15 years after it began, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Hale Herald - Spring 2024

Chair's Letter

Warmth has finally arrived in Boulder, just after a foot of snow canceled classes. We remain undefeated by the weather and in good spirits. As I write, we are currently hosting Distinguished Cultural Anthropologist Julie Chu, professor at the University of Chicago. It has been a busy semester of talks, workshops, and visitors including Venezuelan Fulbright Scholar Dr. Hortensia Caballero. Thank you all for bringing such energy and brilliance to these important events.

In February, we had another fun and inspiring accepted student weekend. Thanks to the graduate committee and our graduate students for their thoughtful work to warmly welcome these future grad students. Cultural anthropology professor Alison Cool gave a keynote lecture as did University of Pittsburgh archaeology professor Dela Kuma. We are excited for the new students who will join us in August!

Finally, the Department of Anthropology graduation will be Thursday, May 9 at 4:30 pm outside Hale on the lawn. Once again, professor Alison Cool will delight us with her insights as speaker. Congratulations in advance to all our graduates!

Please read on to learn about the innovative work CU anthropologists are doing on campus and around the world.

All the best from Hale,

Carole McGranahan, Chair

Graduate Student News

Georgia Butcher in the 3MT Finals

Nicholas Puente Receives CARTTS Award

Jack Dalton Featured on German Children's Show: Anna Und Die Wilden Tiere

Paige Edmiston Receives Carol B. Lynch Memorial Fellowship & Publishes Article in Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics

Kelsey Hoppes Awarded Donna C. Roper Research Fund

Graduate Students Yuti Gao, Kelsey Hoppes, Patrick McKenzie, and Nicholas Puente Receive Beverly Sears Awards

Clara Hwayeon Lee Receives the Center for Humanities & the Arts JEDI Completion Fellowship

Sarah Simeonoff Successfully Defends Her PhD Qualifying Exam

Anthropology Department Pre-Dissertation Awards

Anthropology spotlights.

Faculty Spotlight Spring 2024

Lauren hosek (biological anthropolgy, professor).

Professor Lauren Hosoek is a historical bioarchaeologist and her research integrates osteological data from human skeletal remains with archaeological and historical evidence.  She utilizes these intersecting sources to examine how large-scale social phenomena such as religious ideology and institutional practices become embodied through ritual and activity across the life course. Her research projects span from early medieval Central Europe to the 19 th -century American West. Most recently, She has been working on a community-based project in the Denver area exploring the health and ritual practice of the 19 th -century Catholic Sisters of Loretto in collaboration with the living Loretto Community.

Graduate Student Spotlight Spring 2024

Chu may paing (cultural anthropology, phd candidate).

Chu's dissertation titled "Intense Engagements: Social Media Activism in the Aftermath of the 2021 Military Coup in Myanmar" looks at how ordinary Myanmar people's political engagement is fueled by circulation of certain public feelings on social media spaces in the aftermath of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Her dissertation explores how the intense circulation of images and speech online creates an atmosphere in which social and political ideals for a new Myanmar are constantly written and rewritten.

Undergraduate Spotlight Spring 2024

Skylar davidson (minor in anthropology in progress).

Skylar is a 4th-year student at CU Boulder, pursuing an Anthropology minor. After taking Primate Life History with Dr. Michelle Sauther, she developed a passion for Primatology and excitedly added an ANTH minor. In the summer of 2023, Skylar traveled abroad to Vietnam with Dr. Covert and Dr. O’Brien to study its diverse ecosystem and native primates. Being in Vietnam developed Skylar’s deep love for the endangered Pygmy Loris and she plans to pursue a Master’s and PhD in Biological Anthropology. She intends to lead conservation research for this species and find her way back to Vietnam.

Alumni Spotlight Spring 2024

Jamie forde (phd anthropology 2015 ).

Dr. Forde is a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Trained as an anthropological archaeologist at CU, he employs both art historical and archaeological methods in studying Indigenous Mesoamerican material and visual culture during the periods surrounding colonial encounter with Europeans. His work has been focused in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, particularly the site of Achiutla, where he has directed an interdisciplinary field project. His research has been published in journals including  Ancient Mesoamerica, Colonial Latin American Review,  and  Ethnohistory .

Faculty News

Steve Leigh Awarded the Gabriel W. Lasker Service Award

Jerry Jacka Publishes Chapter in Anthropology and Climate Change

Fernando Villanea Gave an Online HOT (Human Origins Today) Topic for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Warren Thompson Publishes Article in the Journal of Anthropological Research

Will Taylor and Lakota Elders Receive AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize

Sharon DeWitte's Bioarchaeological Work Featured in the Coloradan Alumni Magazine

Chris Hammons Receives a Kayden Research Award & a Center for Humanities & the Arts Small Grant

Graduate student symposium 2024.

Graduate Student Symposium a Huge Success!

Undergraduate news.

Sophia Busse Receives Graduate Student Symposium Best Poster Award

Undergraduate Students Represent at the AABA Conference

Upcoming events.

Upstream, Downstream, Offshore: Constancy Amidst the Flux of Supply Chains

Upstream, Downstream, Offshore: Constancy Amidst the Flux of Supply Chains 4pm, April 12, British Studies Room

Dr. Julie Chu Associate Professor -Department of Anthropology University of Chicago

Fluvial landscapes have long undergirded logistical projects for building out and maintaining the infrastructural channels of commerce and travel. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic engagements with original “development deltas” of Post-Mao China linking coastal Special Economic Zones to global exchange, this talk offers an estuarial take on what scholars of modernity and supply chain capitalism have described as a “liquid” world full of uncertainty and volatility. This talk focuses on the temporal politics of constancy that make fluvial landscapes thinkable in terms of supply chains and in turn, actionable as valued lifeways.

Co-sponsored by the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Anthropology and the Center for Asian Studies. Free and open to the public.

Digital Aestheticization of the Environment

Digital Aestheticization of the Environment 4PM, April 19, Hale Science RM 230

Veronika Zavratnik Postdoctoral Researcher University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

By becoming increasingly digitalized, the aestheticization of the environment permeates our daily lives. Simply by looking around or listening attentively in any naturalsetting, it can easily be observed that people's engagements with their surroundings are different from a decade ago. Today, ti is hard to find someone in the mountains, by the sea or in the forest who is not tapping on their smartphone, flying drones, using wearable cameras or other devices to digitally 'capture' and augment their experience of the environment. Images, blogs, vlogs and newly added (tourist/walking) maps are then circulated through digital technologies and media, uprooting and disseminating places and environments through time and space.

This talk draws on the ongoing collaborative research project (2022-2025) that aims to study the transformative moment of environmental perceptions by focusing on digital aestheticization as it unfolds in everyday contexts of outdoor leisure in selected European countries - Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Sweden and Finland. The emphasis will be put on how, through digital aestheticization, sustainability and environmental change become perceptible and meaningful in the local and/or regional context.