WMU Research Guides: HIST 4245 : The Vietnam War: Primary Documents

Online Exhibits

Military Resources: Vietnam War
The National Archives Library Information Center collection of online resources.
The My Lai Court Martial Documents
An overview of the My Lai Massacre and the investigations that followed. Includes maps, images, court testimony and documents, and more.
The Vietnam Center and Archives
From Texas Tech University. Browse through digitized collections and oral histories.
Vietnam War Records from the National Archives
Foreign Relatons of the United States Series
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Search within the volumes, or browse volume titles by administration:
The 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. 40 years later they were declassified.

A Small Sampling of Primary Documents Databases

The following are just a few of the databases you might try to identify primary documents in American History.

Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A full-text collection of U.S. newspapers, including six African American newspapers, covering much of the 19th century to the late 20th century. One can limit searches by type of document such as editorials, cartoons, classifieds, and obituaries.
Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984)
Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003)
The Chicago Defender (1909-1975)
Chicago Tribune (1847-1993)
Christian Science Monitor (1908-2003)
Detroit Free Press (1831-1999)
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005)
Los Angeles Times (1881-1992)
The Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010)
The Nashville Tennessean (1812-1922)
New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
New York Times w/ Index (1851-2013)
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
The Wall Street Journal (1889-1999)
The Washington Post (1877-2000)

Primary Documents in Library Search (WMU's online catalog)

Use the Libraries' ADVANCED SEARCH to find primary sources on your topic in the WMU collection.

Since the terms "primary documents" or "primary sources" are not Library of Congress (LC) subject headings, these are not the best keywords to use. Instead, use some or all of the following keywords that will help you identify primary documents that we have in our collection. The generic LC subject heading for primary documents is sources. Here are some of the most helpful keywords to use:

sources
diaries
letters
"oral history" (use quotation marks to get exact phrase)
"personal narratives" (use quotation marks to get exact phrase)
interviews
speeches

The trick is to combine one or more of these keywords with whatever topic you are researching. For example:

"Vietnam war" (HINT: using the quotation marks will pick up the entire phrase)
"prisoners of war"
"oral history"

or the following search:

soldier* (HINT: using the asterisk as a wild card will pick up all variations of the root word, e.g., soldier, soldiers, soldiering, etc.)
"personal narratives" OR diaries OR letters OR sources

While not every single item that comes up is guaranteed to be a primary document, at least some of them should be.

What IS a Primary Document?

The University of California at Berkeley has an excellent definition of primary sources. Reading through the first few pages of this Web site will be crucial as you try to find primary documents on your topic.

Yale University provides a great explanation of the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary sources.