Subject and Course Guides: Online Archival Resources Guide: Vietnam War

Digital Collections & Exhibitions

Publicly available via the National Security Agency Central Security Service

Gulf of Tonkin declassified documents
Historical documents relating to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, including memorandums, oral histories, and translated intelligence.

Publicly available via the National Archives and Records Administration

Remembering Vietnam: Online Exhibit
This exhibition presents both iconic and recently discovered National Archives records related to 12 critical episodes in the Vietnam War. They trace the policies and decisions made by the architects of the conflict and help untangle why the United States became involved in Vietnam, why it went on so long, and why it was so divisive for American society.
Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force (Pentagon Papers)
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. 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.

Publicly available via the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

Wall of Faces
The virtual Wall of Faces features a page dedicated to honoring and remembering every person whose name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In an effort to further preserve the legacy of those who sacrificed all in Vietnam, VVMF is committed to finding a photo to go with each of the more than 58,000 names on The Wall. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other.

Publicly available via Texas Tech University

Virtual Vietnam Archive
The Virtual Vietnam Archive currently contains 7 million pages of scanned materials. Types of material include 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.
Vietnam Center Online Exhibits
A collection of online exhibits from The Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive.

Publicly available via the Yale Law School

Avalon Project: Indochina - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
Includes documents relating to US-Vietnam relations and primary documents recording international views and agreements.

Publicly available via TIME Magazine

‘Who is the Enemy Here?’ The Vietnam War Pictures that Moved them Most
While the Vietnam War raged — roughly two decades’ worth of bloody and world-changing years — compelling images made their way out of the combat zones. On television screens and magazine pages around the world, photographs told a story of a fight that only got more confusing, more devastating, as it went on. As Jon Meacham describes in this week’s issue of TIME, the pictures from that period can help illuminate the “demons” of Vietnam.

Publicly available via the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center

Vietnam War Photo Gallery
All photos in the gallery courtesy of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, PA. These photographs may be reproduced freely for educational purposes with attribution.

Publicly available via Flickr

United States Marine Corps Archives' Vietnam War Photographs
A digital collection of Vietnam War era photographs from the Archives Branch of the USMC History Division. Approximately 1,900 images in this collection document U. S. Marine Corps activities during the Vietnam War.
Johnathan F. Abel Collection: United States Marine Corps Archives
A digital collection of photographs taken during the Vietnam War by Jonathan F. Abel, who served with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Public Affairs Office. This collection covers Marine operations and personnel in Vietnam, 1965-1969.

Publicly available via the Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Overseas Weekly Photographs
A collection of digitized photographs and contact sheets depicting scenes from the Vietnam War and American servicemen in Vietnam published in Overseas Weekly, a military tabloid that was established in 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany as an alternative perspective to the official narrative put forth by the U.S. State Department.