Office of the Historian

List of Sources

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    1.

    Subject-Numeric Indexed Central Files. In February 1963, the Department changed its decimal central files to a subject-numeric central file system. This volume and its companion, volume III, are the first to be published in the Foreign Relations series in which the Department’s central files come exclusively from the new system. As part of the transition from the old to two system, the Department of State encouraged its indexers to cross references extensively and to include the first page of the referenced document in the cross referenced file. The system allows the researcher to begin in a basic file and by noting the cross references discover other pertinent files.

    The subject-numeric system was divided into broad categories: Administration, Consular, Culture and Information, Economic, Political and Defense, Science, and Social. Within each of these divisions were subcategories. For example, Political and Defense contained four subtopics: POL (politics), DEF (Defense), CSM (Communism), and INT (Intelligence). Numerical subdivisions further defined them. For example, POL 15-1 was used for documentation concerning the head of state and/or the Executive Branch of any country. Therefore POL 15-1 S VIET contains documentation on South Vietnam’s President; POL 15-1 CAMB would contain documentation of Cambodia’s Head of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

    The following were the principal files used in this volume:

    • POL S VIET and POL 1 S VIET, both containing background material for general policy
    • POL 2 S VIET, general reports and statistics
    • POL 14 S VIET, elections
    • POL 15 S VIET, government
    • POL 15-1 S VIET, head of government/Executive branch
    • POL 16 S VIET, recognition of the new government
    • POL 18 S VIET, provincial and municipal government
    • POL 26 S VIET, undesignated but used in Vietnam for coup planning
    • POL 27 S VIET, military operations
    • POL 27-10 S VIET, chemical weapons
    • POL 30-1 S VIET, asylum.
    • POL 27 VIET, military operations
    • POL 32-4 VIET, territorial waters
    • The system could also combine two countries or a country and an individual. Files of these types cited in this volume were:
    • POL 8 S VIET-US, U.S.-South Vietnamese discussions of neutralism and non-alignment
    • POL US-MCNAMARA and POL 7 US-MCNAMARA, documentation relating to the Secretary of Defense generally and to his trips
    • POL CAMB-S VIE T, general South Vietnamese-Cambodian relations
    • POL 27-13 CAMB, Cambodia’s neutrality in the Vietnam war

    The POL Files comprise the most cited sources in the volume, but there are other files containing important documentation. Much of the documentation on the Buddhist opposition to the Diem government are found in the social category, SOC (social relations) 12-1 S VIET, churches and sects including clergy (bonzes) and SOC 14-1 S VIET, general human rights policies in South Vietnam. Most military-related documents were in DEF 19 S VIET, the general file for military assistance to Vietnam or in DEF 19 US-S VIET, U.S. military assistance to South Vietnam. The CSM S VIET file was surprisingly sparse, indicating that it was little used by indexers during this period. Documentation on economic assistance was found almost exclusively in AID (US) S VIET ORG 7 OSD is a administrative file used for the visits of Secretary of Defense McNamara; PER-LODGE, HENRY CABOT is Ambassador Lodge’s personnel file; INF 8 US is the basic psychological operations file; FT 1 S VIET is the general policy file for South Vietnam’s finances.

    2.
    Lot Files. Documents from the central files have been supplemented by materials from decentralized of fice files, the lot files of the Department of State. A list of the major lot files used or consulted follows:
    • Bundy Files: Lot 85 D 240
      • Files of William R Bundy for the 1960s, first as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and then Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs after 1964.
    • Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110
      • Collection of documentation on international conferences abroad attended by the President, the Secretary of State, and other U.S. officials, May 1961-December 1964
    • Har-Van Files
      • Files created for Ambassador Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance, Delegates to the Paris Peace Conference in 1968. Background documents beginning in the early 1960s. The file contains texts of documents found nowhere else.
    • Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 204
      • Exchanges of correspondence between the President and heads of foreign governments, 1953-1964, as maintained by the Executive Secretariat.
    • Presidential Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149
      • Cleared memoranda of Presidential conversations with foreign victors, 1956-1964, as maintained by the Executive Secretariat.
    • Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192
      • Files of Secretary of State Dean Rusk 1961-1969, including texts of speeches, miscellaneous correspondence files, White House correspondence, chronological files, and memoranda of telephone conversations.
    • Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330
      • Memoranda of the Secretaries of State and Under Secretaries of State, 1961-1964
    • Secretary’s Staff Meetings: Lot 66 D 147
      • Records of the Seaetary of State’s Staff Meetings, 1961-1963, and additional ad hoc meetings, reports, papers, and memoranda of Chester Bowles’ telephone conversations.
    • S/P Files: Lot 70 D 199
      • Files of the Policy Planning Council for the years 1963-1964.
    • Special Group for Counterinsurgency Files: Lot 68 D 451
      • Minutes and memoranda of the Special Group for Counterinsurgency, January 1962-December 1963.
    • S/S-NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265
      • Master set of papers pertaining to National Security Council meetings, including policy papers, position papers, and administrative documents for the years 1961-1966, as maintained by the Executive Secretariat.
    • S/S-NSC Files: Lot 72 D 316
      • Master file of National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs) for the years 1961-1968, as maintained by the Executive Secretariat.
    • S/S-NSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95
      • Administrative and miscellaneous National Security Council documentation, including NSC Records of Action, 1947-1963, as maintained by the Executive Secretariat.
    • Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 67 D 54
      • Files of the interagency Vietnam Working Group, 1963-1964.
    • Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 72 D 219
      • Top Secret files of the interagency Vietnam Working Group, 1963-1967.
  • National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
    • Record Group 46, Records of the U.S. Senate
      • Files of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
    • Record Group 59
      • Files of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, Bureau of Public Affairs, Department of State
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
  • Record Group 84, Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the United States
    • Saigon Embassy Files: FRC 67 A 677
      • Classified records of the Embassy in Saigon for the years 1962-1963 (formerly Lot 66 F 57).
    • Saigon Embassy Files: FRC 68 A 5159
      • Top Secret files of the Embassy in Saigon for the years 1955-1963.
  • Record Group 306, Records of the United States Information Agency
    • USIA/TOP Files: FRC 67 A 222
      • Subject files of the Office of Policy for the years 1963-1965.
  • Record Group 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
    • McNamara Files: FRC 31 A 3470
      • Files of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara for the years 1961-1968.
    • OSD Files: FRC 69 A 3131
      • Official records of the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary for 1963.
    • OSD Files: FRC 71 A 6489
      • Miscellaneous records of the Secretary, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and their assistants for the years 1951,n.1966.
  • Record Group 334, Records of Interservice
    • Records of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, 1962 and after.
  • National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
    • Taylor Papers
      • Papers of General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chief of Staff of the Army, 1955-1959; Military Adviser to the President, 1961-1962; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1962-1964.
  • John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts
    • Hilsman Papers
    • National Security Files
      • Chester V. Clifton Series
      • Departments and Agencies Series
      • Meetings and Memoranda Series
      • Regional Security Series
      • Trip and Conference Series
      • Country Series, Vietnam
    • President’s Appointment Book (cited as President’s Log Book)
    • President’s Office Files
      • Staff Memoranda
      • Vietnam Security
    • Schlesinger Papers
    • Sorensen Papers
    • Thompson Papers
  • Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
    • Papers of President Lyndon B. Johnson, National Security File
      • Heads of State Correspondence
      • Meeting Notes
      • Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy
      • NSAMs
      • Country File, Vietnam
    • Rusk Appointment Book
    • Vice Presidential Security File
  • Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
    • Harriman Papers
      • Special Files of W. Averell Harriman, Public Service, Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Published Sources

  • Documentary Collection, Congressional Documents, and Periodicals
    • The Declassified Documents Quarterly Catalog and microfiche. Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications (formerly Washington: Carrollton Press), 1977 onwards.
    • The Pentagon Papers: The Department of Defense History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam [The Senator Gravel Edition]. 4 vols. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.
    • U.S. Department of Defense. United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967 [The Pentagon Papers]. 12 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971.
    • U.S. Department of State. American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967.
    • _____, Department of State Bulletin, 1963. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963.
    • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.
    • U.S. Senate. Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders. An Interim Report of the Select Committee To study Government Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities. U.S. Senate, 94th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 94-465. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.
  • Memoirs
    • Note: The Department of State takes no responsibility for the accuracy of these memoirs nor endorses their interpretation of the events.
    • Ball, George. The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982.
    • Colby, William, and Forbath, Peter. Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.
    • Galbraith, John Kenneth. Ambassador’s Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1969.
    • Hilsman, Roger. To Move a Nation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday 6, Co., Z967.
    • Johnson, Lyndon Baines. The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969. New York: Holt, Reinhardt and Winston, 1971.
    • Mecklin, John. Mission in Torment. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1965.
    • Nolting, Frederick E. From Trust to Tragedy: The Political Memoirs of Frederick Nolting, Kennedy’s Ambassador to Diem’s Vietnam. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1988.
    • Salinger, Pierre. With Kennedy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1966.
    • Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. A Thousand Days: John F Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
    • Sorensen, Theodore C. Kennedy. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
    • Taylor, Maxwell D. Swords and Plowshares: A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1972.
    • Tran Van Don. Our Endless War: Inside Vietnam. San Raphael, CA: Presidio Press, 1978.