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Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive

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The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Center and Archive, part of Texas Tech University, is the nation's largest and most comprehensive collection of information on the Vietnam War.[2][3][4][5][6][7] On August 17, 2007, the Texas Tech Vietnam Center became the first U.S. institution to sign a formalized exchange agreement with the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam. This opens the door for a two-way exchange between the entities.[8][9]

Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive
Established1989; 35 years ago (1989)
FounderJames Reckner[1]
Address
Texas Tech University
,
Lubbock
,
Texas
,
79409
,
United States

33°34′55″N 101°52′38″W / 33.5819°N 101.8773°W / 33.5819; -101.8773
WebsiteOfficial website

The Vietnam Center's mission is to support and encourage research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam experience; promoting a greater understanding of this experience and the peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia.[10][11] It promotes education through exhibits, classroom instruction, and publications; support for the archive and the collection and preservation of pertinent historical source material; and encouragement of related scholarship through organizing and hosting conferences and symposia each year.[12]

History

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Three Swift Boats n Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Corrado Rudolfo Lutz Collection (va025931)

In 1989, a group of Vietnam veterans from West Texas gathered at Texas Tech University to discuss what they might do, in a positive way, about their experiences in Vietnam.[13] Their meeting was spearheaded by James Reckner, a Texas Tech military history professor and Navy veteran of the Vietnam War,[14] who had become concerned with his students’ lack of knowledge about the war. This was mostly because many citizens after the war pretended like it did not happen.[15] The group's immediate decision was to form a Vietnam Archive and begin collecting and preserving materials relating to the American Vietnam experience.[16][17]

On December 2, 1989, the Texas Tech University Board of Regents approved the creation of the Center for the Study of the Vietnam Conflict.[18] Its dual missions are to fund and guide the development of the Vietnam Archive and encourage continuing study of all aspects of the American Vietnam experience.[19] The U.S. government has used the archive’s online search engine to find documents relating to prisoners-of-war during their time in Vietnam.[20]

In 2001, the Vietnam Archives established the Vietnam Virtual Archive with the aim of putting many documents online to facilitate free and easy access through the Internet.[21][22] According to Steve Maxner – director of the Vietnam Center and Archives said in a 2011 interview that the Center is able to operate thanks to the support of Vietnam veterans and how their material contributions and oral histories serve informational and educational purposes.[23] Also during this time, Director of the Texas Tech Vietnam Center and Archives Stephen Maxner was awarded the "For the Cause of Vietnamese Archives" by the Vietnamese Government for his contributions to archival cooperation between Vietnam and the United States.[24][25] In 2012, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission awarded the center $144,000 to fund student work that will digitize the 250,000-page collection of the Association of Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners. The collection documents the migration of thousands of Vietnamese Americans after the end of the Vietnam War.[26]

In 2017, the facility was renamed the "Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive" in honor of U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, a former prisoner of war.[27] He has helped Texas Tech University secure federal funding to support the Vietnam Center and Archive.[28] By August 2019, thanks to a $95,740 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center had edited, transcribed, and published online the entire remaining collection of oral history interviews produced by the VNCA Oral History Project.[29][30] Also this year, the archives center is scheduled to expand and be housed in an entirely new facility, a project that requires $25 million for the building itself and a $10 million grant to cover operating costs.[31]

In 2023, the Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers organization coordinated with the center to run a non-profit project called "Vietnam War Legacy Files." The Vietnam Archive returned a collection of five diaries and 30 letters written by Vietnamese soldiers, most of whom died in the Vietnam War.[32] The second return of the soldier's diaries, letters, and personal items was in July 2024.[33]

Special Projects

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The Virtual Vietnam Archive

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Jennifer Young Collection (va043454)

In March 2002, the Virtual Vietnam Archive was launched with a five hundred thousand dollar federal grant to digitize the Vietnam Archive's collection of documents, audio, and images.[34] 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 free of charge.[35] By 2004, it was announced that the Virtual Vietnam Archives project would receive $1.8 million in funding over four years from the federal government's Institute of Museum and Library Services.[36]

The Oral History Project

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The Oral History Project of the Vietnam Archive was created in 1999.[37][38] The mission of the OHP is to create and preserve a more complete record of the wars in Southeast Asia by preserving, through recorded interviews, the recollections and experiences of all who were involved in those wars. Anyone can participate, whether an American veteran, a former ally or enemy of the U.S., an anti-war protester, a government employee, a family member of a veteran, etc.[39][40]

The Vietnamese American Heritage Project

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The Vietnamese American Heritage Project, created in 2008, supports the Vietnam Archive’s mission to document the war from all perspectives by providing documentation of the post-war social and political history of Vietnamese Americans who immigrated to the United States during and after the Vietnam War.[41] The VAHP aims to enhance the study of the Vietnamese immigration and resettlement experience by providing reference services to researchers and increasing Vietnamese American participation in the archive’s Oral History Project, conducting outreach activities, and developing cooperative relationships with other institutions dedicated to preserving Vietnamese American’s rich heritage.[42] The cornerstone of the VAHP is the Vietnam Archives’ Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association (FVPPA) Collection. During the 1980s and 1990s, the FVPPA successfully helped over 10,000 former Vietnamese reeducation camp detainees and their families immigrate to the US and other countries through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee’s (UNHCR) Orderly Departure Program (ODP).[16]

References

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  1. ^ Cantu, Michael A. (November 22, 2018). "Founding director of Tech's Vietnam Center and Archive dies at 78". KCBD. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  2. ^ Southard, John (2014). Defend and Befriend: The U.S. Marine Corps and Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8131-4526-6. LCCN 2014005216. OCLC 1155374474. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  3. ^ Lowther, Sydney (March 30, 2023). "50 years since United States troop withdrawal: Lubbock has one of the largest Vietnam archive collections in the U.S." KCBD. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
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  20. ^ Osborn, Caitlan (June 23, 2011). "Vietnam Center and Archive receives honor". The Daily Toreador. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
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  23. ^ Scokeley (June 14, 2011). "Interview: Steve Maxner / Perserving veterans' past for the future". World History Group. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  24. ^ Trần, Việt Hoa (June 22, 2011). "Đoàn công tác của Bộ Nội vụ thăm và làm việc tại Hợp chủng quốc Hoa Kỳ". Ministry of Home Affairs (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  25. ^ Shooter, Cole (June 14, 2011). "Texas Tech Vietnam Center and Archive Director to be Honored by Vietnamese Government". KFYO. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  26. ^ Hoover, Brittany (January 15, 2012). "Vietnam Center's immigration records to go digital with recent grant". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  27. ^ Clark, Candice (October 18, 2017). "Congressman honored at naming of Vietnam Center and Archive". The Daily Toreador. Archived from the original on August 26, 2024. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  28. ^ Michael, Karen (October 18, 2017). "Texas Tech archive renamed as Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  29. ^ For A-J Media (August 2, 2019). "Vietnam Center & Archive oral histories to be more accessible". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  30. ^ Rosetta, Mallory (August 6, 2019). "Vietnam oral histories to become more accessible". National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on August 26, 2024. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  31. ^ Staff Writer (November 11, 2019). "Texas Tech's Vietnam Center & Archive eyes new facility". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  32. ^ Huyền Trang (June 2, 2023). "Lễ tiếp nhận "Hồ sơ di sản chiến tranh Việt Nam"". Voice of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  33. ^ Ngoc Anh (July 11, 2024). ""Vietnam War Legacy Files" to pay tribute to martyrs, heal wounds of war". VOV World. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  34. ^ Hagopian, Patrick (2003). "Virtual Vietnam Archive". The Journal of American History. 90 (1). Oxford University Press: 189–191. doi:10.2307/3659801. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 3659801. OCLC 207813146.
  35. ^ "Vietnam War - Online Archival Resources Guide - Subject and Course Guides at University of Texas at Arlington". University of Texas at Arlington. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  36. ^ Byrne, Richard (May 28, 2004). "Kent State U. Gives Some of Its Vietnam War Papers to Texas Tech Archive". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  37. ^ Blatte, Dana (July 26, 2023). "Voices of the Vietnam War". National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  38. ^ "Oral History (U.S.) - Oral History Resources - Research Guides at Northwestern University". Northwestern University Library. Archived from the original on August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  39. ^ Armitage, Sue; Mercier, Laurie (2009). Speaking History: Oral Histories of the American Past, 1865-Present. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4039-7782-3. LCCN 2009023411. OCLC 391406466. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  40. ^ MacKay, Nancy (2007). Curating Oral Histories: From Interview to Archive. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-59874-058-5. LCCN 2006026624. OCLC 1200829248. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
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  42. ^ "Primary Sources: Asian American and Pacific Islander History". Chatham University. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
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