There are a seeminly endless number of resources one could use to find materials on Vietnam. The most obvious resource is Milner's Catalog. A simple keyword search on "Vietnam" leads to 2406 entries on the war. There is also a seemingly endless variety of subject headings for Vietnam, all of which can help narrow one's search. For example:
| 1. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975. |
| 2. | Vietnam --History --1945-1975. |
| 3. | Vietnam --Relations --United States. |
| 4. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Biography. |
| 5. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Bibliography. |
| 6. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Journalists. |
Since these are all Library of Congress Subject Headings, I should be able to use them in WorldCat to find more resources on the War.
Milner also subscribes to a number of databases I could use to find materials on Vietnam, including Historic Documents which, for example, has a briefing by Kissinger on the War, America: History and Life, and JSTOR.[1]
If I were going to do serious research project on Vietnam, however, I would definitely want to use Archives USA. The database is a "directory of 5,581 repositories and over 160,000 collections of primary source material housed across the United States" [2]. This would be one of the best ways to find collections of letters, journals, papers, and so forth. A search for "Vietnam letters," for example, gave me this entry:
Archives USA is not the most user-friendly database, but for anyone seriously considering a study on Vietnam, especially a study on soldiers' personal experiences, it seems like a logical preliminary step in the research process. Unlike Google or some other search engine, it would specifically search Archives' collections.
One could also use the internet to find materials on the War. Useful search engines include: Google, Yahoo, Ask, Vivisimo, Altavista, and WebCrawler. Of all of the browsers available online, I prefer Google and Vivisimo.
I could use combinations of the following keywords to find materials online.
| 1. | Vietnam + Documents, South, North, Communism, Protests, Imperialism |
| 2. | Ho Chi Minh |
| 3. | Ngo Dinh Diem |
| 4. | Presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon |
| 5. | Tet Offensive |
| 6. | Battles: Dien Bien Phu (1954) |
| 7. | Bao Dai |
| 8. | Coups |
1. Henry Kissinger, "Kissinger Briefing on Vietnam," in CQ Electronic Library, CQ Historic Documents Series Online Edition, hsdc72-0001191520. Originally published in Historic Documents of 1972 (Washington: CQ Press, 1973). <http://library.cqpress.com/historicdocuments/hsdc72-0001191520> (accessed December 8, 2007). <return>
2. Archives USA, "Homepage" in Proquest, copyright 2007 <http://archives.chadwyck.com.proxy.lib.ilstu.edu:2048/> (8 December 2007). <return>