History 3296: America and the Vietnam War (Intermediate Writing Seminar)   Tags: history, vietnam, war  

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Nothing we have seen in academic search compares with Summon, but the closest analog is Google Scholar. Summon covers all the books and other resources cataloged in Diamond plus a great deal of content from the various library databases. By default Summon searches resources available only to the Temple community. Summon does not cover or reproduce all of the Libraries' content, so it cannot substitute for the core disciplinary databases. Click here to learn more about Summon.

Reference books like the ones listed below help researchers contextualize their topics, and in turn begin to ask the right questions. Reference books set the stage for more efficient database searching; researchers cannot elicit relevant search results from library databases if they don't know which keywords (or search terms) to use. Last but not least, scholarly reference books often contain bibliographies that lead researchers to the most respected secondary and most useful primary sources. In short, reference books are a great way to begin your research.

Click title for full-text online access to these reference eBooks.

Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History - Spencer C. Tucker, editor, David Coffey ... [et al.], associate editors.

Call Number: DS557.7 .E53 1998eb

ISBN: 0195135245

Publication Date: 1998

The Vietnam experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films - Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom

Call Number: DS557.73 .H55 1998eb

ISBN: 0313301832

Publication Date: 1998

Use this research guide to find primary documents and secondary sources (journal articles, books, etc.) about the Vietnam War.

Find below three historic videos spanning ten years of the Vietnam War. The first two speeches, delivered less than one month apart in the spring of 1965, contrast official and dissenting views of the war as U.S. involvement in Vietnam was escalating. The last video captures a U.S. government press conference held immediately following Saigon's fall, spring of 1975.

Johnson inherited, but then escalated, a conflict that began during the administrations of earlier presidents. Here on May 13, 1965 LBJ "expresses his hope that a negotiated peace between North and South Vietnam can be achieved as a means of bringing peace and prosperity to all of Vietnam while thwarting Red Chinese ambitions in Southeast Asia" (Streaming video from Films on Demand, a TU Libraries' database).

Off campus users click here to authenticate with your accessnet username and password, or enter your Films on Demand account username and password if you have one. Click here for other streaming video databases available through the TU Libraries' website.

Find below a 5-minute video reenactment of Paul Potter's lengthier, April 17, 1965 speech titled We Must Name the System. Potter, former President of Students for a Democratic Society, criticizes in his speech the role of the U.S. government in Vietnam. Listen for parallels in the language used by Potter to describe the conflict in Vietnam and the language contemporary dissenters use to critique the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more about Potter's speech at the Port Huron Project website, and about Students for a Democratic Society in the Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice.

On April 29, 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced the downfall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Kissinger's remarks begin at 3 minutes and 45 seconds into the video.