The
American Experience: Vietnam on Line:
This beautifully designed website provides the most comprehensive
account of the Vietnam War on the Internet. The website was produced
by the US Public Broadcasting Service to accompany their award-winning
television series: Vietnam: A Television
History. The website includes an interactive time-line
of the war, basic statistics, maps, a glossary of terms and acronyms,
texts of key U.S. government war documents, weapons used during the
war and forty-two biographical portraits of key personalities in the
war, including six from North Vietnam and a bibliography for further
study. The website also contains Reflections
on War, a collection of twelve first-hand accounts of the
conflict and transcripts of all the television programmes.
Vietnam
Veterans: The purpose of Bill McBride's website is to "honour
Vietnam veterans, living and dead, who served their country on either
side of the conflict". Bill McBride's excellent website provides
"an interactive, on-line forum for Vietnam veterans and their
families and friends to exchange information, stories, poems, songs,
art, pictures, and experiences in any publishable form." There
is also a link to Bill McBride's other important Vietnam website Remembrance:
Reflections, Memories and Images of Vietnam Past. The website
is a collection of galleries containing stories, poems, songs, maps
and narratives about the Vietnam War. The website also contains listings
of all US, Australian and New Zealand casualties of the Vietnam War.
Vietnam
Stories: The website is designed as a gathering place for personal
stories and a forum for opinions on the war. The 'Add Your Story'
page enables visitors to add their stories, images, etc. to the vast
databank of information on the war. 'The Stories' page contains excerpts
of selected stories and is changed regularly. An excellent search
engine enables the visitor to investigate all the narratives that
have been submitted to Vietnam Stories.
For example, a search for the term 'friendly fire' found and listed
fifty-two stories.
History
of the Vietnam War: Dr. Robert M. Blackburn website provides an
excellent on-line discussion forum on the history of the Vietnam War.
Robert Blackburn served two combat tours in Vietnam between 1966 and
1968 as a radio operator with the U.S. Marine Corps. He also holds
a Ph.D. in American Political History that included a special study
of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Dr. Blackburn is willing
to share his comprehensive knowledge of the conflict with all his
visitors. He promises to try and answer any question on the Vietnam
War that is asked. Dr. Blackburn explains that: "if I can't answer
a question from either my personal experiences or from my area of
expertise, I shall call on a panel of Vietnam War consultants that
have knowledge in that particular area." The only request that
Dr. Blackburn makes is that the visitor first checks out the FAQ page
to search existing messages to make sure that he has not answered
the question before.
Australian
Involvement in the Vietnam War: Ern Marshall has produced an impressive
website on Australian involvement in the Vietnam War. Marshall, who
served in Vietnam between 1968 and 1969, has created an invaluable
resource for any student who wants to study Australia's role in this
conflict. The material is divided into nineteen sections including:
'History', 'Australian Involvement', 'Long Tan', 'The RAAF in Vietnam',
'The Navy in Vietnam', 'Weapons', 'Memories', 'Memorials', 'Medical',
'Government', 'Stories, Anecdotes & Humour' and 'Miscelaneous'.
A comprehensive website that should be visited by all serious students
of the war.
Vietnam
Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is a national veterans' organisation
that was founded in New York City in 1967 after six Vietnam vets marched
together in a peace demonstration. It was organised to voice the growing
opposition among returning servicemen and women to the war, and grew
rapidly to a membership of over 30,000 throughout the United States
as well as active duty GIs stationed in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans
Against the War website enables visitor to read articles from past
editions of The Veteran newspaper.
The site also includes an excellent History
of the Vietnam War and a large collection of photographs.
Wars
for Vietnam: A website developed around the course materials used
by Robert Brigham on his course on the Vietnam War at Vassar College.
The main part of the site is a nine page 'Overview'. This includes
sections on 'The Geneva Peace Accord', 'South Vietnam Under Ngo Dinh
Diem', 'The National Liberation Front', 'December 1961', 'Military
Coup', 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution', 'The War in America', 'The Nixon
Years' and 'The Paris Peace Agreement'. The website also has a document
section. The twenty documents range from NLF secret papers to Richard
Nixon's speech to the USA public on 30th April, 1970 justifying the
offensive in Cambodia.
Vietnam:
Yesterday and Today: Sandra Wittman has attempted to collect together
a range of materials that provides insights into the Vietnam War.
This is lusted under the categories: 'Vietnam War: Fiction', 'Vietnam
War: Non-Fiction', 'Vietnam War: Fiction', 'Vietnam War: Films', 'Vietnam
War: The Women's Experience' and 'The Vietnam War: The Vietnamese
Perspective'. Sandra Wittman also provides a useful chronology of
the Vietnam War and links to E-Journals and Discussion Lists on the
Vietnam War.
American
Presidency: The Grolier Corporation's The
American Presidency contains detailed biographies of a
large collection of presidents and vice-presidents. These biographies
are cross-linked with a range of important political parties and pressure
groups in the USA. Three of these biographies provide useful information
for people studying the Vietnam War. The biography of John
F. Kennedy covers the period in 1963 when the United States
sent 16,000 military personnel to Vietnam. The section on Lyndon
B. Johnson looks at the United States growing involvement
in Vietnam between 1963 and 1968. The biography of Richard
Nixon includes information on the bombing raids on North Vietnam,
the invasion of Cambodia and the cease-fire in 1973 the bombing raids
on North Vietnam, the invasion of Cambodia and the cease-fire in 1973.
Vietnam
Personalities: Louis E. Grivetti has produced a very useful website
for students of the Vietnam War. 'American Personalities' includes
biographies of all the main figures that played an important role
in the conflict. So far there are thirty-seven people listed under
the headings: 'Presidents and Administrative Officials' and 'Military'.
There is also a planned third section called the 'Peace Movement'.
Another part of the website 'Vietnamese Personalities' includes Bao
Dai, Ngo Dinh Diem, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap.
Vietnam:
The Interknowledge Corporation website contains a wide variety of
information on Vietnam. This includes sections on: 'The History of
Vietnam', 'Location, Geography and Climate', 'Vietnamese Culture'
and 'Vietnamese People'.
Women
Veterans: Barbara Wilson, a former captain in the USAF has produced
'Women Veterans', a website that explains the role of US women in
warfare. This includes Women in Vietnam a website dedicated to explaining
the role of the 10,000 women who took part in this conflict. Captain
Wilson explains that for many years "accurate records on how
many women were there, what decorations they earned, where they served
and most important - what after effects they have suffered - and continue
to suffer" were unavailable. 'Women in Vietnam' attempts to answer
these questions about the 10,000 women who took part in the war.
Women
in Vietnam: "The military, which prided itself on the records
it kept in Vietnam - counting the enemy number of weapons captured,
for example - cannot to this day say with certainty how many women
served. The army that sent them never bothered to count them."
This quote from Laura Palmer's book, Shrapnel in the Heart, appears
on the home page of Marilyn Knapp's website, Women in Vietnam. Her
website attempts to redress the balance by providing a comprehensive
account of the 7,500 women who served in the military in Vietnam.
Material is collected under a variety of headings including: Many
Women Served, Red Cross, Military Nurses, In Memoriam, Get Back in
Touch, Bibliographies, Videos, Books, etc.
Viet
Quoc is the website of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The party
has been involved in the struggle "for independence, freedom
and prosperity of Vietnam since 1927". The website includes a
whole range of articles on the Vietnam War including: 'The 1968 Tet
offensive', 'The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces', 'The Forgotten
Victims in Vietnam', 'Vietnamese Independence and Ho Chi Minh', 'Unmasking
Ho Chi Minh', 'Twenty-Two Years Under Communism' and 'South Vietnamese
Disabled Veterans'.
Vietnam
Generation is a website devoted to providing a forum for people
interested in "the Sixties in general and the Vietnam War in
particular". The most interesting part of the site is the 'Sixties
Project Web'. Visitors are encouraged to contribute a narrative of
the experiences of the 1960s. These accounts can be read online or
downloaded and include people's experiences of the US armed forces
and the 'Anti-Vietnam War' protest movement.
Country
Joe McDonald: This website tells the story of Country Joe McDonald,
a leading figure in the Anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1965 McDonald
wrote what became the movement's anthem I
Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag. The song became famous when
it was featured in the film of the Woodstock Festival. A copy of Country
Joe McDonald's FBI File is also on the Internet.
A-1
Skyraider Combat Journal: Byron Hukee flew and fought in the A-1
Skyraider during the Vietnam War. He has constructed a website that
looks at the role that the A-1 Skyraider played in both the Korean
and Vietnam conflicts. As well as his combat journal there are other
sections including: 'History of the Skyraider', 'Bulletin Board',
'Skyraider Facts', 'A-1 Mission in South-East Asia', 'Combat Damage
Images', 'South-East Asia Theatre Map' and 'Links'.
Fall
of Saigon Stories: A website created by Marianne Brems, a teacher
of Vietnamese students at Mission College, Santa Clara, California.
In the spring of 1995 Brems began collecting first-hand accounts of
people who experienced the fall of Saigon to the Vietcong in April,
1975. As Marianne Brems points out in her introduction: "Many
of my Vietnamese students at Mission College experienced first hand
the deprivation, humiliation, and fear associated with losing their
government, their way of life, and their freedom." The website
includes eighteen narratives and a list of other websites that deal
with the fall of Saigon.
Vietnam
Statistics: This website provides a passionate defence of U.S.
involvement in Vietnam. Gary Roush uses information from Richard Nixon,
General William C. Westmoreland, Lt. General Barry R. McCaffrey and
the 'Combat Area Casualty File' in an attempt to destroy what he believes
are the "many myths about the Vietnam War". Some of the
suggested myths tackled by Roush include: "Most American soldiers
were addicted to drugs, guilt-ridden about their role in the war,
and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics"; "A disproportionate
number of blacks were killed
in the Vietnam War"; "The domino theory was proved false";
and "The United States lost the war in Vietnam." Sandra
Wittman, from Oakton College, Illinois, takes a different view. Her
website, How
the Vietnam War Differed From Other Wars provides evidence
that conflicts with the image portrayed by Gary Roush. Vietnam
Online: For the Record also tends to disagree with Roush.
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