at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2 book tv. >> vietnam center and archive located in texas tech is second largest vietnam artifacts in the country. director steve maxner will show us pertinent items for -- personal items of men and women in the the war. >> today we're visiting the vietnam center archive located in the special elections library on the campus. texas tech university. it got its start back in 1989 when a visiting professor decided to determine if he could teach classes on the vietnam war. he was a military history professor, he served two tours in the navy in vietnam and he wanted to try educate the student body about what vietnam was about. he went to the library they almost had no books on vietnam at that time. this was only 14 years.

he went to his department chair and asked if they had financial support. i think he was eligible for $300 of support from them. he got together with a group of local veterans and asked them if they would be willing to support the creation of some kind of project so they could teach classes, mostly graduate level and collect and preserve material and start this massive project to make sure that we're educating our students about the important part of american history. from that humble beginning, we now have the largest archive of vietnam war materials outside the u.s. national archives. we do focus on the veterans themselves, we also have a much wider range in kind of philosophy regarding this project, regarding the vietnam war. where lot of military history projects might focus on the american veteran spearers jim experiences encouraged him to

broad. -- broaden a. we started to receive materials from both the vietnamese americans living in the state of texas and around the country and also it broaden to include other participant faces. we started to work with vietnam thailand cambodia, china russia, frappes, france, great britain. all the nations involved in the vietnam war. we started to reach out to them and collect materials that reflected their experiences during that war. as a result, not only do we have an incredible set of materials from american veterans, we have materials from all different participant nations. all 50 states are involved. i think it's about 12 countries. the staff of the vietnam center archive was very effective in putting together a wide range of materials that represent the different experiences of veterans. in particular we were looking at

the materials from american veterans who served in vietnam. we typically we associate that service with what men experienced because men were doing the fighting. there were lot of women who served in vietnam. within that group of veterans the female veterans of the warrers rot of people would associate those experiences with nurses. women were involved in so many different aspects of the war from administration and things of that nature, the doughnut dollies and red cross volunteers. we had uniform from one of the volunteers and engaged in wide ranger missions that helped to support the 500,000 men and women serving throughout vietnam. in addition to that, we've got lot of the different types of equipment that veterans were carrying. the thing they carried so the

first aid kit, the radios the helmet that veterans would wear, the steel pot a protect them from shrapnel. this is not an actual m16, this is a dummy m16. i wanted to highlight the specifics of this because this is in the earliest version. it has the muzzle that has the three prongs. that was problematic for lot of soldiers who were fighting in vietnam because they would get caught on foliage and vines. they had to modify the m16 to make it more useful weapon and easier weapon to utilize in the environment. but all kinds of other types of materials the backpacks and jungle boots a veterans would wear. we have a wide range of materials that represent the overall experience. oh and a poncho.

when you think about the heat and humidity of vietnam and wrapping yourself in plastic, this would have been a really uncomfortable way of dealing with the rain in vietnam because by the time you finished wearing a poncho, it was wet underneath it. just a great sample of materials that the veterans carry with them. continuing with the veteran experience, we have a tremendous set of letters written home by veterans. this particular set, this is a special collection for us. because it's the first set of materials we received once we became the vietnam center and archive. donated by a navy who served during the vietnam war. these are the letters he wrote home to his mom. , his dad too. my predecessor was fond saying how much we appreciated mothers

because they collected these materials and they kept them and cherished them because they never knew if this was the last thing they'll receive from son husband or father. one of the letters here at the top, this was dated may 23, 1967. this is a navy coreman who served in caisson he was there through the major battle that took place in early 1968. the letter starts off, dear mom and dad. here i am in vietnam still with 360 more days left to go. i think that opening sentence really kind of put this veteran's experience into perspective. it highlights so much of what american experience there. once they arrived, it was a count down. how much time do i have left in vietnam. they would keep calendars they

would track it. for them, it was one year war 365 days and they get to go home to the world. even as early as five days in, he's chronicling that for his parents. we started working a lot with veterans and veterans associations and going to reunions. as we started doing that, the association themselves started to become very heavily invested and making sure that we were working closely with them to preserve their legacy during the war. that includes groups like the vietnam association and veterans association. lot of different units that were involved in all types of activities. another one of those was daspo. it was a team of photographers and videographers who went

throughout the country. they were attached to the department of defense. they reported to the pentagon. they had carte blanched to go out vietnam to take photographs and films anything they could. they had this incredible equipment that you see here. the film cameras and their equipment that they used to chronicle the official history of the war from the department of defense. they donated all this equipment and they donated lot of photographs and film mostly 16-millimeter film. some of that was sound track. it's an incredible set of historical materials. it's interesting from the standpoint of we have these guys who would jump on helicopters and run out and take videos. it was very little restriction what they could or couldn't shoot. it was open book of the film and photograph history of the war from the pentagon side.

everything they did went back to washington. it was used in public affairs activities to educate and notify the american public about things. it was shared with media outlets so they had great photographs and films they can use. then, is what was sent back to washington in the national archives. it's all part of the vietnam war. i'm not aware -- we worked closely with the daspo guys. i'm not aware of censureship of thinking disappearing. our understanding all becomes part of the national archives. i think from the standpoint of contemporary american, especially young american today i think this is some of the really rich material that helped to put in perspective, what was

it like to be in war to a participant in this. but to try to chronicle what was going on. we take for granted we've got these nice little phones. back in the 1960's when these guys were carrying heavy steel cameras back in the united states they were back in the united states they were watching star trek. they had these hand held communicators. that's where we are now. we're carrying the star trek hand held communicators that take video and audio. back then it was only science fiction. they had to carry all this equipment so they star can take those pictures and those videos and make sure we could have this visual representation of the war that we can still learn from. it's a natural kind of -- for people to look at something through their own experience. so much of what we've done in

terms of studying the vietnam war really has been focused on how we experienced it as a nation and people. but that's just a such a small fraction of the experience. to look at it from that one side really doesn't provide an understanding of the complexities and challenges that we all faced. not just the united states but our allies and enemies. by preserving this material we're gaining insight what were the vietnamese thinking, what were the things driving them to continue the struggle and to continue this fight. both the south vietnamese who fought bravely and hard and tried to protect their country as they perceived it. also the north vietnamese and the communist from the south national liberation front. this was a war that was hard fought by different groups who are all fighting in some ways

very different reasons. on this table, we're shifting and looking at the the war from the vietnamese side. on that side it's a complex situation where we have our allies the south vietnamese and vietnamese government, republic of vietnam. that was a document they kept. we have a near complete set of those documents. oneit's a rare set. it made news. when you look at it, you can see the edges of the paper are yellowing. it's very brittle because it wasn't made necessarily to be kept for a long period of time. fortunately, this was a

gentleman working in paris. he collected everything he could. he kept it. at the end of the war, 1975 they closed down the vietnamese embassy, he took all these documents and put them in a garage and kept them. he met with this guy and said you should donate that stuff you have in that garage to the vietnam center. we have one of the only sets of the federal congressional record for the republic vietnam in the war. it is a set that we're careful with because it is falling apart. we may have to digitize that. we have newspapers from south vietnam, saigon daily news and language publications.

to chronicle the experiences of our south vietnamese allies from the republic of vietnam. they lost so much as a result of this war. they lost their homes, their families. they lost their businesses. when say gon saigon fell in 1975 we tried to preserve south vietnam. it was incredible by comparison. it's very important to work with them as much as we can to preserve their history and their documents. in addition to that, we do have materials from the communist side of the war. the north vietnamese. we have some of their equipment. it's interesting when you compare and contrast the different types of equipment that they used versus what we had. their helmet was wicker versus the steel of the american helmet. lighter weight great for

camouflage and not going to protect them much. we also have the sandals which everyone heard of studied the vietnam war. made from tires and very cheap and very effective. canteens and other equipment. but also some of their publications as well. one of the really interesting things about the publications sometimes they had to do it out in the field. the production value is not high but it's effective. they got some really interesting art work that represents the communist side of the war. also we have an incredible microfilm set of captured enemy documents. that includes 2.7 million pages of captured material from the war. we want to make sure that we're preserving and providing access to the vietnamese said of the --

side of the war. both the ally and south vietnam and as well as our former enemies in north vietnam and the south. in addition to the archive materials that veterans donate the chronicle personal experience, we get donations the reading materials. the star and stripes was important part of that. they had these internally produced newspapers. like the southern cross and so on. one the great things about these documents is that they provide us with i believe insight into the news and information that most soldiers were getting during the war itself. they didn't have access to the "new york times" and the "washington post" and the news media general publications those things did circulate. where they would get their

information, both in the united states and also is part of their war was through these types of newspapers. in addition to that, there was a course entertainment publication publications. comic books which we don't associate with young adults today. actually they are still popular. lots of soldiers would carry around the nam comic books to help pass the time when they had down time. in addition to the wartime publications we also have a growing set of publications from veterans associations after the war. i think i mentioned before, so much what we do is about preserving the history and legacy of our veterans. that includes, it focuses on what the experience during the war itself. as we've learned throughout our

experiences, so much about the vietnam war is not just about the 365 days they spent there. but more importantly for some, the 50 years since then. they've been processing their experience and dealing with it and trying to overcome the different challenges and hardships they've had as a result of that experience. we've got news letters and magazines from veterans associations that talk about their different activities. whether they be just kind of generic activities or fill philanthropic programs building schools, libraries and orphanages in vietnam to help correct to that country where they fought so many years and give back something and hopefully have a catharsis result. wide range of material that chronicle all those types of experiences to the war itself to the present day.

when we started to reach out to veterans and invite them to participate, quite few of them are hesitant. here we are an american university. their experience with american universities for a while. when i came home from vietnam you guys didn't like us, didn't want to surround, didn't welcome us home. university campuses were the hot beds of antiwar activity. their immediate reaction was skepticism and mistrust. once we were able to bridge that gamble where -- gap where we emphasized we had local veteran support for the project. founded by a vietnam veteran who served for two tours. lot of us had a much more

sympathetic approach. so much is made of some of the more tragic events of the war. so much attention is given to things. it's an unfortunate thing. it's a necessary part of history. we need to remember it and we need to focus and study on it. at the same time so many of the veterans are kind of taint -- painted with that same brush. we feel like we only focus on the negatives and not the possess. i think-- positive.our project has been in much better balance. you can't look at war without looking at the negative aspects. there's also -- there are some positive things. there are men and women who are serving their nation with

respect and honor and dignity. they're doing the best they can in the circumstances. i think most veterans who visit us and get to know us realize that with we do approach their service in that way. it's a place of honor and respect with an understanding that thing happened. but the people who are involved and large part from our experience, they were not doing bad. as a result of all that, we've established such an incredible set of materials that it's time for us now not just to provide online access. we've been housing this building the southwest collection special elections library for about 20 years. we are now working with the university leadership through a substantial grant from an anonymous donor. we've hired a development officer and we're raising money

so we can build a vietnam center and archive museum here at texas tech university. you can you'll see from the materials that we have, we have a museum just waiting to be filled with veteran collections and materials. we're so excited to be working with our university leadership and hopefully our state and local government and perhaps some federal support as well that we can build this world class museum so that veterans and their family have a place come and learn about the war remember about the war contribute their history so we can continue to educate our country about this incredible part of american history. our ultimate goal would be to pursue designation national museum of the vietnam war. we think we have almost 30 years of a track record working with our nation's veterans and preserving the materials and

providing this incredible forum where people come together to learn about this war. texas tech, state of texas this is the right place for it. learn more about love the. -- about lubbock. >> professor richard faulkner teaches a class on the vietnam war, focusing on the tet offensive in 1968 through the u.s. withdraw in the early 1970's. he describes how military objectives, domestic politics, and public opinion changed because of the tet campaign. he talks about richard nixon's victory in the 1960 presidential