directions. >> c-span. where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public servant -- service by america's cable company. today, we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public alice events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. next, an american history tv exclusive. our city store visits lubbock, texas to learn about its history and literary life. for seven years, we have traveled to u.s. cities bringing the book scene to our viewers. ♪

>> on the center was opened in 1999 through all of the life and musical legacy of buddy holly who was born here in lubbock and raised here. then, went off into the golden ages of making music in history. >it is a place that pays homage to someone that are that is a longer with us, but it is it plays were people can come and learn and take away from that history. think,d visitors will i have experienced the light in seeing things from betty's boyhood. , all the wayuitars items of clothing,

the keyboard on stage, dusty, his iconic black room glasses that he wore that he is well known for. they will also hear his music. we play it throughout the gallery. so, they get a complete all-encompassing sort of experience. buddies name, as well as the rights to his music here in the western hemisphere are managed by the bmg corporation. when visitors come we ask that they do not take any photographs in the gallery simply because some of the items that we have here are on loan and we do not

have permission from the corporation for photography. some of the images we have used in the exhibit, we use under specific licensing agreements that allow us to have those images in our gallery, but not allowed for their distribution beyond this setting. holly grew up here in lubbock. he is a very -- he was a very shy kid. except when he was performing on stage. to play musical instruments at a very young age. his older brothers larry and travis were actually banjo and guitar players. but he was so cute as a kid.

they would do performances around the region. sometimes they won those contests because of bodies -- of buddy's cuteness. they would grease his bow on the violin. he could sing very very cutely. older,row up and became he was very impatient. he started out on the banjo and mandolin and the pno, but really, he wanted to play the guitar. not just any guitar, a guitar lick his older brother had. would, his older brothers help them acquire those instruments. but teamed up with a lot of different people in the community. he became friends with nikki sullivan, who played guitar along with buddy with ji allison

who played drums with jody mauldin, who played the standup bass. day, before starting out and getting these gigs at different places, they would also -- they were also -- they would also open for different musical accent came through town. other performers i came through town like husky and johnny cash, it was during one of those seen byces that he was nashville talent scouts who happened to also be robins manager, a man by the name of eddie campbell. buddy's manager who at the time was a man named

duncan. that hemr. duncan thought he would be able to get buddy a recording contract in nashville. panels thatn those buddy was able to receive his first recording contract with? records in nashville. he and his band went up to nashville with the idea that the wood record -- that they would songs as they wanted them recorded. when they got to nashville, they accepted -- they wanted him to play country music. it was not really where buddy's interest was or headed at that time. songs that he recorded in nashville were number one, not with his musicians that he would -- was used to playing with, and also not in the style that he

wanted that music recorded in. he secured that contract in 1956, late 1956. was time to it renew it, to renew his contract, one of the songs interestingly enough, that he recorded there, was that will be the day. that will be the day that everyone is used to hearing. it is more country sounding. want to getdid not that song out and it did not do on the markets, he had also signed the rights to that song to decca. inn he came back to lubbock 1957, he had written that some with jerry allison in the allison house, which is here at the center and visitors can visit the house.

he took that song over to recording studio -- a recording studio in mexico owned by petty, and they rerecorded that song. in thecket bandmates, fashion that he always imagined it would be produced. and it was that song that rose to the billboards top 100 chart in fact. it charted number one in october of 1957. that was the start of this very short-lived career that he had. success onceuddy's he included the song, and once it reached number one on the billboard chart, it came fast and furious. we sort of indicate that his

career was 18 months long. his professional career. that, aside from getting the music out there in the radio, making a few appearances on tv, he was able to make -- appear twice on the sullivan show late 1957, december of 1957. and then, at the very end of december he made an appearance on the american bandstand he and then he- toured extensively throughout the country. meet a wideto variety of musicians who played many different genres of music. he became friends with a lot of these musicians. withdon and phil everly,

richie vallance, with waylon and informing those friendships, not only did they tour the country and perform on stage, but they also talked about when you have some downtime, let's record some other music. let's work on some things together. that got him to thinking about opening up his own recording studio. he had plans to do this in lubbock, texas. purchased a plot of land a little west of the center here, and he hired an architect to draw up plans for a home that was largely to be his parents home but there was also room for him and his wife. the house was devoted to a music studio -- one wing of the house

was devoted to a music studio. he had contacts throughout the industry. after he married in 1958 he and his new wife stayed in new york city, largely so he could learn everything that he could about the music industry, about recording, about studio production. he wanted to bring that knowledge factor to lubbock, texas and open a studio and bring those musicians here to lubbock. those that he toured with and developed friendships with and recorded -- and record them in his own studio. i do not think that buddy would have stopped recording his own music or would have stopped performing, but i know that that was an exciting element that he wanted to explore and add to his expertise. life, the end of buddy's this would be late 1958, he made

a trip to lubbock to visit -- visit his family and christmas. then, we turn to new york. the decision was made for various reasons to go on another musical tour. it was very hastily put together. unfortunately, not well put together, because it was tackle some of the coldest parts of the united states at the worst time of the year, in the winter. the musicely, corporation that put it together heat or they would break down frequently. toward the end of

january, at this point in buddy's life, he had separated from his original bandmates, not for any reason of animosity, but mostly location, after he married he decided to stay in new york. jerry allison decided to stay closer to home here, and to work with teddy -- with patty. so buddy had to put together another band. they grew up in littlefield not too far here from lubbock, but he was a local dj in the local radio stations, he had previous studio time with tommy and it was through i believe tommy,

that they found a drummer. he was very young at the time. the cricket became span -- band that toured with buddy on the tour. a this tour, there was also up-and-coming, very vibrant young gentleman by the name of richie vallance, he was 17 at the time. j.p. richardson, who was better known to fans as the big butler, was also on the tour. weretraveled on buses that not well maintained, would break down frequently, buddy was a little fed up riding the bus. so he chartered flight for him and his family, which at that point would have been waylon jennings and tommy, so that they

could leave that night and fly to fargo. the bus would arrive the next morning and take them on to minnesota which was to be there next performance on february 3. during the course of the evening's performances, the big bopper who was suffering from the flu at the time approached waylon jennings and asked if he his seat on the and heith waylon indicated that if it was ok, with buddy, it was fine with him. place, the big bopper throughout the evening, richie persistent in his

asking tommy to trade with him his seat on the plane for the seat on the bus. tommy was persistent, he was not going to give up his place. however, at the very end of the performance, there was a coin richie,ween tommy and and richie one. wordst, some of the last which he was reported to have going to the car to go to the airport, he said he had never won anything in his life. unfortunately, after that richie, and buddy, j.p. richardson, the big bopper, and the pilot of the plane, a very young 21-year-old, took off

from the mason city airport only to crash minutes later and and i'll -- in a cornfield. passing, his body was returned here to lubbock, and on february 7 of 1959 a funeral was held for him and his family church tabernacle baptist church. it was buried in the city of lubbock cemetery. buddy's career was not very long, his influence spans decades. early 60's,o the the beatles, the stones, the hollies, if you are a beatles fan, and listen to some of their

early interviews or read some of the things in print from their writings, both, courtney and buddyennon hill homage to . they see him as he is sprayed in -- as the inspiration for the songs that they wrote not only in instrumentation but in style, in lyrical presentation, and they also do covers of many of buddy's. you music. -- most popular music. if you look back just a few years, on the anniversary of his 76 -- 75th birthday in 2011, buddy was honored on the hollywood walk of fame with the star.

wereat same year, there two music cds that were compilations of buddy's music differenterformed, songs performed by different listenwho wanted the cd, to me buddy holly, you will hear renditions of eddie's -- buddy's music performed by/, stevie isaac,kid rock, chris modest mouse, florence and the machine, people who you would not think buddy's music would have influence, but did. they wanted to honor buddy by adding their voice to his musical panel. the city was very sad at the

fact -- the center is here to keep the his musice, to keep alive, we are a primary destination here in lubbock when people come, they come to see the center. buddy has a large following of fans in places as far away as the u.k. as far away as australia. makeany of those fans visits here to lubbock to see sites around town, to come to the center, and see the artifacts of his life, to visit the cemetery, and just to talk about how important buddy's music was to them growing up or how they came to buddy's music

through their parents or grandparents. we are very excited that not only are there fans of buddy's generation that still come to visit us but other generations are now coming here to the center and learning about buddy and passing on what was important about buddy's life in music. >> even though we have -- it is centered around agriculture. one thing we have learned in this community is how agriculture grows, whether it has a good year or bad year, at

the heart of everything, it is a passion for education. in 2001 we were involved in government, we came together and saw this massive collection of agriculture artifacts, tractors, wews, harvesters, artifacts, decided they need to be on display for the public. they came together and a center.d millionsrea used to be of acres. slowly, it was converted to agriculture since it is a more profitable and full-time. and it was a break push to break out of the country into the farmland. this is the last area in the u.s. that grew cotton.

-- this was new cotton. we are going to grow from 5.5 to 5.6 million barrels in this area, where more than half of texas. we are about one fourth of the united states. cotton began in virginia, georgia, the carolinas, they were heavy and cotton. there was cotton grown in 1793, it really escalated.

,e have taken the cotton here before that, an individual separated the seed and about one pound a day was the average. then, the invention by eli whitney, to progress to 50 pounds a day. we got a time. thelater, the steam engine, final phase in the stage here, the machine that created thousands of pounds per hour.

we spent our time on efficiency and the speed of it. what is pretty neat physics winning the difference in the time periods. , it is hard to 15gine the used harvest million of barrels of cotton by hand. in transition to some of the earlier machines, first tractor, the first tractor mounting cotton harvest, trying to show the different aspects of how harvest's transitions from hand harvest to the modern machine.

one thing we are trying to show that knowsody nothing about cotton can come in and feel like they got some knowledge. we have a display case with various samples of cotton. cotton is all graded by the usda, it is an unbiased party. it is held at the same standard across the u.s.. there are for grading offices in texas, one in lubbock, 150 miles -- one in 50 miles. you are probably seven or eight in the whole nation -- there are probably seven or eight and the whole nation. there are probably eight different factors, the fibers, the color of the fibers, we get

. lot of rain and harvest cotton is graded more than any other commodity on the farm. cotton has so many factors that come into play. we have a cotton here that was grown on my farm. we show the grade and explain all of the different factors that make that great up. -- that grade up. you can end up with a lot of combinations in the different grade -- final grade. it cotton inerate after teaching agriculture in high school for 11 years, i got in andnaging the cotton small we went from a very

116,000 in 2007. growth. lot of -- butcounty i was in the county i was in, we had 34 operating gyms when i went in. today, there are six operating gyms in that county. they are much easier to run than they used to be with the modern technology. you can now pull up your phone and watch reruns and all of that. we talk about the good old days , modern-daythat

agriculture is very exciting. there is so much out there. we have seen so much improvement in cotton in the last 20 years. it is phenomenal what has happened. a lot of that happened here in lubbock, texas. >> education is key to us. that you seenk cotton crops, anywhere you go, you see dealerships, tractors, you see a lot of those things, but what we notice is a lot of pete king's still do not make -- a lot of kids do not make that connection. we help grow the clue the food that they eat the clothes that they wear.- that yarn, it is a big

deal. to me it is about the story and the people behind agriculture that make such a phenomenal instrument. those people work hard every day. they do not necessarily work 8:00 to 5:00, they work until the work is done. there are a lot of factors that under -- other industries do not deal with. on have to depend governments to make the right decisions on governing and funding to help support so you makeome out hopeful and crops and grow the crops, so you can support your family, i think some people are worried that corporate -- worried about corporate farms. sometimes it is multiple family members involved in a farming operation.

>> the heritage center really came about as a great public, public -- private partnership. for the vision to create the ranching industry, west of the mississippi, what colonial williamsburg colony. to be able to capture history and be able to tell the story of how it developed over 200 years from the spanish land all the way up to modern-day. they started off with the spanish land grant early 1700s, that is represented by lowe's carlito's that we will look at here in just a little bit. the germank to immigration and when the major grants were given out during stephen f austin's time here.

one significant amounts of immigrants came in and created different settlements throughout south texas. only come around to the jewel , that really became the frontier, but they still maintained control over everything west of the. -- of that. the structures go on and tell the story. architecture changed as the railroad came and they were able types of things that they were able to build changing over time. the ranches donated the structure and they paid it to be transported and reconstructed the way it originally would have been during that initial time. so many of the stories capture

people's imagination and attention. as much as anything, some of the dugouts, the matador, now a multi-thousand acre ranch, it is a brand and a name that is known around the world. really started out, basically, a duggan to the side of a hill with a simple frame structure in front of it. those kinds of stories really capture our visitors. of course, we talked a little bit about the four sixes ranch. we have the original four sixes thatbuilt in 1900, structure continues to capture people's imagination because of the mystique and it has become famous all across world. people really identify with that burnett, the story of

the classic example of bringing himself up by his own bootstraps. he bought 100 cattle that had four sixes ring on it -- brand on it, he created a cattle empire by becoming friends with -- who waswas a making a deal with him to be able to raise cattle in indian territory. that name has really become synonymous with the american west. that garners a lot of attention. >> when we walked through roger park, the features are 50 historic structures here at the national ranching heritage center. it started with the land grant. . this is spanish for the little corral. it was spam -- built on a spanish land grant.

it really represents the spanish influence which really generated with the originators of the the ones thatry, started ranching in mexico and texas. lowe's carlito's -- los corralitos, the spanish were the first that first brought cattle, sheep, notes, and hoses -- horses here to the new world. it helps tell the story and the spanish influence that resonates through all of ranching, because many of the words that we use our word for rope comes from spanish. ramuda, what we call our herd of

horses, all of those are spanish terms that have that significant influence on what we do on ranches even today. corralitos is an adobe structure. it was supposed to be a dwelling, a defense mechanism, and really a fort against bandits or any indian attacks. the walls are three feet thick. ports in the walls, the defenders inside were able to fire out through the rifle ports. it also had flanges on the inside of the windows so that the defender could have a wide range of fire to be able to defend the fort itself. it is a very substantial corralitos ist los

the only reproduction here at the heritage center. there was not an original .tructure our historians wanted to serve that side so we did actually reproduce as it was on its original site. this really represents a significant time. in ranching history. this was built during the time of the republican texas, and there were grants given to large blocks of german immigrants who emigrated from germany and settled significant portions of central texas.

the structure was originally built to house a family. then, in later times it was used as a general store, a way station, a post office, a lot of different things. was very common architecture that enabled the settlers to be able to take advantage of cooling wind, so it essentially was to cabins, built with a -- two cabins, roof.with a common in periods of significant heat the family would sleep in this area rather than actually sleep in the bedrooms.

cabin, we canular go ahead and walk over and see what would have been a bedroom family,adults in the there is a secondary bedroom also in one of these rooms, and then above us, are actually two the -- above that the children would have slept in. it began to bea, able to have more things, as wagon trains and freight trains came from back east. it was very important to the families to have mementos, photographs, things that reminded them of the old country or back east. very usable and

utilitarian. back in this area would have been a store room for tools, flower, corn,s, eggs.crops, milk, headquartervision of the 3 million acre x i.t. ranch which has captured the imagination around the world. this ranch was originally developersy illinois who exchanged building the capital building in austin for 3 million acres of ranch in west texas. this was one of seven division headquarters located throughout the ranch. he one of those headquarters basically operated autonomously

and reported to a corporate about 250 miles north of here. escoba isd my homea county and has a special place in my hearts. it was a headquarters it was built to be the central location, meant to be the ranch manager's headquarters. he resided with his family along with the ranch's headquarters in that division. plus, and eating room for the cowboys where they were able to come and have at least two meals a day. cowboys could fit in here at one time. inis a significant structure our history and ranch history because the x i.t. is 3 million

acres, the largest ranch under one fence in the united states. miles to fit6000 this ranch under fence -- 6000 miles of fence to fit this ranch under fence. this came together with the culmination of the railroad , the development of the windmill, and the shipping of barbed wire into this part of the world. one of the john house, my favorite stories that is represented here at the national ranching him -- heritage center. his original name was daniel webster wallace, john was born to formerly slave parents, but went to work for the man ranch, which ran the 80 brand.

he got the name 80 john because he ran that 80 brand and always with thatl the cattle brand and the name stuck with his entire life -- with him his entire life. he actually began to save his heey, he was very frugal, saved up enough money to start buying things of his own. he began to acquire -- a few acres south of here, and eventually established his own ranch. it is a great story of someone their ownand making way and establishing their own ranch. this miney built structure, it is unique. it is built in the shape of a cross. as for porches on each side. airflow and great

it is a great architectural design that really took advantage of capturing the cooler wind, protecting the house from the elements, it is a great design for this part of texas. but really, the part that enthralls me, is the story of 80 john and how he can establish his own ranch and made his own way. toward the end of his lifetime, they actually discovered oil on his land. he died a millionaire. it for his family to go on for generations, to go to to live they continued on portions of the land today. we have actually had members of the family that came back here to celebrate family reunions here at the 80 john house. we are extremely proud of that fact. the legacy of many of these ranches continue to carry on until -- and tell the story

through those family lines. we talked a lot about the cookhouse that we used to feed cowboys, this is a more modern that.n of the -- of this was used continuously up until 2010 when it was moved here to the national ranch had rich center -- heritage center. has said that the cowboys of the ranch would come here for theyfast or lunch when were working, and it was the start of the day. this is where they planned for the work that was going to be done. a lot of business was conducted in the cookhouse. this one is especially dear to me because in a former lifetime, i was able to actually dine in this cookhouse with a lot of the

cowboys and the manager was a great friend of mine. let's take a look inside the pitchfork cookhouse. inside the cookhouse was where the day's work got started. there was a hierarchy to who sat where. when i was dining at the pitchfork cookhouse the ranch manager set at the first plate and then would pass around the rest of the breakfast to everyone else. at the end of the meal, each cowboy was expected to get up, take care of their own plate, wash their own plate, bring it back, internet facedown, -- and turn it facedown back at their place. we spoke to cowboys who still remember where their place was when they were working on the pitchfork ranch. the pitchfork is another famous brand in cattle country and

ranch country, visited by presidents, heads of state, many significant historians and folks that have come to learn about pitchfork and about ranching all across the united states. toreally culminates, structure continue to be use in 2010 when it was brought here to become a part of our historical park. there are cookhouse is like this all across ranch country where cowboys come to start their day. there were certainly times when it was lonely work and the loan cowboys wouldnely come, that is part of the story. there is a strong family culture in the ranching industry. there is also a huge amount of camaraderie between the cowboy crew, and it really is true that cowboys road for the brand --

rode for the brand. a lot of that camaraderie started cookhouse is like this -- cookhouses like this. they would eat meals together for months at a time. this is where the culture developed and the values and the standards that were expected of really was set in stone and became part of what we know as cowboy culture today. the ranching is an important part of the american tapestry. it was those folks that came out that wanted to create a new life that were -- that had vision and built this new industry. it has really resonated with people all over the world. we have folks from china, germany, europe, south america,

who come who want to hear about the ranching history. it really is a time. that resonates with people all across world. >> the american windmill museum was started in 1993 by a lady who was a teacher at texas university and our executive director. this building houses over 100 windmills. we have when those hear from as a guest six foot wide, up to 25 feet wide in diameter. as we go through the museum will talk about windmills a very different sizes and shapes. the one i am standing under here, typically is what you auld see if you want to

station in the late 1800s. the steam engines could only go 15 to 30 miles before they had to stop for water. you look at our towns here in texas, 15 miles down the road, there is a little town. there was a major relationship between the railroads and the windmills. this would be typical. right around the turn-of-the-century between the 1800s and 1900s there were 600 windmill companies in the united states. only one of those is still in existence today. many have come and gone, but only one of them remained. the company started in chicago illinois in the late 1800s. at some point in the early 1900s they moved over to argentina. in argentina they make -- made the exact same when were cities of argentina.

they came back to chicago, and in the 1950's they were purchased by a texan and the land was moved to san angelo, texas, where it still is today. it is so much easier to put up a todmill for -- than it is put 20 miles of electrical line in order to pump water to ranches. this ishe reasons is still in business today, and were thinking, what can we make -- whatst to make like can we do to make life easier? what can we do to make life better? inside, there would be a grinder. you could grind your corn and wheats. also were one of the first

was to enclose the gearbox. you can see this has an oil reservoir underneath it and a big bonnet on top of it. you only had to oil your will now once a year. that is a major timestamp. this one will actually ran up until the year 2000. you can see all the different peoples equip and that it ran. this is a water pump. one of the things that probably kept it alive was they were always thinking forward.

you think about the conair woman, she had the long dress of all those petticoats. she was by herself, kids are at andol, dad is a way, he she has a windmill. she is the one who gets to roll it. imagine climbing a tower with that? no. not to mention, even dangerous. -- is a pretty special person, she does a lot of stuff for us. we need to do something to try to make her life a little easier. so they made what they called the woman's windmill. she could lower it down, lock it into place over here, and with a long broomstick from the ground. the american women museum acquired the mill, and it was actually representative of the first mill ever put up in

colonial america in 1621. that mill was brought over by an english knight who came to the americas to claim his plantation. at this point in time, they measured land but the number of people it would support. so he claims 100. he climbed a pretty good chunk of land coming because you're thinking the people, the animals, the crops for 100 people. that is a pretty good chunk of land. he ended up marrying a lady who was already here. he named his plantation the hundred.w it is different from a dutch mill. the milk is all the way to the ground. with the post mill, the house sits on a post, and the entire house turns around to be able to go into the wind. at the same time we acquired --

the original mill stood until the civil war and was burned down during the civil war. 1976 atl was built in approximately the same point of the river where the original one was. it remained in the family all those years. itut five years ago, came down to five kids and they could not agree on what was going on, so they were going to destroy it. there was a woman who lived here -- abbock who was a dozen direct descendent, so she lobbied for them to give it to us. and they did. the hiring of an english millwright to put it back together, we were able to put it on the property here. when be acquired it, we also stones.they grist were used for all sorts of things. there were times they did not have the way to grind anything. you go to the early indians who would use the pounding stone or

the mortar and pestle, an easy way to grant stuff. but they had an original grist stone that could be as much as 5'6". it would grind the wheels. a lot of your early people had that teeth -- had bad teeth because they might be eating some of the stones when eating their bread. this leans toward the electrical producing windmills. a lot of people don't realize that the electric producing windmills date back to the 1920's. this one right here was produced in lubbock, texas. director, mr. harris, owned the company that made it. well come on and go through its paces so you can actually howhow they come out and the blades catch in order to get the seeds.

is theas we know, this only working one in existence. and we also have a vertical axis es. two of them have motors on them. the zenith was given to us by a young man who had it on his house when he was a kid. and he told us the story of it being the last day of the world series, and he and his brother had been doing their chores, and low and behold mom had used every battery in the house. therefore, there was no electricity to run the radio for them to listen to the world series. so they took turns climbing up on the roof and turning the rotors fast enough to get the radio going so they could each here part of the game. and they switched out every inning. for the next week, they had all kinds of stuff to talk about. >> we would hope when people come to the museum that they come away with a better understanding of the importance of the windmill as far as people

being able to settle in north america. in this part of the country specifically, people could not live without a windmill. they wouldpe that >> teaches classes on the vietnam war. in vietnam,o tours and he wanted to try to educate the suit of audie about what vietnam was about. they went to the library, they had almost no books on vietnam

at the time. and he went to his other chair and asked if they had any financial support. i think he said it it was eligible for $300. he got together with a group of local veterans, and asked them if they would be willing to support creation of some kind of -- graduatehat level, but mostly undergraduate, and collect and start this massive project to make sure we aboutucating our students their history. from that humble beginning, we have the largest archive of vietnam war materials outside of the national archives. while we focus a lot on the veterans themselves, we also have a much wider range of philosophy regarding this project, regarding the vietnam war, and who we invite to participate. history military projects might focus on the american veteran experience, jim's experiences serving with the south vietnamese navy

encouraged him to broaden that early on. we started to invite vietnamese participants. and we started to get materials from vietnamese americans living and the state of texas in around the country, and broadened to include other participant basins. -- participant nations. we start to work with cambodia, laos, china, russia, france, great britain. all the nations who were somehow involved in the vietnam war, we started to reach out to them but to also 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 the different participant nations. all 50 states are involved, and i think it is about 12 countries. the staff of the archive was very effective in pulling together a wide range of materials that represent the different experiences of veterans.

in particular, we are looking at the materials from american veterans who served in vietnam. typically, we associate that service with what men experienced, because men were doing the predominant amount of funding, but there were a lot of women who served in vietnam as well. within that group of veterans, the female veterans of the war, a lot of people would typically associate experiences with butous -- with nurses, women were associated in many aspects of the war, administration, the doughnut dollies who were red cross volunteers, we have a uniform from one of them right there. and engaged in a wide range of other missions that helped to support the 500,000 men and women who were serving throughout vietnam. in addition to that, we have got a lot of different types of equipment that veterans with , the things they carried.

the radios, the helmet veterans would wear, the steel pot that would protect them from shrapnel. but also, this is not in national -- an actual and 16, 8 this is a dummy and 16. i wanted to highlight the specifics of this, because this is one of the highest -- latest versions. it has the three triangle are prongs.- triangular it would get caught on foliage and lines. they had to -- foliage and vines. they had to modify it to make it a more useful weapon and an easier weapon to utilize. theall kinds of material, wide range ofthe materials that represent the overall experience. and a poncho underneath.

when you think about the heat and humidity and wrapping this would plastic be an ineffective way to deal with the ring, because you would continuing with the , weran expense of the war have a tremendous set of veterans letters. this set, this is a special collection for us because it is the first set of materials we received. they were donated by a navy corpsmen who served during the vietnam war, and these are the letters he wrote home to his mom. and his dad, too. my predecessor was always very fond of saying how much we

appreciated mothers, because they collected these materials and kept them and cherished them, because they never knew if this was the last thing they would receive from their son or husband or father fighting in vietnam. one of the letters here at the very top, this is dated the 23rd of may, 1967. as i mentioned, this is a navy onrpsmen who served in case . , dear mom starts off and dad, here i am in vietnam, withh what 360 -- still 360 days more to go. i think that opening sentence puts this veteran's experience into perspective, but highlights so much of what american experienced there. once they arrived, there was a countdown. how much time do i have left in vietnam? and they would keep calendars

and keep track and take it off -- tick it off. for them, it was a one-year war. 365 days and they get to go home to the world. even as early as five days in, he is chronicling that for his parents. we started working a lot with veterans and veterans associations and going to reunions and engaging veterans in our mission to collect and preserve this history. as we started doing that, the associations themselves started to become very heavily invested in making sure we were working closely with them to preserve their legacy during the war, and that includes groups like the helicopter pilots association . a lot of different unions involved in all types of activities. and another one of those was dasp. department of the army special ops.graphic

they went throughout the country, and were attached to the department of defense. they reported to the pentagon and had carte blanche to film everything they could. they had incredible equipment you see here, the film cameras, the still cameras, and their equipment they used to chronicle the official history of the the department of defense site. they donated the equipment, photographs and film. mostly 16mm film, and some of that was soundtrack. it is an incredible set of historical materials. interesting from the standpoint of we have these guys who would jump on helicopters or run out intake video footage. there was very little restriction on what they could or could not shoot. it was an open book of the film and photograph history of the war from the pentagon side. everything they did went act to

washington. and 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 film they could use in the production of news and inkling that. -- and things like that. the awesome thing is what was sent back to washington in the national archives. it is part of the available history of the vietnam war. daspok closely with the guys, and i am not aware of any censorship of anything disappearing or that the government did not want to become part of the public record. it allerstanding is became part of the national archives, and all of that is accessible now. i think from the standpoint of contemporary americans, especially younger americans today, this is some of the rich the turtle that helped put perspective -- what was it like

to be a participate -- a participant in this, but to chronicle what was going on in the ground? we have these nice little phones. act in the 60's, when these guys were carrying the savvy steel watchingthey were "star trek." and they have these handheld communicators, and that is where we are now. carrying the handheld communicators that also take video and audio and do all this other incredible stuff. back then, it was only science-fiction. they had to carry this heavy equipment with them so they could take those pictures and videos and they sure we could have this visual representation of the war that we can still learn from. ofis a national kind proclivity for people to look at something through their own ones with their own experience.

done inof what we have terms of studying the vietnam war has been focused on how we experienced it as a nation and a people, as americans. but that is such a small fraction of the overall experience. to look at it from the 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 alike. by preserving this material, we are gaining insight into what were the vietnamese people thinking? what were their motivations? what were the things that were driving them to continue the struggle and this fight? vietnamese, -- the south vietnamese, our allies, who fought to try to protect their country as they perceived it, south vietnam, and also the north vietnamese in the communists in the south, the national liberation front. this was a war that was hard-fought by different groups who were all fighting in some

ways, in some instances, for very different reasons. on this table, we are looking at the vietnamese side. that side is a very complex situation where we have our allies, the south vietnamese, the vietnamese government, the republic of vietnam, and we have the congressional record of the federal register of the republic of the amount. that was -- those were the documents they kept throughout the entirety of their existence. that is as long as the republic of vietnam existed. we have a near complete set of those documents. that it ise set in made of newsprint. you can see the edges of the people are -- the edges of the paper are yellowing and brittle, because they were not necessarily meant to be kept for a long period of time.

for generally, there was a gentleman working in the embassy in paris, france. and he collected everything he could and he kept it. at the end of the war, 1975 when saigon fell and they closed down the vietnamese embassy, he took all these documents and put them in a garage and kept them. and coordinating with one of our vietnamese-american supporters, former south vietnamese ambassador to the united states, he met with the sky and said, you should donate that stuff you have in the garage to the the animal -- to the vietnam center. we have the only set of the federal congressional record for the republic of vietnam in the world. it is a set we are very careful what because it is falling apart, and we will have to digitize that very soon to make sure it is preserved and accessible. we also have newspapers from saigon daily, the news, and other vietnamese language publications.

to chronicle the experience of our south vietnamese allies in the republic of vietnam. they lost so much as a result of that war. they lost their homes, their families, they lost their businesses. when saigon fell in 1975, we have used that as a tragic loss because we were fighting to preserve south vietnam against communism, but the south vietnamese people lost. it's just incredible by comparison. it is very important to work with them as much as possible to preserve their history and their documents. in addition to that, we have materials from the communist side of the war, the north vietnamese and the national liberation front, the viet cong. it is interesting when you compare and contrast the equivalent they used to what we had. their helmet was wicker versus the steel of the american helmet.

lighter weights, great for camouflage, but will not protect from very much. we also have the ho chi minh sandals, which everyone has heard of, made from tires, very cheap and effective. canteens and other equipment. but also some of their publications as well. one of the really interesting things about the viet cong publications is sometimes they had to do it in the field. production value is not very high, but it is effective. they have interesting artwork that represents the communist side of the war. and also we have an incredible microfilm set of captured enemy documents, and that includes the 2.7 million pages of captured materials from the war that we have digitized and added to our virtua;l archive so researchers can access that anywhere. we want to make sure we are preserving and providing access to the vietnamese side of the war, both our allies in south

vietnam as well as our former enemies in north vietnam and the south with the viet cong. in addition to the archival -- and one of the great things about these documents is they provide us with insights into the news and information that most soldiers were getting during the war itself. they typically did not have access to the new york times and the washington post, or the news general publications. those things did circulate, but a lot of the time, they would

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

experiences, so much about the vietnam war is not just about the 365 days they spent there, but perhaps more importantly for some the 50 years since then. they have been dealing with it, trying to overcome the different cap -- challenges and hardships they have had as a result. we have newsletters and magazines from veterans associations that talk about their different activities, whether they be just generic reunion activities or philanthropic programs they start. building schools and libraries and orphanages, things like that, in vietnam to help contribute to that country where they fought so many years ago and give back something and hopefully have a catharsis as a result of that. wide range of materials by chronicle all those types of experience is from the war itself to the present day.

when we started to reach out to veterans and invite them to participate, quite a few of them -- here we are, an american university, and their were -- when i came home from vietnam, you guys didn't want us around, did welcome us home. university campuses with a hotbed of antiwar activity. their immediate reaction was one of skepticism and mistrust, because of their wartime experiences with college campuses. once we were able to bridge that gap where we emphasized the fact that we had a lot of local veterans support for the project to get it underway, founded by a vietnam veteran who served for us had a, and most of sympathetic approach to military history than they thought most academics with half. -- what have.

-- would have. we also started to break down those barriers, the mistrust they had from the wartime for universities, and we started to build on that, interviewing veterans, and doing so with spect and honor. so much is made of some of the more tragic events of the war, and so much attention is given to things like the massacre at mailai. it is a necessary part of the history that we need to remember, to focus and study on it. some of the veterans are painted with the same brush and they feel we only focus on the negatives, we don't focus on the positives. i think our project has been a much better balance of making sure we are not just looking at the negative aspects. you cannot look at war without looking at the negative aspects, but there are some positive things. there are men and women serving their nation with spect and honor and dignity.

they are doing the best they can. most veterans who visit us and get to know us realize we do in that their service way. it is a place of honor and respect, with an understanding that bad things happened, but people who were involved in large part were not doing bad things. they were doing what they thought was honorable and right. of all that, we established such an incredible set of materials that it is time for us now not just to provide online access, but to build a building where people can come and see these materials for themselves. we have been housed in this building for about 20 years, just over 20 years. we are now working with the university leadership through also a substantial grant from an anonymous donor, and what we have done is hired a development officer and are raising money so

we can build a vietnam center archive here at texas tech university. you see from the different types of materials we have, this is a very small sample, we have a museum waiting to be filled with veteran collections and materials. workingo excited to be with our university leadership and hopefully our state and local government, and perhaps federal support as well along the way, that we can build this world class museums of veterans and their families have a place where they can learn about the work, remember about the war, contribute their history so we can continue to educate our country about this incredible part of american history. and our ultimate goal would be to pursue designations at the museum of the vietnam war. we have almost 30 years of a track record, preserving materials in providing this incredible forum where people

come and learn about this more. texas tech, the state of texas, this is the right place for it. our visit to lubbock, texas is an american history to be exclusive, and we showed it to you today to introduce you to c-span 's citiers tour. you can watch more of our visits at c-span.org/citiestour. announcer: c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, national farmers union president discusses the impact the trump administration's tariffs are having on american farmers. and then a senior research fellow talks about ongoing trade disputes and the impact of tariffs. also, ben austin, a contributor for the new republic on

innovative approaches to policing. be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal "q&," join e discussion. this weekend on oral histories, the first of our eight part series on women in congress. sunday at 10:00 eastern, a former congresswoman. >> it also made me a fighter and made me -- i was forced to be tougher. isn't that the secret. at least it was back then. being underestimated is a good thing because you can add the element of surprise. i remember a lot of my debates were people were not taking me seriously until it was too late. i think the same thing happens when you are negotiating. announcer: we will hear from pat schroeder, sue myrick, eva

clayton, helen bentley, barbara tonelli, nancy johnson, and lynn woolsey. watch oral histories sunday at 10:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span3. and on newsmakers, ben cardin. at the ninth circuit trajectory anthonyial, justice kennedy talked about his decision to retire from the supreme court, effective at the end of the month. this is 40 minutes. >> thank you all very much. what a great privilege it is for all of us to be here