Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive

News and Updates

Author: Justin Saffell

  • 2010 Conference Videos Now Available Online

    Session videos from the 2010 Vietnam Center Conference “Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost: Counterinsurgency from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan” are now available online on the Conference Sessions Videos page and in the Virtual Vietnam Archive.

    TTU President Guy Bailey opens the VNCA 2010 Conference

    This conference was held on March 4th-5th at the SAIS Kenney Auditorium in Washington, DC, and was co-hosted by the Vietnam Center and Archive, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, and the Center for a New America Security. Sessions included panels on Strategic Policy for Civil-Military Operations in Vietnam; Strategy and Tactics from CMO Operations in Vietnam; the Vietnam Experience; and Counterinsurgency Operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Still photographs of the conference are also available on the Vietnam Center and Archive’s Facebook page.

  • Vietnam Center and Archive Closed – Friday, January 29th, 2010

    The Vietnam Center and Archive and Texas Tech University are closed today, January 29th, due to snow. We will reopen on Monday, February 1st.  The research room will also be closed on Saturday the 30th.

  • New Look for the Vietnam Center and Archive Website

    The Vietnam Center and Archive website has a new look.  The new version of our website features our new logo (designed by Misty Pollard of Texas Tech University’s Creative Services), colors inspired by the Texas Tech University Identity Guidelines, and numerous images from our archival collections.  In an effort to improve usablility of our site, we have added some new pages (such as online exhibits, subject guides, follow the VNCA, and information for researching onsite or online, among others), and reorganized some existing pages and locations.  Many of our most popular sections of the site, including the Virtual Archive and the Oral History Project, have the same URLs as before.  If you are unable to find the page you are looking for, try our Site Map.

    (If you are a regular visitor to our website, the first time you visit the site, pages may look a little odd.  If this happens, it is because your browser is attempting to load an old stylesheet.  To correct this, hit the reload button in your browser, or hit F5 on your keyboard)

    If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at any time.

  • 20th Anniversary Ball Videos

    Video of the Vietnam Center & Archive’s 20th Anniversary Ball are now available on our website. The videos are divided into two parts: Part one includes the keynote address of Mr. H. Ross Perot, Sr.; The second part includes tributes to the founder of the Vietnam Center & Archive, Dr. James Reckner, buy numerous people, including Mayor Tom Martin, Representative Carl Issett, and Congressman Randy Neugebauer. Both parts include a low quality version of dial-up connections, and a higher quality for faster internet connections.

    Photographs from the event are also available on our Facebook page.

    20th Anniversary Ball Videos

  • Follow us on Facebook

    The Vietnam Center and Archive is now on Facebook. Become a fan and keep up with the latest happenings at the Center and Archive, find out about upcoming events, see pictures from past events, make comments, and connect with other Vietnam Center and Archive supporters.

    To become a fan, you first need to have your own Facebook page. The go to the Vietnam Center and Archive Facebook page and click Become a Fan.

  • 2009 Conference Videos Available Online

    Session videos from the Vietnam Center’s 2009 Conference “Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia and the Vietnam War” are now available online on the Conference Videos Page and in the Virtual Vietnam Archive.

  • Possible Email Problems

    We have been informed that the Texas Tech University email servers (through which all email communication with the Vietnam Center & Archive and our staff pass through) have been experiencing problems with improperly blocking some email messages sent from outside the University system. When this occurs, senders are often not notified that their messages were blocked. TTU telecommunications staff are working on fixing the problem.

    If you send a message to one of our departmental or staff email addresses and do not receive a response within a few days, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone (806-742-9010) to ensure that we received your email message.

    We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

  • 2009 Conference Photographs

    Still photos from the Vietnam Center’s 2009 Conference “Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and the Vietnam War” are now available online. Videos of the conference sessions are currently being digitized, and we anticipate (but don’t guarentee) that they will be available online around the end of April. At that time, we will place notices in this blog and on our website.

  • New Agent Orange Subject Guide

    To assist researchers studying the topic of agent orange during and after the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Center and Archive has produced a new subject guide highlighting agent orange related resources in both our digital and physical collections. The subject guide is divided by media type and subcategory, and includes links to the digital objects when available. This is the first in a series of subject guides that we will produce over the next year.

    Agent Orange Subject Guide – http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamarchive/resources/agentorange/index.php

  • Come celebrate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, January 26th, 2009

    The Vietnam Center cordially invites you join us as we celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, on Monday, January 26, 2009. This event will take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Formby Room of the Southwest Collections/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University. Please come sample Vietnamese cuisine and learn more about the rich heritage and culture that makes Vietnam so remarkable.

    January 26th, 2009, ushers in the Lunar Year of the Ox. In Vietnam, one of 12 animals of the zodiac represents each year. The ox represents prosperity through fortitude and hard work. It is said people born in the year of the ox are patient and inspire confidence in others, but they can also have fierce tempers and tend to be eccentric.

    The Vietnamese people regard Tet as their most important holiday and prepare for it by cooking special holiday foods like Banh Chung, which consists of sticky rice with meat or bean filling wrapped tightly in banana leaves. Food preparation for Tet is very time consuming and often requires days of cooking and, prior to the celebrations, people clean, paint, and decorate their homes. People avoid cleaning during Tet so that good luck will not be “swept away.”

    We hope you will be able to join us on January 26th, 2009, as we celebrate this special event! For more information, please see our website or contact the Vietnam Center at 742-9010.