Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive

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  • The Guest Lecture Series Presents Dr. Raymond Scurfield

    The Vietnam Center and Archive is proud to present Dr. Raymond Scurfield on Thursday, April 19th at 7:00pm in the Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech University School of Law.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

    A former professor of social work at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, Scurfield is an expert in PTSD. He served as an Army officer on a psychiatric team in Vietnam from 1968-69, and has spent three decades working with hundreds of combat veterans of the Vietnam War and other conflicts. Scurfield is the author of numerous books and articles on the effects of PTSD.

    The mission of the Vietnam Center and Archive Guest Lecture Series is to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of students, faculty, and the community at large by bringing distinguished individuals to campus for presentations on specific aspects of the Vietnam War, its lasting impact on American politics, society and culture, and on contemporary issues in Southeast Asia.

    This lecture series is funded in part by a generous grant from the Helen Jones Foundation.  For more information on the 2012 VNCA Guest Lecture Series see http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS, or contact Mary Saffell at 806-742-9010 or mary.saffell@ttu.edu.

  • New Option on the Virtual Vietnam Archive Advanced Search Page

    We have added a new feature onto the Advanced Search Page of the Virtual Vietnam Archive: the ability to exclude the full text of documents from keyword searches.  A new checkbox labeled “Search Full Text?” has been added next to the “Keyword/Item #” search fields.  This field is selected by default, meaning that full text will be included in the search.  To exclude the full text, deselect the checkbox.  For many searches, this will result in significantly fewer hits.

    If you have any questions or comments about this or any other feature of the Virtual Vietnam Archive, please feel free to contact us at vawebmaster@ttu.edu.

  • The 4th Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Film Festival

    The Vietnam Center and Archive is proud to announce the films for the 4th Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) Film Festival, co-sponsored by the Texas Tech University Libraries:

    The Scent of Green Papaya:
    Monday, April 9th     – 7:30pm
    Tuesday, April 17th – 3:30pm
    Set in Vietnam in the 1950s-60s, the film follows Mui as she leaves the rich household where she had served as a child to work in the home of a classical pianist. Mui finds beauty in the smallest things.

    Sita Sings the Blues:
    Monday, April 9th     – 3:30pm
    Tuesday, April 17th – 7:30pm
    An animated retelling of the Hindu legend Ramayana, paralleled with events in the film’s creator’s real life in San Francisco, this film features a variety of animation techniques and musical styles.

    Indochine:
    Tuesday, April 10th     – 7:30pm
    Monday, April 16th – 3:30pm
    Set in the turmoil of the French Indochina War in Vietnam, Indochine follows a French rubber plantation owner, an Annam Princess, and the French Naval Officer they are both in love with.

    Thanh’s War:
    Tuesday, April 10th     – 3:30pm
    Monday, April 16th – 7:30pm
    At age 12, Pham Thanh was severely wounded by a US grenade that also killed his family.  Now an American citizen, Thanh tries to balance his Vietnamese and American identity and heritage.

    All films will be presented in the Formby Room of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.  Admission is free and open to the public.

    For more information see www.vietnam.ttu.edu/2012filmfestival

  • 2012 Conference Announcement

    With regret, attendance at this year’s conference workshop will be by invitation only.  We realize this is a significant departure form our past events, but the purpose and focus of this workshop, as well as much more limited space and time, require us to develop a more limited forum.  The conference in 2013 (that will result from this workshop) will be hosted in Washington, DC, and will be open to public attendance.  As soon as we have firm dates and the location for that event, we will post information at this website as well as send out notifications via our newsletter and email notification system.

    We regret any inconvenience this might cause.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Steve Maxner, director, Vietnam Center and Archive, at 806-742-3742 or via email at steve.maxner@ttu.edu.  Thank you.

  • VNCA Oral History Interviews on C-SPAN 3

    As part of their American History TV Oral Histories series, C-SPAN3 will be airing a number of interviews conducted and filmed at the Pleiku-Ia Drang Veterans 40th Anniversary Commemoration held in Washington, DC, in November 2005.  The first interview in the series to be aired will be Part One of the interview with Lt. General Hal Moore, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment during the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965, and co-author of We Were Soldiers Once…And Young.

    The interview will air on C-SPAN3 at 8am (ET) on Saturday, March 3rd, and again at 3pm (ET) on Sunday, March 4th, as well as at 4am (ET) on Monday, March 5th.  Part Two of the General Hal More interview will air the following weekend at 9am (ET) on Saturday, March 10th.  More interviews from the Commemoration will air over the next few months.  For a complete schedule see http://www.c-span.org/history/.  The interviews will also be available on the C-Span American History TV website after they air.

  • Reminder: General Tom Draude This Thursday

    Brigadier General Tom Draude will speak this week as part of our 2012 Guest Lecture Series.  The lecture will be held on Thursday, March 1st at 7:00pm in the Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech School of Law.  Admission is free and open to the public.

    The mission of the Vietnam Center and Archive Guest Lecture Series is to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of students, faculty, and the community at large by bringing distinguished individuals to campus for presentations on specific aspects of the Vietnam War, its lasting impact on American politics, society and culture, and on contemporary issues in Southeast Asia.

    This lecture series is funded in part by a generous grant from the Helen Jones Foundation.  For more information on the 2012 VNCA Guest Lecture Series or about Dr. Sorley see http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS.

  • Sorley Lecture Available Online

    Dr. Bob Sorley’s lecture as part of the 2012 Guest Lecture Series is now available online at http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=999VI3193.

    The next speaker in the series is Brigadier General Tom Draude on March 1st at 7:00pm in the Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech School of Law.  For more information on the lecture series see our website at www.vietnam.ttu.edu/gls.

  • The Guest Lecture Series Presents Brigadier General Tom Draude

    The Vietnam Center and Archive is proud to present Brigadier General Tom Draude on Thursday, March 1st at 7:00pm in the Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech University School of Law.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

    Currently President and Chief Executive Office of the Marine Corps University Foundation, General Draude served for over 30 years in the US Marine Corps, including three tours in Vietnam. He later commanded Marine Security Guards in Europe, the Fifth Marine Regiment, and served as the Assistant Division Commander of the First Marine Division during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He received two Distinguished Service Medals and ten personal awards for combat, including two Silver Stars and the Purple Heart.

    The mission of the Vietnam Center and Archive Guest Lecture Series is to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of students, faculty, and the community at large by bringing distinguished individuals to campus for presentations on specific aspects of the Vietnam War, its lasting impact on American politics, society and culture, and on contemporary issues in Southeast Asia.

    This lecture series is funded in part by a generous grant from the Helen Jones Foundation.  For more information on the 2012 VNCA Guest Lecture Series see http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS, or contact Mary Saffell at 806-742-9010 or mary.saffell@ttu.edu.

  • Vietnam Center and Archive Closed Until Noon

    Due to snow and icy conditions, the Vietnam Center and Archive will not open until noon today, February 13th.

  • Vietnam Center and Archive Receives Three Year Grant to Digitize FVPPA Files

    The Vietnam Center and Archive has received a three year, $144,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to digitize the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) files of the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association Collection (FVPPA).  This collection of approximately 250,000 pages is comprised of the records of more than 10,000 Vietnamese applying to immigrate to the United States following the end of the Vietnam War.  Many of the applicants were former re-education camp detainees.

    The FVPPA collection, brought to the Archive in 2005 by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, is one of the largest and most significant collections available to researchers studying the Vietnamese American immigration experience.  The ODP files, according to Associate Director Mary Saffell are  “as important to the study of Vietnamese Americans as the Ellis Island records are to the families of immigrants from the early 20th century.”

    It is expected that digitization, which will begin in February, will take three years to complete.  As the items are digitized, they will be added to the Virtual Vietnam Archive.  You can also follow the progress of the project and see recently digitized files from the collection at http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vahp/digitization.php.

    This is the second grant the Center has received from the NHPRC for this collection, including funding received in 2008 to originally process the collection.