Category: Files, Documents and archives
Anthony J. Russo, who helped Daniel Ellsberg leak Vietnam-era Pentagon papers, dies
Anthony J. Russo, a shaggy-haired, countercultural, unemployed policy nerd when he teamed up with Daniel Ellsberg, a more button-downed antiwar figure, to leak the gigantic top-secret government history of the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers, died aged 71. Russo was called the "Xerox aide" because of his role in finding a copying machine and working long nights to copy the 7,000-page study. It was Russo's words, after weeks of conversations, that had initiated the enterprise: "Let's do it!" he said, according to Ellsberg's book "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers."
by nytimes.com :: 2008-08-12 :: Files, Documents and archives
Website offers Vietnam War records online
The National Archives is linking up with a Web site to make historical records of deceased Vietnam War veterans available online. Footnote.com is an online re-creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. The site allows access to casualty records and agency photos. People can search by name, hometown, birthdate, tour date, or dozens of other categories. Such information now is typically found only at National Archives locations, and by browsing through files organized by topic. That makes searches a hit-or-miss proposition with long odds of finding relevant information.
by google :: 2008-03-29 :: Files, Documents and archives
US faked attacks to escalate the war, Vietcong made hoax calls
North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own formations during the Vietnam War. Declassified files also confirmed that US falsified an incident to escalate the war. The report was released by the NSA, responsible for the US' codebreaking, in answer to a "mandatory declassification" request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said. From the first intercepted cable (a 1945 message from Ho Chi Minh to Joseph Stalin) to the evacuation of US spies from Saigon, the 500-page report retold Vietnam War history. North Vietnamese units in certain cases succeeded in penetrating US codes, and they could monitor US message traffic.
by afp :: 2008-01-12 :: Secrets
Formerly-Secret NSA Document Rewrites Vietnam War History
Did the NSA lose a treasure trove of top-secret cryptographic equipment to the North at the end of the Vietnam war? Journalist and NSA expert James Bamford has said so. But in 2002, NSA historians refuted that in an internal essay. Of course, this being NSA, the rebuttal was classified. Now that essay, SIGINT and the Fall of Saigon, April 1975, has been mostly declassified. Here's the NSA's side of the story, formerly classified Secret, meaning disclosure would cause harm to U.S. national security.
by wired :: 2007-05-03 :: Files, Documents and archives
Once-secret records confirm reports of killings and torture
The men of B Company were in a dangerous state of mind. They had lost five men in a firefight the day before. The morning of Feb. 8, 1968, brought orders to resume their sweep. They met no resistance as they entered a settlement in Quang Nam province. So Jamie Henry set his rifle down in a hut. Just then, a lieutenant's voice crackled across the radio. He had rounded up 19 civilians and wanted to know what to do with them. Henry recalled the company commander's response: "Kill anything that moves." Henry stepped outside and saw a crowd of women and children. Then the shooting began. Moments later, the 19 villagers lay dead or dying.
by latimes :: 2006-08-08 :: Death & Horror
Vietnam vet launches website for memories of Military Service
Bill Janes, a two tour combat veteran of the Vietnam War has begun a project to reach out to Veterans. The SoldierWorks website is a place to contribute to an archive of memories of military service. Like many past and present U.S. soldiers, Bill has a story to tell, but wants to tell the story of every soldier that served America in all its conflicts. First was the website for the 191st Assault Helicopter Company, the unit that he served with as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. Feeling a debt to his fellow Vietnam soldiers, he next started the website for all that served in Vietnam. Then his vision turned toward American vets of all wars.
by prweb :: 2006-06-12 :: Files, Documents and archives
Center archive yields clues to missing Vietnam War soldiers
Article no longer available from the original source.
The trail to finding soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War is beginning. An Internet archive of decades-old documents has provided Defense Department researchers dozens of leads in the cases of 1,805 American soldiers who never returned. The growing online collection, launched in 2004, has uncovered 41 leads from the archive. And many more new clues are likely on the way: of the 2.3 million documents the center purchased from the National Archives, only about 5% is online so far. After long being out of sight, North Vietnamese intelligence documents have been featured on the center's Virtual Vietnam Archive.
by kristv :: 2006-05-26 :: Remains: Lost servicemen, MIAs