Rand interviews at UCB library content and context
"Marc J. Gilbert" <mgilbert@hpu.edu>
date Feb 8, 2007 6:48 PM
subject RE: [Vsg] Rand interviews at UCB library content and context
Summaries of the reports are in the Rand Reports collections (in printed hard copy at Georgia Tech and UCLA’s Young Library—once known as the University Research Library (the only two initial authorized repositories).
If memory serves, a Rand VP, whose name escapes me, was not satisfied with the tenor of these interviews, as they suggested that chieu hoi were simply exhausted or not very good soldiers in their own opinion and had not defected because of ideological concerns as much as he perceived Rand's client--USG—might have wished. He urged the Saigon office to do something about this, but I doubt he had much effect. The summaries as they are written are not very encouraging from a US perspective; at least that is my reading of them. Of course, David and Mai Elliot would know chapter and verse about this. A serious student of the interviews would best begin with them.
By the way, a couple of years ago I asked Dan Ellsberg if the Rand product on Vi?t Nam had any impact on the DOD where he served under McNaughton. He said that the DoD felt good about itself sounding out intellectuals on the other coast, but valorized that feeling much more than it ever paid attention to the reports.
So, drawing on Ellsberg’s opinion, these interviews may have the sterling advantage of telling us more about Vietnamese history than U.S. policy; that is, if they are accurate renderings and the responses are analyzed with proper attention paid to the circumstances of the interviews, etc.: one tends to easily see what one most wants to see.
There is a growing scholarship on Rand and Indochina. For an overview, there is "Next Stop--Silicon Valley: The Cold War, Vietnam, and the Making of the California Economy," in Marcia Eyman and Charles Wollenberg, What's Going On? California and the Vietnam Era (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), a work that has at least two chapters of general interest to VSG members: "Memorializing Vietnam: Transfiguring the Living Pasts" by Khuyen Vu Nguyen and an enjoyable think piece by Andrew Lam, "Vietnamese Diaspora and California." (Amazon is selling copies from $2.90!)
Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
date Feb 8, 2007 3:41 PM
subject [Vsg] Rand interviews at UCB library
I have just catalogued for our library a multi-volume work: Studies of the
National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam. These are Rand interviews
conducted in 1965-66 with NLF POWs, refugees and suspects. What we have
here were assembled and privately bound at the U.S. embassy in Saigon
under the supervision (I believe) of the late Douglas Pike. Overall, we
have 51 volumes, most of them AG series, divided into the following
categories: G and AG series (38 volumes): interviews with NLF and PAVN
ralliers, villagers and refugees, their reasons for joining and life
within the NLF areas and DRV; AGR series (3 volumes): interviews with
refugees from NLF-controlled areas of South Vietnam; DT series (9
volumes): interviews with prisoners, refugees and villagers in Dinh Tuong
province; H series (only one volume): Interviews with villagers on their
impressions of use of herbicides. We also have one volume titled "Special
interviews".
Most of these volumes will hopefully be on the main library shelves by
next week, although for library use only. Some will have to be sent to the
bindery first, including two that apparently have shrapnel holes in them
from the 1968 Tet Offensive raid on the U.S. embassy (or so I was told by
Mr. Pike).
In checking OCLC, an international library cataloging database, I found
the interviews in microfilm listed at some libraries, such as Cornell.
Rand published a guide to these interviews, which is now online at:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R1024/ by W. Phillips Davison, originally
published by Rand in 1972. From reading this guide it is clear that what
we have by no means comprises all the interviews, but a good chunk of
them, about 8 feet in bookshelf length, each volume 27 cm. high. The
interviews are mostly typescript, mostly printed on one side of the paper
only.
These interviews, donated to the UC Berkeley library by the Indochina
Center (or Indochina Archive as formerly known) should be highly valuable
for researchers.
The library call number for this multi-volume work will be DS557.A6 R36
1965
- Steve Denney
UC Berkeley library
Dan Tsang <dtsang@lib.uci.edu>
date Feb 8, 2007 4:22 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Rand interviews at UCB library
UC Irvine's Southeast Asian Archive has some manuscript material relating
to the Rand interviews. Joe Carrier worked for Rand at the time.
The materials are housed in the UC Irvine Libraries' Department of Special
Collections and Archives
A finding aid to his collection is here online:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf358005ct
Descriptive Summary
Title:
Joseph M. Carrier collection on the Chieu Hoi Program and Vietnamese
Conflict, 1958-1992 (bulk 1960-1967)
Collection number:
MS-SEA 001
Collector:
Carrier, Joseph M.
Extent:
10.4 linear feet (26 boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library.Special Collections and
Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract:
This collection contains interview transcripts, published and unpublished
reports, research notes, working papers, maps, clippings, correspondence,
memoranda, and statistical data gathered by Joseph M. Carrier primarily
while he was employed as a Rand Corporation counterinsurgency specialist
with the Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. The bulk of the materials pertains
to the Chieu Hoi Program, which was operated by the Republic of Vietnam
from 1963 to 1973 to encourage civilian and military defections from the
communist-controlled South. The collection contains materials documenting
the administration of the Chieu Hoi program in addition to transcripts of
interviews conducted with defectors (or "ralliers"), prisoners of war, and
refugees. English and Vietnamese interview notes, translated Viet Minh (or
"Viet Cong") documents, and preliminary interrogation reports are also
included. The collection also contains administrative materials produced
by the Rand Corporation, the United States government, Republic of Vietnam
government, the National Academy of Sciences, and other agencies
documenting such topics as Viet Cong and U.S. military activities;
counterinsurgency movements; the use of herbicides and their toxicological
and environmental effects; and Vietnamese socio-economic conditions,
social history, politics, and demographics. A small group of files contain
Carrier's research materials for the San Francisco Center for Southeast
Asian Refugee Resettlement's 1991 study of AIDS knowledge, attitudes,
beliefs and behaviors in San Francisco Southeast Asian communities. The
majority of materials are in English. Some materials are in Vietnamese.
Language:
English.
Vietnamese
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection contains interview transcripts, published and unpublished
reports, research notes, working papers, maps, clippings, correspondence,
memoranda, and statistical data gathered by Joseph M. Carrier primarily
while he was employed as a Rand Corporation counterinsurgency specialist
with the Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. The bulk of the materials pertains
to the Chieu Hoi Program, which was operated by the Republic of Vietnam
from 1963 to 1973 to encourage civilian and military defections from the
communist-controlled South. The collection contains materials documenting
the administration of the Chieu Hoi program in addition to transcripts of
interviews conducted with defectors (or "ralliers"), prisoners of war, and
refugees. English and Vietnamese interview notes, translated Viet Minh (or
"Viet Cong") documents, and preliminary interrogation reports are also
included. The collection also contains administrative materials produced
by the Rand Corporation, the United States government, Republic of Vietnam
government, the National Academy of Sciences, and other agencies
documenting such topics as Viet Cong and U.S. military activities;
counterinsurgency movements; the use of herbicides and their toxicological
and environmental effects; and Vietnamese socio-economic conditions,
social history, politics, and demographics. A small group of files contain
Carrier's research materials for the San Francisco Center for Southeast
Asian Refugee Resettlement's 1991 study of AIDS knowledge, attitudes,
beliefs and behaviors in San Francisco Southeast Asian communities. The
majority of materials are in English. Some materials are in Vietnamese.
The translations of rallier and POW interviews provide extensive
documentation of the experiences of people involved in the Viet Cong
insurgency. The interviewers used open-ended questions to elicit narrative
descriptions of the subjects' reasons for joining the Viet Cong, the
activities they were involved in, as well as more personal aspects of
their personal lives, such as living conditions, family relationships,
sexual practices, and religion. These interviews provide an invaluable
record of Vietnamese lives and Vietnamese views of the war. Administrative
papers provide insight into how the Chieu Hoi Program was organized and
operated, including information on standard operating procedures,
government policies, and statistical data pertaining to the number and
locations of ralliers. Published and unpublished reports, government
documents, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles document the
political climate of the time and evolving U.S. policies on pacification
and militarization in Vietnam.
The collection is organized into four series:
* Series 1. Chieu Hoi Program materials, 1964-1968. 1.2 linear ft.
* Series 2. Chieu Hoi Program interviews, 1962-1967. 4.0 linear ft.
* Series 3. Government publications, 1959-1972. 2.8 linear ft.
* Series 4. Non-governmental publications and research materials,
1958-1992. 2.4 linear ft.
dan
Judith Henchy <judithh@u.washington.edu>
date Feb 9, 2007 2:56 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Rand interviews at UCB library
The UW Libraries has on microfilm the Rand Interviews in Vietnam, which I
think were conducted in connection with what was called the "Motivation and
Morale" project.
Judith
Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
date Mar 5, 2007 4:15 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Rand interviews at UCB library
For those who might be interested, I have a photo of one of the volumes
damaged by gunfire during the 1968 Tet Offensive raid on the U.S. Embassy
in Saigon, along with a brief commentary, here:
http://vietnamlist.blogspot.com/2007/03/nlf-interviews.html
- Steve Denney