Rand interviews

Marc J. Gilbert mgilbert at hpu.edu

Thu Feb 8 17:48:05 PST 2007

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