Ho Chi Minh's Letter to the American people, December 23, 1966

From: Lien Huong Fiedler <lfie@loc.gov>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Lien Huong Fiedler <lfie@loc.gov>, vsg@u.washington.edu

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 1:40 PM

Dear List,

Ho Chi Minh sent a letter, on December 23, 1966, to the American people to mark the New Year. He accused the US of using hazardous gas, chemical agents and napalm and steel-pellet bombs to destroy villages, forests and mountains in Vietnam and kill Vietnamese people.

Is it possible to find this letter in the Internet resources? [I could not find it] A reader at the Library of Congress read this letter at the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Hanoi, and wants to have a copy of this letter.

Many thanks,

Lien Huong Fiedler

Lien-Huong Fiedler

Southeast Asia Reference Specialist

Asian Division, Library of Congress

101 Independence Avenue, S.E.

Washington, D.C. 20540-4810

Phone: (202)-707-5720

Fax: (202)-707-1724

Email: lfie@loc.gov

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From: ryan nelson <sociolgst@yahoo.com>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 3:22 PM

I was not able to find the December 23, 1966 letter. Sorry. However, I did track down Bac Ho letter written to "his excellency Mr. Lyndon B. Johnson" no more than two months later. No references to the new year, but he does accuse the U.S. of war crimes, and of using "barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, toxic chemicals and gases, to massacre our compatriots, destroy crops, and raze villages to the ground."

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/11/documents/ho.chi.minh.letter/

Not the letter you're looking for. Might be of some help.

Peace in Viet Nam

Ryan Nelson

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From: Maxner, Steve <steve.maxner@ttu.edu>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:16 PM

Attachments: 2130711030.pdf

Dear Lien Huong:

Attached is a copy. It is Item Number 2130711030 in our Virtual Vietnam

Archive (http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/redirects/vva.htm).

You can search for it online at the previous website by entering the

Item number as a keyword. Only this item will be returned.

The complete citation information is below.

Best regards,

Steve

Stephen Maxner, Ph.D.

Director

The Vietnam Center

The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University

Special Collections Library Room 108

15th and Detroit

Lubbock, TX 79409-1041

Phone: 806-742-9010

Fax: 806-742-0496

Email: steve.maxner@ttu.edu

Website: www.vietnam.ttu.edu

CITATION:

Item Number: 2130711030 (Record #: 141388)

Document Title: Agianst U.S. Aggression For National Salvation - Message

To The American People By Ho Chi Minh (From the Foreign Languages

Publishing House) - December 23, 1966

Language/Translation: English

Document Pages: 2

Date: 23 December 1966

Collection: Douglas Pike Collection: Unit 02 - Military Operations

Media Type: Document (.pdf)

Physical Location: Box #: 07, Folder #: 11; Collection Location(s)

Full Text: OCR text of this document is available. Note that this text

is not edited. See the Help section for more information.

Citation: Agianst U.S. Aggression For National Salvation - Message To

The American People By Ho Chi Minh (From the Foreign Languages

Publishing House), 23 December 1966, Folder 11, Box 07, Douglas Pike

Collection: Unit 02 - Military Operations, The Vietnam Archive, Texas

Tech University.

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From: Maxner, Steve <steve.maxner@ttu.edu>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:33 PM

Hello everyone:

After I sent that last message, I realized that I let pass by a great

"teach them how to fish" opportunity.

Anyone could have found the document above by following three easy

steps:

1. Visit Virtual Archive at TTU:

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/redirects/vva.htm

2. Enter Ho Chi Minh as keyword

3. Enter 12/23/1966 as a date

Only 7 items currently come back. The correct document is at the top of

the list. This is how I found it.

I say "currently" because we add about 20K pages a month so more might

turn up in future searches.

Cheers,

Steve

Stephen Maxner, Ph.D.

Director

The Vietnam Center

The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University

Special Collections Library Room 108

15th and Detroit

Lubbock, TX 79409-1041

Phone: 806-742-9010

Fax: 806-742-0496

Email: steve.maxner@ttu.edu

Website: www.vietnam.ttu.edu

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From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 11:19 PM

Thanks, Steve, the Vietnam Center's virtual archive is a great online resource. I notice from the citation of the first document retrieved in this search, the letter was apparently published in the following book which I found in our library catalog:

Author Ho Chi Minh, 1890-1969.

Title Against U.S. aggression for national salvation.

Publisher Hanoi, Foreign Languages Pub. House, 1967.

Description 152 p. port. 19 cm.

Language English

call number DS557.A635 H6

- Steve Denney

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From: Lien Huong Fiedler <lfie@loc.gov>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Lien Huong Fiedler <lfie@loc.gov>, steve.maxner@ttu.edu, vsg@u.washington.edu

Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 8:03 AM

Dear Steve,

Thanks for the attached letter by Ho Chi Minh. I should have thought of searching The Vietnam Archive of Texas Tech University yesterday when I received this request from our reader. I will try to "fish" this letter again using the Archive search page.

Also my appreciation to Steve Denney and Ryan Nelson.

Regards,

Lien Huong

Lien-Huong Fiedler

Southeast Asia Reference Specialist

Asian Division, Library of Congress

101 Independence Avenue, S.E.

Washington, D.C. 20540-4810

Phone: (202)-707-5720

Fax: (202)-707-1724

Email: lfie@loc.gov

***************************

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From: Maxner, Steve <steve.maxner@ttu.edu>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 11:58 AM

Steve:

Thanks. Yes, we have the same. As you know, Doug Pike copied many

materials such as this and sorted them by author, subject, etc... for

his manuscript collection and the Vietnam War on Microfilm Project.

Best regards,

Steve

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