Newly Declassified CIA Internal Histories on Vietnam War

From: Edward Miller

Date: 2009/3/16

Dear list:

This past Friday, a batch of newly declassified CIA histories on various aspects of the Agency’s involvement in the Vietnam War were presented at the annual conference of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University. All six of these studies were authored by Thomas Ahern, a former Agency operative turned historian, during the past twenty years. They are based on extensive research in Agency records, most of which remain classified. Unfortunately, the released versions of all six histories contain significant redactions, and at least one seems to have suffered rather massive deletions. Nevertheless, the general opinion of the independent scholars at the conference who have reviewed these sources is that these texts still represent a very significant documentary windfall. I have not yet been able to review these in any depth, but an initial glance suggests that “CIA and the House of Ngo” and “CIA and the Generals” will be particularly fascinating. All six histories are available for free download at the following site:

http://www.foia.cia.gov/vietnam.asp

Ed Miller

Dartmouth College