Vietnam War Resources - English 101
Finding Background Information
America: History and Life is a great online source for locating background information on the Vietnam War.
When you enter this database, click on the button "Clio Notes," scroll down to "The Sixties" and select this option. You will see entries on the right of the screen. From these, select Vietnam War and click on Chronology of Events.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online is another place to find an overview of the war.
When you enter this database, simply type in Vietnam War and the first few entries will get you started.
Finding Articles
Use Indexes to find articles in journals, magazines and newspapers. For articles about the Vietnam War, the indexes listed below are good places to start:
Academic Search Complete
This is an excellent multi-disciplinary index. It includes articles on almost every topic and from a variety of different magazines and journals. Some of the articles are also full-text. You can use this index to find articles about social, cultural, political, and historical aspects of the Vietnam Conflict.When doing searches in online indexes, try a variety of keywords. Link concepts with and. Here are some examples:
Vietnam War and African Americans
Vietnam War and post-traumatic stress disorder
Vietnam War and amerasiansAmerica: History and Life
This index includes abstracts and citations to articles on United States and Canadian history. You can do the same kind of keyword searching in this index as you did in Academic Search Premier.
Sociological Abstracts
This index includes abstracts with citations and some full-text articles. You will want to limit your search to "Abstract of Journal Article" by using the pull-down menu for "Document Type" on the initial search screen.Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
Mostly full-text, this database includes newspaper articles, transcripts, and a variety of other sources. Click on the News icon. Then click on the link to General News or Transcripts. Use the Guided Search feature, rather than Basic; Guided search allows more flexibility and control of your search.There will be thousands of online articles on the Vietnam War. You will need to narrow your search by using additional keywords. Otherwise, you'll get an error message stating that your search resulted in too many articles to display.
Finding Books
Use the library catalog to find books on topics related to the Vietnam War. The following are just a few of the subject searches that you might find useful. You can also try KEYWORD searching on vietnam and any other keywords (women, protest, etc) related to your topics.
Subject Headings:
Amerasians -- Vietnam
Children of military personnel -- Vietnam
Agent Orange -- Toxicology -- Vietnam.
Vietnamese Conflict 1961-1975
A subject search will provide you with an alphabetical listing of topics for this subject. this is the official subject heading for the war and leads to 2100+ entries (books, etc.) about the conflict.Some relevant subdivisions under the main heading are:
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Afro-Americans
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Literature And The Conflict
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Mass Media and The Conflict
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Motion Pictures and The Conflict
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Personal Narratives
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Psychological Aspects
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Public opinion
Vietnamese Conflict 1961 1975 Women
Selected Web Sites
Listed here are just a few web site. If you want to find more, search on Google. If you find information on the web, make sure you evaluate the site before relying on it as a reputable source!
Tim O'Brien: www.illyria.com/tobhp.html
PBS's POV: Stories After the War: www.pbs.org/pov/stories/index.html
Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund: www.vvmf.org/Naval History: www.history.navy.mil/wars/index.html#anchor13254
If you need help with your research
Ask A Librarian, come to the Main Library Information Commons Reference desk or call the desk, 621-6442, or contact Vicki Mills millsv@u.library.arizona.edu or Leslie Sult sultl@u.library.arizona.edu