Today's post was written by me, M. Marie Maxwell, an Archives Specialist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Although normally I work in Textual Processing, I am engaged in a short detail with the Archives' Innovation Hub in the same Washington, DC location. It's April. Spring is springing. Birds are singing. Poetry is in … Continue reading April is National Poetry Month! Let’s enjoy some USCG poems
Today’s post is written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. The fall of 1968 leading up to the Presidential election on November 5, saw active peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam.[1] One (among many) aspect of the situation that threatened to … Continue reading Vietnam Negotiations, 1968: The Problem of Leaks
Today’s post is written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. The presidential election of 1972 came in the midst of the U.S. rapprochement with the USSR known as detente. Earlier in the year, President Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow for a major summit with … Continue reading The Presidential Election of 1972: Analysis of Soviet Bloc Opinion
By David Langbart "This is an American soldier – he is your friend." So read the leaflet prepared by the United States for use in Vietnam. Underneath that caption, it pictured several American infantrymen advancing into combat. The time, however, was not the 1960s; it was mid-1945 and World War II in the Pacific was … Continue reading Vietnam and the Ironies of History
Today's post is written by Katie Hines, a processing archivist with military records in College Park. In December 1969, six-year-old Shannon Hensley wrote to Captain William Q. Sinnott, commanding officer of the 363rd Transportation Company, 92nd Battalion, 80th General Support Group, Da Nang, requesting him to allow her daddy to return home for Christmas. Her … Continue reading “Send my Daddy home”
Today's post is written by Joe Gillette, a processing archivist at Archives II. During the Vietnam War, American army commands maintained daily journals documenting assorted events. Most entries were relatively mundane, documenting staff meetings, personnel travel, incoming or outgoing messages, and the like. Some were more administratively significant, such as changes in command, the awarding … Continue reading No Enemy Contact, but Alien Contact…
