NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR. NSC VIETNAM INFORMATION GROUP: INTELLIGENCE AND OTHER REPORTS, 1967-75

The NSC Vietnam Information Group: Intelligence and Other Reports is one of many subcollections that comprise the National Security Adviser Files.

The Vietnam Information Group consisted of NSC staff members responsible for monitoring cable traffic from other agencies reporting on events in South and North Vietnam. It appears that the staff began receiving these cables during the latter part of the Johnson administration, but this practice may have originated as early as the Eisenhower administration. The collection, consisting primarily of State Department cables and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intelligence information cables, continued to grow as it was maintained by succeeding NSC staffs during the Nixon and Ford administrations. After the fall of Saigon, the collection was placed in NSC storage until its rediscovery and transfer to the Ford Library in 1995.

The bulk of the collection dates from the Nixon administration (1969-1974), although almost a third of the folders contain at least some Johnson administration materials covering August 1967 to January 1969. Many topics contain no materials later than 1973 (the year of the Paris agreements), and only six folders contain materials dating from the Ford administration.

This collection provides important background information on the Vietnamese war and its impact on life in South and North Vietnam. The materials on South Vietnam primarily concern relations with the United States, the country's political climate, and the many problems plaguing the government. There is information on the role and interests of key political figures, the military, opposition groups, communist-sponsored organizations operating in the south, religious sects, ethnic groups, and labor unions, as well as censorship of the press, government corruption, and the peace negotiations.

Materials on North Vietnam primarily concern their military and the diplomatic efforts aimed at gaining peace and ultimately the unification of North and South Vietnam. There is information about the military's operations in the south, Hanoi's attempts to infiltrate and influence the south politically, its relations with China and the Soviet Union, the war's impact on the economy, foreign aid, the Paris peace talks, and subsequent violations of the Paris agreements.