Archival Others

This chapter examines the Vietnam War Center and Archive located at Texas Tech University, the largest collection of personal artifacts and materials related to the Vietnam War in the United States. This major historical institution is keen on documenting all narratives and artifacts as a living memorial related to the war, including those of former South Vietnamese refugees who are often denied a voice a “archival others.” The chapter explains the origins of this archive, using historical documents and interviews with its staff. This is followed by an analysis of the archive’s newsletters to demonstrate the type of public image this archive promotes. Third, it interrogates the type of oral histories contained in the archive, recognizing the stories mostly of American GIs and their problematic view of Vietnamese people. The chapter also reviews the largest collection of Vietnamese materials in the center like the Orderly Departure Program, the visa application files from South Vietnamese refugees seeking asylum in the United States. It problematizes the archive’s growing relations with Vietnamese Americans and the Vietnamese socialist state and the ways the archive tries to maintain relations with the socialist government despite the animosity of Vietnamese Americans toward the regime. It ends with the anticipation of a newly conceived “Archive for War and Diplomacy in the Post-Vietnam War Era” to expose the limits and potentials of archives about the Vietnam War.