🚀 go-pugleaf

13 March 1992

Dear Mr. Tsang:

This is in response to your E-Mail inquiry of March 12, 1992
regarding time series data on military activities in Vietnam.
You referred to an item decribing "the only public complete time
series on military activities in the war" and inquired whether we
were aware of, or had custody of, such a data base.

I will refer you to an article recently published in PROLOGUE:
QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES describing records in the
custody of the National Archives related to Vietnam.  It appeared
in the Spring 1991 issue (Vol. 23, No. 1).

The second part of this article is by Margaret O'Neill Adams of
the Center for Electronic Records.  Her article describes both
military and nonmilitary electronic records in our custody
related to the Vietnam conflict.  The following is a list of
military records described in the article:

     Military records include the following: Combat Area Detail
     and Summary Files (OPREA), 1961-1973, Combat Naval Gunfire
     Support File (CONGA), Mar. 1966-Jan. 1973, Mine Warfare
     Activities File (MINEA), May 1972-Jan. 1973, Naval
     Surveillance Activities File (NAVSA), Feb 22, 1966-Dec. 9,
     1972, Situation Report Army File (SITRA), 1966-1973, the
     [Southeast Asia] Combat Area Casualties Database, Hamlet
     Evaluation System (HES), Jan 1967-Jan 1974, Herbicide File
     (HERBO-2), 1965-1970, Military Prime Contract File, 1966-
     1975, Phung Hoang Management Information System, Jan 1969-
     Jun 1972, Combat Operations Loss and Expenditure Data-
     Vietnam, 1968-1970, National Police Infrastructure Analysis
     System (NPIASS), Subsystems I and II, 1971-1973, and the
     Army Adjutant General's Center Casualty Information System,
     1961-1981.

Note that many of these data files are effectively time series
data containing information about particular aspects of our
military involvement Vietnam conflict.  For example, the OPREA
data collection focuses on the air war with a record for each air
sortie.  None of the data files represents a "complete time
series on military activities in the war."

Please note that Margaret Adams will be presenting "An Overview
of the Vietnam Data Collection at the National Archives" at the
International Association for Social Science Information Science
and Technology (IASSIST) '92 conference in Madison, Wisconsin May
26-29, 1992.  Others on the panel on electronic records will
discuss ways in which they use Vietnam data including adapting
them to geographic information systems.  For more information
about the meeting, please contact the local arrangements
coordinator, Cindy Lew, Center for Demography and Ecology,
University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
53706.  The telephone number is (608) 262-9827.

For those interested in obtaining a copy of this issue of
PROLOGUE, referenced above, individual copies of the Spring 1991
issue (Vol. 23, No. 1), can be ordered for $3.00 each.  Please
make check or money order payable to the National Archives Trust
Fund (NEPS) and send to the Cashier, National Archives,
Washington, DC  20408.

For specific questions about electronic records from the Vietnam
Era, the Reference Services office of the Center for Electronic
Records can be contacted at (202) 501-5579 or via BITNET at
TIF@NIHCU.  Our address is Center for Electronic Records (NNX),
Reference Services, National Archives, Washington, DC  20408.

Ted Hull
Archival Services Branch
Center for Electronic Records