Uncovering the Past: One Writer’s Fight to Save a Forgotten Vietnam Archive
After archivists at the Library of Congress thanked me for helping locate a lost video archive about the fall of Saigon, I wrote to several government officials requesting a review of all archives in the Veterans History Project. When I received no replies, I turned to Vietnam-era journalist Marvin Kalb.
As the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon approached, I contacted the Library of Congress to view a 2005 video about the panel discussion “In Country: The Vietnam War, 30 Years After.” The panel was taped at the Library’s Montpelier Room, in the James Madison Memorial Building, on May 4, 2005. I attended the taping that was part of the Library’s Veterans History Project.
Panelists for the 2005 discussion were foreign affairs journalist Bernard Kalb, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stanley Karnow, and retired U.S. Army General Julius Becton. Each worked in Vietnam. At the time of my request to the Library of Congress, each man had died.
I wanted to review the video for the articles I was writing and the events I would be attending to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. After requesting the video and weeks of delay, I received an email from Dr. Andrea Decker, PhD MSLIS, a Reference Librarian, in the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Dr. Decker explained the video had been lost in the archives. “It was on a legacy Library server that wasn't fully copied over to a new server during a website update several years ago, so we had to do some digging,” she emailed, adding, “Thank you for bringing the missing video to our attention. Because of you, we'll be able to restore it and serve it to future patrons.”
As a former U.S. diplomat and a life member of the American Foreign Service Association, I believe history holds important lessons for diplomats and policymakers. I also have a life membership in the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America. I know from my experience with Vietnam veterans and their families that many troubling questions remain unanswered about the Vietnam War.
Though the war had ended by the time I graduated from high school, I have family and friends who served in Vietnam. While many of these family members and friends are now deceased, I will never forget them or their painful stories about the war.
Political journalist and peace activist Norman Cousins said: “History is a vast early warning system.” Many journalists, diplomats, and politicians, perhaps channeling Cousins, cited Vietnam for their opposition to the Iraq War.
Cousins’ quote inspired me as I began writing about the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. It inspired me as I talked with Vietnam veterans across the country. It especially inspired me when I had difficulty locating the Library of Congress’s 2005 video.
When America loses its history, it loses its future. Finding the 2005 video became a mission for me.
I wrote several letters to government officials and members of Congress requesting that they review the policies and management of all archives in the Veterans History Project, particularly those related to the Vietnam War. To date, I have received no replies.
In 1968, Bernard Kalb, one of the three panelists, won an Overseas Press Club Award for a CBS television documentary on the Vietcong. The documentary was based on his reporting about the Vietnam War.
Kalb’s brother Marvin, a former CBS and NBC reporter, co-authored the 2011 book “Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama” with Deborah Kalb, his daughter. The book is an excellent analysis of the lasting impact of Vietnam on Washington’s political decision-making. It confirmed many of the things I saw as a member of the President Ford Convention staff at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City. While government officials have yet to reply to my letters regarding the securing of archives related to the Vietnam War, Marvin Kalb responded.
“Thank you for your determined and successful effort to recover the record of my brother’s role in the recollection of the 30th anniversary of the fall of South Vietnam,” Kalb wrote in a personal letter. He understood the historical and educational importance of the video. “That the Library of Congress now has the record of that panel discussion, thanks to your prodigious effort, will certainly be helpful to future students of the Vietnam War,” he wrote.
The recovered 2005 video is important to Vietnam veterans, their families, journalists, historians, and others. It is an important historical archive. It may prevent other wars. It may also serve as a therapeutic aid to those who continue to grieve for the 58,390 names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and the approximately 1,600 Americans Missing in Action and still unaccounted for.
Marvin Kalb understood the importance of the 2005 video because he and his brother were in Vietnam during the war. They saw the war. They talked with American soldiers. They spoke with South Vietnamese impacted by the brutal war. They reported to America and the world.
Marvin Kalb understood the power of his brother’s discussion about his experience in Vietnam during the War. On the recovered 2005 video, Bernard Kalb, Stanley Karnow, and General Julius Becton speak on behalf of Vietnam veterans. Their voices are now preserved in honor of those Americans who served, fought, and died in Vietnam.
