A Few Vietnam Documents

The Vietnam War was, in the words of former Secretary of Defense 
Robert S. McNamara, a "terrible, terrible mistake." 
Read more about the history of the war. 
What are the lessons learned?
 

Vietnamese Declaration of Independence of September 2, 1945

Agreement France made in 1946 with the Vietnamese regarding the country's independence

United States aligns with France in recognizing Viet-Nam, Laos, and Cambodia

A detailed background history of U.S. involvement: chapter one of The Pentagon Papers

The Geneva Agreements of 1954

A powerful statement by a leader of the "Vietnam Veterans Against the War" -- John Kerry, now a United States Senator

"Vietnam in Retrospect: Could We Have Won?" by Jeffery Record is
a concise, cogent, and incisive article worthy of attention. 

Stanton, N. (1969). Vietnam and the law: a critical analysis of the Department of State's March 4, 1966, legal brief on American aid to the Republic of Vietnam. Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 1969.  

This is my M.A. thesis regarding the legality of United States military intervention in Vietnam. (It is in .pdf format, which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.  It is 148 pages long, including appendices, and weighs in at a rather hefty 14 Mb.) Note well that this is the copyrighted property of the author.  However, permission to download and store one copy per person is hereby granted to individuals who wish to read it. In particular, I commend the thesis to those who wish to learn the critical background history to United States military involvement in Vietnam.  After all, legal issues cannot be properly considered without a clear understanding of their historical contexts; hence, the most salient facts are carefully discussed and documented.  In particular, I direct attention to the sections treating of (A) the First Indochina War up to Geneva Agreements of 1954, (B) the failure to hold mandated nation-wide elections in 1956 and the consequences of that, (C) the Gulf of Tonkin incident and its immediate consequences, and (D) the limits on presidential war powers. It is available here:  http://occasionaljustice.com/StantonMAThesisReVietnam.pdf