Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Carrier (Joseph M.) Collection on the Chieu Hoi Program and Vietnamese Conflict
MS.SEA.001
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: Joseph M. Carrier collection on the Chieu Hoi program and Vietnamese conflict
Creator:
Carrier, Joseph M.
Identifier/Call Number: MS.SEA.001
Physical Description:
27.2 Linear Feet
(69 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1958-1992
Date (bulk): 1960-1967
Date (bulk): 1962-1973
Abstract: This collection contains interview transcripts, published and unpublished reports, research notes, working papers, maps, clippings,
correspondence, memoranda, and statistical data gathered by Joseph M. Carrier primarily while he was employed as a Rand Corporation
counterinsurgency specialist with the Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. The bulk of the materials pertains to the Chieu Hoi Program,
which was operated by the Republic of Vietnam from 1963 to 1973 to encourage civilian and military defections from the communist-controlled
South. The collection contains materials documenting the administration of the Chieu Hoi program in addition to transcripts
of interviews conducted with defectors (or "ralliers"), prisoners of war, and refugees. English and Vietnamese interview notes,
translated Viet Minh (or "Viet Cong") documents, and preliminary interrogation reports are also included. The collection also
contains administrative materials produced by the Rand Corporation, the United States government, Republic of Vietnam government,
the National Academy of Sciences, and other agencies documenting such topics as Viet Cong and U.S. military activities; counterinsurgency
movements; the use of herbicides and their toxicological and environmental effects; and Vietnamese socio-economic conditions,
social history, politics, and demographics. A small group of files contain Carrier's research materials for the San Francisco
Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement's 1991 study of AIDS knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in San Francisco
Southeast Asian communities, as well as personal letters by a Rand colleague named Leon Goure. The majority of materials are
in English. Some materials are in Vietnamese. The collection also contains 35mm slides and black and white negatives of South
Vietnam between 1962-1973.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English and Vietnamese. Some materials from the Chieu Hoi Program are in the original Vietnamese,
with English translations.
Collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Southeast Asian Archive Librarian.
Joseph M. Carrier Collection on the Chieu Hoi Program and Vietnamese Conflict. MS-SEA001. Southeast Asian Archive, The UC
Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Joseph M. Carrier donated the collection to Professor Son Kim Vo at California State University, Fullerton. The collection
was transferred with Carrier's permission to the Southeast Asian Archive, The UC Irvine Libraries, in 1996. Additional material
was received in 2010 and 2016.
Processed by students enrolled in San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science archival program in
May 2000. Guide completed by Adrian Turner in 2001. Accessions processed by Carole McEwan in 2010. Accession processed by
Audra Eagle Yun in 2012. Additions and finding aid updates made by Julia Huynh, 2019.
Joseph Michel Carrier was a counterinsurgency specialist for the Rand Corporation. He conducted fieldwork in South Vietnam
in 1962 and again from 1965 through 1967. During the last half of 1966 and in the spring of 1967, this fieldwork focused on
the Chieu Hoi Program. In the early 1970s, Carrier joined the National Academy of Sciences as a staff officer on the Herbicide
Committee. At this time, he conducted more field investigations in Vietnam, gathering data on the effects of U.S. defoliation
programs. The spraying, code named Operation Trail Dust and Operation Ranch Hand, was used to defoliate forests to expose
Viet Minh (or "Viet Cong") compounds. In addition, the U.S. military sprayed Viet Cong food supplies with defoliants such
as Agent Orange, which contained high levels of a poisonous contaminant known as dioxin. Carrier produced a National Academy
of Sciences working paper on the effects of herbicides in 1974. He received his Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University
of California, Irvine in 1972.
The Chieu Hoi Program, also know as the Open Arms Program or the Great National Solidarity Program, was a ten-year campaign
started by Republic of Vietnam (RVN) President, Ngo Dinh Diem, in April 1963. Operated by the RVN Government's Chieu Hoi Ministry,
the program sought to persuade Viet Cong troops and supporters of the North Vietnamese cause to rally to the RVN cause. To
accomplish this, the RVN and its allies used family contacts, radio and loudspeaker broadcasts, and propaganda leaflets. Provincial
Chieu Hoi centers harbored these defectors, or "ralliers," who underwent reeducation and rehabilitation. RVN and U.S. military
forces also employed ralliers, some in the well-known American Kit Carson Unit. Other ralliers were used for intelligence
work against the Viet Cong infrastructure throughout South Vietnam. In addition, over forty Chieu Hoi villages were constructed
to provide free housing for ralliers. From 1963 to 1973 the Chieu Hoi Program attracted nearly 160,000 defectors, of whom
30,000 were identified as Viet Cong.
For further information, see G. D. Brewer, "Chieu Hoi: The surrender program in Vietnam,"
Air University Review, v. 18 (1967): 50-60; E. J. Clarkson, "An unknown warrior,"
Marine Corps Gazette, v. 54 (1970): 38-43; and S. C. Tucker, ed., "Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) Program," in
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998), pp. 113-14.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection contains interview transcripts, published and unpublished reports, research notes, working papers, maps, clippings,
correspondence, memoranda, and statistical data gathered by Joseph M. Carrier primarily while he was employed as a Rand Corporation
counterinsurgency specialist with the Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. The bulk of the materials pertains to the Chieu Hoi Program,
which was operated by the Republic of Vietnam from 1963 to 1973 to encourage civilian and military defections from the communist-controlled
South. The collection contains materials documenting the administration of the Chieu Hoi program in addition to transcripts
of interviews conducted with defectors (or "ralliers"), prisoners of war, and refugees. English and Vietnamese interview notes,
translated Viet Minh (or "Viet Cong") documents, and preliminary interrogation reports are also included. The collection also
contains administrative materials produced by the Rand Corporation, the United States government, Republic of Vietnam government,
the National Academy of Sciences, and other agencies documenting such topics as Viet Cong and U.S. military activities; counterinsurgency
movements; the use of herbicides and their toxicological and environmental effects; and Vietnamese socio-economic conditions,
social history, politics, and demographics. A small group of files contain Carrier's research materials for the San Francisco
Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement's 1991 study of AIDS knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in San Francisco
Southeast Asian communities. The majority of materials are in English. Some materials are in Vietnamese. This collection also
contains 35mm colored slides and black and white negatives of South Vietnam between 1962-1973.
The translations of rallier and POW interviews provide extensive documentation of the experiences of people involved in the
Viet Cong insurgency. The interviewers used open-ended questions to elicit narrative descriptions of the subjects' reasons
for joining the Viet Cong, the activities they were involved in, as well as more personal aspects of their personal lives,
such as living conditions, family relationships, sexual practices, and religion. These interviews provide an invaluable record
of Vietnamese lives and Vietnamese views of the war. Administrative papers provide insight into how the Chieu Hoi Program
was organized and operated, including information on standard operating procedures, government policies, and statistical data
pertaining to the number and locations of ralliers. Published and unpublished reports, government documents, newspaper clippings,
and magazine articles document the political climate of the time and evolving U.S. policies on pacification and militarization
in Vietnam.
In addition, one series consists of personal letters sent by Leon Gouré to an unidentified female colleague at the Rand Corporation
branch in Santa Monica, California, from 1964 to 1968. The letters, in Gouré's hand, describe the social scientist's experiences
as part of Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study. Gouré's study is cited in the Chieu Hoi Program memorandum written by Carrier
and C.A.H Thomson. Additional information about the project and Gouré is available in Mai Elliott's book
RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era (2010).
The collection is organized into six series:
- Series 1. Chieu Hoi Program materials, 1964-1968
- Series 2. Chieu Hoi Program interviews, 1962-1968
- Series 3. Government publications, 1959-1973
- Series 4. Non-governmental publications and research materials, 1958-1992
- Series 5. Leon Goure letters, 1964-1968
- Series 6. Photographs of South Vietnam, 1962-1973
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Archives
Chieu Hoi Program - History -- Sources
Vietnam -- Politics and government -- 1945-1975 -- Archives.
Maps -- Vietnam.
Vietnam -- History -- 1945-1975 -- Sources
Indochinese Americans -- California -- San Francisco -- Attitudes -- Archives
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal narratives.
Herbicides -- Toxicology
Herbicides -- Vietnam -- War use -- History -- Sources
Counterinsurgency -- Vietnam
Political refugees -- Vietnam -- Interviews.
Political refugees -- Vietnam -- Archives
Vietnamese Americans -- California -- Archives
Photographs