[ndlr] Un nouveau fonds disponible pour la recherche sur l’Asie contemporaine.
Editor: Matthew M. Aid
The purpose of this unique online collection is to provide students and researchers with the declassified documentary record about the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in the Far East during the Cold War (1945-1991). Particular emphasis is given to America’s principal antagonists in Asia during the Cold War era: the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and North Vietnam. However, countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia are covered as well.
Number of documents: 4,285
Number of pages: ca. 23,500
Biographical note
Matthew M. Aid is a leading expert on intelligence matters. He is the author of The Secret Sentry, the definitive history of the National Security Agency, and Intel Wars, the history of the U.S. intelligence community during the administration of President Barack Obama. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Readership
Intelligence historians, Cold War historians, military historians, graduate and undergraduate students of modern history, American and Asian Studies departments, and researchers working on international relations, security, and the wars in Vietnam and Korea.
Table of contents
Collection highlights:
The Vietnam War (1961-1975)
The Korean War (1950-1953)
The Chinese civil war and the collapse of the Chiang Kai-shek regime (1946-1949)
U.S. intelligence gathering and covert action activities conducted from Taiwan (1949-1979)
U.S. involvement in the war in Indochina between the French and the Viet Minh (1946-1954)
The role of intelligence in the Taiwan Strait crises of 1954, 1958 and 1962
U.S. intelligence community’s deep involvement in the civil war in Laos (1959-1975)
U.S. intelligence involvement in Cambodia (1961-1975)
The Indonesia-Malaysia conflicts of November 1962 and September 1964
Seizure of the US merchant ship Mayaguez by the Khmer Rouge in May 1975
[ndlr] Article du New York Times rapportant la nouvelle du décès de Henry A. Prunier (1921-2013), membre de l’Office of Strategic Services (OSS), l’agence de renseignements des Etats-Unis pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale qui aida et entraîna les premières troupes du Viêt Minh en 1945. L’article de Douglas Martin révèle quelques détails intéressants sur le général Vo Nguyen Giap et la personnalité de l’Oncle Ho. Il souligne le rôle décisif des Américains malgré une courte présence…
Members of the O.S.S. Deer Team with Viet Minh leaders, including Ho Chi Minh, (standing third from left) during training in 1945. Henry Prunier is fourth from right.
Henry A. Prunier taught Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who withstood the armies of France and the United States, how to throw a grenade.
The lesson came in July 1945, after Mr. Prunier and six other Americans had parachuted into a village 75 miles northwest of Hanoi on a clandestine mission to teach an elite force of 200 Viet Minh guerrillas how to use modern American weapons at their jungle camp.
The Americans, members of the Office of Strategic Services, the United States’ intelligence agency in World War II, wanted the guerrillas’ help in fighting the Japanese, who were occupying Indochina. The Viet Minh welcomed the American arms in their struggle for Vietnamese independence.
