Scope and Contents

Documents the development of a 'Television's Vietnam' (1985), a two-part video documentary on the role of media in the Vietnam War. The film began as an independent production by Dr. Peter C. Rollins, an English professor at Oklahoma State, and two colleagues, Dr. Charles Townsend Ludington, Jr. and Dr. David Culbert.

Rollins' original goal in his research was to make a statement about the media coverage on the Vietnam War, with emphasis on the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Khe Sanh. The project members conducted their research in the late 1970s, largely at a conference held by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the United States Marine Corps archives. The project evolved over the years, changing names and shifting focus. The film project enjoyed grant funds until completion in 1982. However, the product must not have pleased Rollins. In 1984, he received a generous fellowship from Accuracy in Media, Inc., apparently to refine the film. The documentary became a two-part series: 1. The Real Story, a rebut the rebuttal to the PBS series, Vietnam: A Television History, and 2. The Impact of Media, which addressed the impact of media on the Vietnam War. Rollins completed the video for distribution by AIM in 1985.

The collection is separated into eight series: Interviews, United States Marine Corps mainly contains Marine Corps archives photo and oral history collections, Finances, Correspondence, Video Production, Publicity, Other, and Accuracy in Media which dates from Rollins' association with AIM and primarily documents the evolution of the final scripts.

Biographical / Historical

Professor Pike was born in 1925. He served as a journalist in the Army during World War II (in the Pacific Theater of Operations) and during the Korean Conflict. He earned degrees from the University of California-Berkeley and American University. He served as an FSO in Taiwan, Korea, Lebanon, and Vietnam. In 1982 he began teaching at UC-Berkeley and in 1997 moved Texas Tech University. Professor Pike housed and supported the Collection until 1982 when he moved it to Berkeley. It remained there until 1992 when Berkeley considered discontinuing its support for the Indo-China Studies Project. After being approached by Professor Pike, Dr. James Reckner, Director of the Vietnam Center at Tech, and Dr. David Murrah, Assistant Director of Libraries for the Special Collections, worked together to bring the Collection to the Archive in 1994. Collection Processed and Finding Aid Produced by Chris Heinemeier

Series

• Series 1 - Interviews
• Series 2 - United States Marine Corps (USMC)
• Series 3 - Finances
• Series 4 - Correspondence
• Series 5 - Video Production
• Series 6 - Publicity
• Series 7 - Other
• Series 8 - Accuracy in Media