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US History Free Primary Sources

This is a guide with links to digital primary sources, mainly archives and other organizational collections.

Branches of the Military

Naval History and Heritage Command

US Naval history archive. Government and other administrative publications, as well as private collections, oral histories and more.

Veterans

Serving: Our Voices

These oral history interviews and other recollections from veterans about their time in the service span from World War I to the War on Terror and are organized by time period and theme.

WWII

Historic Government Publications from World War II

The Historic Government Publications from World War II contains 343 Informational pamphlets, government reports, instructions, regulations, declarations, speeches, and propaganda materials distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) during the Second World War.


The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History

"The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History is intended to provide an overview of the Manhattan Project... the Resources Section provides access to a variety of resource materials, including photos, documents, maps, and published histories."


National Security Archives: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II

Comprehensive collection of declassified U.S. government documents on the atomic bomb and the end of the war in the Pacific.


World War II: A Resource Guide

This guide from the Library of Congress highlights collections on various aspects of the war and American life. Includes a large variety of topics.

Vietnam

Tet Declassified

"In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive—which took place on January 30, 1968—Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats directed intelligence agencies to review their holdings to reveal previously classified details to the public. This page displays selected documents from the declassified volume as well as other contextual images, videos, and quotes which will be updated on a periodic basis."


The Veteran

This is the newspaper of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Inc., published from 1971 to today.


Virtual Vietnam Archive

"The Virtual Vietnam Archive currently contains 7 million pages of scanned materials. Types of material include documents, photographs, slides, negatives, oral histories, artifacts, moving images, sound recordings, maps, and collection finding aids. All non-copyrighted and digitized materials are available for users to download. The Vietnam Archive is a donation-driven archive."