An American's Experience

		Robert K. Brigham was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1960. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky where he worked with Professor George C. Herring, an expert on the Vietnam War. While pursuing his Ph.D., Brigham took Vietnamese language courses at Cornell University and traveled to Vietnam for research. Since coming to Vassar College in 1994, Brigham has led student and alumnae/i trips to Vietnam and participated in a critical oral history conference on the war in Hanoi. Brigham is the author of numerous books and essays on the Vietnam War, including Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Vietnam War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998) and ARVN: A History of America's Ally in Vietnam (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999).

E. Kenneth Hoffman went to Viet Nam in June, 1969, as a first lieutenant in the 221st Signal Company in charge of a photo detachment. Initially stationed at a sprawling military base in Long Binh and later in Pleiku and Saigon, Hoffman took over 1500 photographs in addition to the pictures he took for the government. He traveled freely and extensively throughout the country and was able to record much of civilian culture--markets, farms, homes, shrines, and people. The bulk of his work--especially photos documenting the conflict--is archived in the Library of Congress. A more extensive selection of Hoffman's photos are on view at his Vietnam Interactive Portfolio.