The United States Government generates records and documents relating to the region in the course of its legislative and administrative activities. Examples would be testimony before Congressional oversight committees in the areas of defense appropriations or the human rights certifications process. The Department of State, and many other government agencies publish reports of research carried out in the region.
The Libraries is now generating cataloging records for most of its US government information, which was previously only searchable through specialized indexes. This indexes, housed in the Government Publications Division in the Suzzallo Library, can still be useful for certain types of information. Ask at the Government Publications reference desk for help with the use of these indexes.
Increasingly US government information is being made available via electronic formats. For a guide to some of the available resources consult the Government Publications Home Page.
This reference guide to older materials relating to Southeast Asia may also be of use:
Horne, Norman P A guide to published United States government documents pertaining to Southeast Asia, 1893-1941. Washington, 1961.
The CIA Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) published by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is a very useful source for information from the region, dating from the 1960s. Divided into 8 area publications, the Daily Report: Asia and the Far East is the section which covers Southeast Asia. Public access to this service has now been replaced by the online service World news connection WNC. - - UW restricted
FBIS has been indexed by various services:
Daily report. East Asia. Index/Foreign Broadcast Information Service. New Canaan, Newsbank, c1987- DS1 .U57a
Coverage for the communist countries of Southeast Asia tends to be better than that for the ASEAN countries, particularly for the 1960-80s. The FBIS Daily reports covered primarily summaries of broadcast from government radio station, but they do include some translations of important editorials from newspapers. Another translation series, Joint Publications Research Service, used to publish the series Translations from North Vietnam, and a Translations series from the local press. This series has recently been discontinued; it was useful for translations of important government publications; lists of politburo members, new laws promulgated etc. It is also indexed to 1983:
Bell & Howell transdex. Wooster, OH, Bell & Howell, 1974-83.
The University of Washington Libraries has paper, microcard or microfiche copies of the reports. From the summer of 1996 the fiche and paper version of the reports were replaced by the online version.
These are important sources: e.g. RAND, Defense Department, Advanced Research Projects Administration (ARPA). Suzzallo Reference has a paper index to Rand Reports, many of which are available through the National Technical Information Service. A searchable index to RAND publications is available through the Rand Corporation Home Page. Lists of other reports available through NTIS are available at the Engineering Library on CD-ROM. The Suzzallo Library has some RAND reports, located in the auxiliary stacks. Some reports may have to be purchased on demand.
USAID was an important source of research on Southeast Asia, particularly in the 1960s-70s:
Government Publications has AID research and development abstracts, reports and studies.
This is useful for topics on human rights, on refugee issues and international relations with the region.
Congressional hearings are indexed in paper indexes or CD-ROM through the Congressional Information Service. Most Congressional information is available either as paper copy or on fiche. CIS indexes can be used for access to this information, in addition to the Monthly List, the GPO list of publications.
Indexing to U.S. government foreign policy and national security information released through Mandatory Declassification review or through the Freedom of Information Act is made available through Declassified Documents Reference System. This service also provides copies of the documents released on microfiche. The libraries holds these indexes and some of the filmed documents. Inquire at the Suzzallo Library, Government Documents Division
[The Declassified documents reference system] [microform]. [Washington, D.C. : Carrollton Press, 1975-.
Microforms Newspapers: SHELVED BY TITLE: Declassified documents
CALL NUMBER: Microfiche M-2808 LIB HAS: 1975-
National security information released through the Freedom of information Act is also indexed and distributed by the National Security Archive. This non-profit organization indexes and makes available sets of declassified documents which are published by Chadwick Healey. The Libraries does not own any of these sets, but a searchable index of documents is now available on the National Security Archive Home Page. Document sets include information on the U.S. conflicts in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and on U.S. covert activity in Indonesia and the Philippines.
GPO Gate is an effort by the University of California at San Diego Library to provide a World Wide Web interface to GPO Access databases. These include the Federal Register, U.S. Code, GAO Reports, Congressional Record, Congressional Bills, Public Laws, and History of Bills.
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