The records, mainly 1972-1975, consist of correspondence, together with conference and subject files maintained in the Los Angeles Resource Center. In the main, the manuscript collection consists of incoming material, with a much smaller quantity of the documentation representing the activities of the staff and the national steering committee. Even fewer items directly pertain to the activities of IPC's two most famous members, Fonda and Hayden, although the majority of the correspondence is addressed to them.
The CORRESPONDENCE is divided into two sections: domestic and foreign. Domestic correspondence is arranged alphabetically by region (though only the western region is represented) and by state. A number of the states are further subdivided into local organizations. In addition to exchanges with IPC affiliates and participants in the United Campaign that were not members of IPC, these files variously contain reports, evaluations of activities, materials on the IPC tours in particular areas, minutes of local meetings, lists of contacts, notes, clippings, and articles by and about IPC members. Those of the Philadelphia organization include financial records. As the most organized state, California records are the most extensive, but there are also substantial files on Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. Although smaller, the New York files contain a revealing glimpse of internal dissension within IPC. Also located among the domestic material is correspondence with other organizations that opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam, most notably the Indochina Mobile Education Project and the Union of Vietnamese in the United States.
The chronologically-arranged MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES FILES include agenda, programs, reports, minutes, notes, and position papers, which provide perhaps the best information in the collection on the internal structure, activities, and policy of the Indochina Peace Campaign. Most extensive here is material on the October 1973 Germantown conference which launched the United Campaign and the July 13-15, 1975, meeting in Michigan, which dissolved IPC.
Of special note within the alphabetically-arranged SUBJECT FILES are copies of several speeches and articles written by Fonda and Hayden; notes from a 1974 organizers' school; files on an encounter with Nixon security officials by the Illinois IPC at the dedication of the Dirksen library in Pekin, Illinois; and material on IPC participation in the United Campaign. The latter includes minutes and extensive notes taken during a 1974-1975 visit to Saigon. Unfortunately, the material on the Hayden-Fonda tours which is filed here is quite sparse.
The remainder of the collection consists of PUBLICATIONS, including a handbook, press releases, and form letters; CLIPPINGS; and a lengthy funding proposal apparently drafted in 1973. A complete run of Indochina Focal Point, national and local newsletters, and several other publications are available in the Historical Society library.
Deficiencies in the documentation of Hayden and Fonda's activities in the manuscript material are partially compensated for by the large number of audio and video materials in the collection. Coverage of the sound recordings is quite varied and includes numerous recordings of speeches and interviews of Hayden, Fonda, Holly Near, Jean Pierre Debris, and Daniel Ellsberg during the course of the IPC tours. There are also tapes of the November 1972 IPC convention in Detroit, Hayden's Vietnam classes in 1973, the organizers' school in 1974, and numerous radio documentaries produced or circulated by IPC in order to publicize the issues involved in the anti-war movement. A few items could not be identified. A complete list of the audio can be found in the Appendix.
Video material with the collection consists of five reels of testimony by Tom Hayden, Don Luce, George Wiley, Arnold Miller, and many others before the PCPJ's People's Panel which was convened in October 1971 to hear evidence about domestic oppression in the United States and Vietnam. Also included is a sixth reel of an Evict Nixon demonstration in Washington, D.C. which was part of PCPJ's People's Armistice Day activities. Three reels pertain to the Paris World Assembly for the Peace and Independence of Indochinese Peoples: a statement by an unidentified Vietnamese delegate, a conversation with three Vietnamese women, and a reception attended by Vietnamese and U.S. delegates. Also included is “The Vietnam Peace Treaty One Year Later” which featured IPC leaders Hayden, Near, Debris, as well as Howard Zinn and Cora Weiss. These videos are considered unprocessed, and are not further described in this finding aid.
