The records of PACS and papers subsequently collected by Maria Jolas have been arranged in
seven series: Administrative Files, Subject Files, Other
Groups, Post-PACS Subject Files, Publications, Audio Recordings, and Photographs and Ephemera. Except for the
photographs and ephemera, the collection is also available on microfilm. Approximately half
of the papers are in French, with the remainder mainly in English, with some in Vietnamese,
German, and Swedish. In large part, the original file order established by Maria Jolas has
been retained. A listing of this original order is located at the beginning of the first
series.
The ADMINISTRATIVE FILES of PACS consists of two portions,
designated Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 contains minutes and notes of meetings, dating from the
earliest meetings in 1966; membership cards and records; letters to and from the PACS
office; fragmentary financial and fund-raising records; records of the Secretariat Committee
(which dealt with secretarial and clerical work); PACS-produced leaflets and documents,
including PACS News and PACS
Digest; and memos, invitations, and material regarding programs. There are also
files concerning speakers for PACS meetings, films and educational programs, the PACS youth
groups, requests from other groups, and PACS programs. Throughout the series is substantial
correspondence dealing with specific issues and programs. A small file of articles by George
McT. Kahin, professor of government and director of Cornell University's Southeast Asia
program, was included with the administrative records; together with newspaper clippings,
these form a small working reference file regarding the anti-war and peace movements.
Part 2 of the ADMINISTRATIVE FILES were filmed separately, and consists of minutes and
agenda, membership cards and lists, ballots and election results, lists of officers prepared
for submission to the French government, correspondence, and notes, 1966-1968. Among the
early records are minutes and notes of early PACS organizational meetings; elections of the
first officers, with the biographical data required by the French government in order to
register the organization; and discussions concerning the goals and objectives of the
founders of PACS. Included in this file are letters regarding the internal disputes and
formation of cliques within PACS early in 1968, charges of election irregularities, copies
of letters and requests sent to the French police following the first ban on PACS after the
July 26, 1968 meeting, and similar documents.
The SUBJECT FILES contain some correspondence, and much printed material, reports,
announcements, articles, and flyers collected by PACS as resource materials. With the
exception of later files on the Stockholm Conference (which were added to existing earlier
files in this series), all of the material dates from 1966 to 1968. Some of the documents
were collected from conferences attended by PACS members, such as the 1966-1975 Stockholm
Conferences, the Solidarité avec le Vietnam Conference in Brussels (1966), and the
(Bertrand) Russell Tribunals, 1967-1968. Within the Stockholm Conference and Russell
Tribunal materials is detailed information on the effects of U.S. use of defoliants and
gases in Vietnam, presented at the meeting. PACS also collected similar documents from draft
resistance groups in the United States and France, and from other anti-war groups in Europe;
many such items are in the collection. Other subjects of interest to PACS members included
the truce talks, medical aid and war atrocities in Vietnam, the 1966 Human Rights Day, black
power in the United States, the 1967 Middle East crisis and war, and the Nigeria-Biafra
civil war, 1966-1968. Much of the material is critical in its analysis of Western and
Western-supported regimes considered repressive.
In a separate series is located material collected by PACS on OTHER GROUPS active in
anti-war work. Documentation includes correspondence, newsletters, flyers, and other printed
material. Among the most numerous records are those of the U.S. SANE organization, and the
British-based International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace, the former being the
group PACS attempted to join in 1966, and the latter an umbrella group with which PACS
closely worked throughout its existence. There is considerable material concerning the
French Mouvement Contre l'Armement Atomique and Association l'Amitié
Franco-Vietnamienne, and smaller files regarding other American, French, and English groups.
There is similar material present from anti-war and peace groups in Vietnam, Japan,
Czechoslovakia, Australia and New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Guadeloupe,
Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, and from such groups as the Quakers.
The POST-PACS SUBJECT FILES, 1968-1975, were collected by Maria Jolas, and have been
maintained in the alphabetical order established by her. In addition to scattered
correspondence, the files contain printed material, newsletters, and flyers. The subject
files cover a wide range of topics in addition to Vietnam and the war; for example, there
are substantial files regarding Cambodia following the U.S. invasion in 1970; U.S.
“war crimes” (folders entitled “Centre Internationale d'Information Pour
la Dénonciation des Crimes du Guerre,” “Commission sur U.S. Crimes du
Guerre en Indochine,” and “Crimes du Guerre”); the death of Vietnamese
leader Ho Chi Minh in 1969; Laos; political prisoners in South Vietnam; and Vietnamese
Buddhist peace delegations and efforts (including papers on Buddhist monk Trich Tri Quang).
Printed materials include issues of the Vietnam Courier (or
Le Courrier du Vietnam, published in Hanoi) and Vietnam International (published by ICDP, Great Britain), as well
as documents printed by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Gouvernement
Revolutionnaire Provisoire (GRP/PRG). Also present in this series are papers collected at
European conferences and protest actions, such as the “Assises Nationales Pour le
Vietnam,” December 1969, the anti-war Moratoriums of October and November 1969,
conferences in Paris in January 1972 and October 1974, the 1970 Peoples Commission of
Inquiry, and the Versailles Conference (or, Paris World Assembly for the Peace and
Independence of the Indochinese People) of February 1972. Among the miscellaneous items at
the end of this series are a few personal letters of Eugene Jolas, husband of Maria
Jolas.
Collected PUBLICATIONS, 1966-1968, 1971-1975, are about Vietnam and the war, with a few
concerning China, Cuba, and Africa. With the exception of the Bulletin d'Information (two separate imprints), most of the files contain only
one or a few issues. Most are in French or English, and were published in Europe or Asia.
Titles are listed in the contents list below.
AUDIO RECORDINGS include interviews and reports concerning the Vietnam War in North and South Vietnam and the United States. Also includes recordings concerning the Black Panthers in New York City.
The PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA series include images of a trip by
members of the organization to Vietnam and Cambodia in 1966, and of an anti-war protest in
Paris on July 4, 1966. Other photographs are images of medical providers in North Vietnam.
The ephemera includes items made by the organization, the Indochina Mobile Education
Project, and L'Union des Vietnamien en France.
