Declassified South Vietnamese Whistle-blowing Documents from the National Archives II in Ho Chi Minh City: A Content Analysis

• In Event: Historical Perspectives on Formal and Informal Control

Abstract

Despite all that has been written about whistleblowers exposing corruption and atrocities during the Vietnam War, very little if any has been written about South Vietnamese government officials and civilians that brought forth similar claims about their own military and government. As part of a case study corroborating what Major (US Army Retired) Jack J. Wells wrote about in 400 of his letters that cover his 21-year career, first in the US Army, and later as a civilian public safety advisor for the US Agency for International Development in 1965, dozens of recently declassified top secret and secret whistleblowing-related documents were examined in the National Archives II in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After being translated from Vietnamese into English and transcribed, data obtained from these documents were subjected to multiple content analyses that reveal the nature, extent, and in some cases, eventual outcomes of whistleblowing activities initiated by the South Vietnamese. Preliminary results shed new light on the different facets of the prosocial organizational behavior (POB) model of whistleblowing and its accompanying model of retaliation. Also discussed will be progress made in documenting Wells’ claims, as well as evidence supporting/refuting theories about the circumstances that led to his death.

Authors

• Trevor Myers, Eastern Kentucky University

• James Wells, Eastern Kentucky University

• Tiffany L. Rankin, Eastern Kentucky University