Douglas Pike

Douglas Eugene Pike^[1] (July 27, 1924 – May 13, 2002)^[2] was a leading American historian^[3] and foremost scholar on the Vietnam War and the Viet Cong based from 1997 onward at Texas Tech University. In 1960, Pike became a Foreign Service Officer in the United States Information Agency and was sent to South Vietnam. Aside from serving in Saigon he had assignments in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei, and Washington, but Vietnam was the focus of most of his career. In 1981 he retired from the Foreign Service and became director of the Indochina Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Included in his duties in that position were serving as director of the Indochina Archive and editor of Indochina Chronology, published quarterly beginning in 1982.^[4][5] He was considered an expert on the National Liberation Front and NVA (People's Army of Vietnam) before his death in 2002.^[6][7]

Pike received a degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota as a bachelor's in international communications from the University of California, Berkeley and also a MA from American University in Washington D.C. (1958). Pike worked at the MIT Center for International Studies (1963–64) a year after graduate.^[8]

He founded the journal Indochina Chronology, and has authored numerous books and articles on the war and the National Liberation Front.^[6] His book PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam has been described as "one of the two or three most significant books to emerge from the war".^[9]