The Military Career subseries contains correspondence, field orders, reports, Army War College course materials, lectures by General Collins, a diary, and Collins' personnel file. The wartime correspondence includes letters from well-known generals, including Mark Clark, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George C. Marshall, Bernard Montgomery and George S. Patton. The series contains documentation on military tactics, VII Corps, Operation COBRA, 25th Infantry Division, Pacific Theater operations, and the Battle of the Bulge.
The Chief of Staff subseries contains congratulatory letters, general correspondence, Congressional testimony, press clippings, and subject and trip files. The general correspondence includes communications with other military leaders, including Mark W. Clark, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Alfred M. Gruenther, Thomas T. Handy, and Matthew B. Ridgway. Subjects discussed in this correspondence include the Korean War, Vietnam, U.S. Army tank programs, U.S. forces in Germany, Yugoslavia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Standing Group, North Atlantic Treaty Organization meetings and exercises, Marshal Juin and the French Government, Turkey, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe force requirements, defense of Western Europe, British forces in the Baltic Sea, European Command Headquarters, and integration of the U.S. Army.
The subject files are comprised of memoranda, reports, charts, and correspondence concerning a variety of topics, including air support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, armored vehicles, atomic artillery data, the B-36 bomber, integration of the armed forces, the European Command, the Korean War, the Quantico Conference, reorganization of the Department of Defense, equipment tests, standardization of small arms, the 280 millimeter gun, and the West Point Honor System.
The trip files contain reports, schedules, itineraries, diaries, and memoranda regarding trips to Korea, the Middle East, South America, and around-the-world.
The Special Mission to Vietnam subseries contains the records General Collins accumulated while engaged in the effort to assist Ngo Dinh Diem's government. This subseries contains the background materials Collins received from the Foreign Operations Administration in early November 1954 to help prepare him for his mission to Vietnam. It also contains appointment schedules, minutes of staff meetings, notes, telegrams, letters, messages, press releases, reports, memoranda, lists, cross-reference sheets, route skips, plans, government decrees and directives, position and policy papers, interview transcripts, newspaper clippings, invitations, maps, charts, tables, and telegrams.
This subseries contains documentation on most if not all aspects of relations with Vietnam as well as the greater Indochina area. It also contains material on French relations with Vietnam, and Vietnamese politics and political issues. Some specific topics documented are the Vietnamese National Army, refugees, the National Assembly, land reform, aid to Vietnam, elections, religious sects, the Bandung Conference, aid to Cambodia and Laos, trilateral meetings in Paris, anti-French sentiment, the United Front, the Vietminh, the Revolutionary Committee, the Ba Long Affair, the International Control Commission, the Dai Viet Party, Chinese Communist activities, evacuation of people and equipment, and the Pathet Lao.
The subseries includes documentation on many political and military personalities such as Bao Dai, Nguyen De, Dr. Phan Huy Quat, President Ngo Dinh Diem, Defense Minister Ho Thong Minh, Dr. Wesley Fishel, General Paul Ely, Hoa Hoa, General John W. O'Daniel, Cardinal Francis Spellman, Trinh Minh The, John Foster Dulles, Mendes-France, M. Edgar Faure, Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai, Ambassador Jean Daridan, Police Chief Lai Van Sang, and Colonel Edward Lansdale. Documentation is also available on many governmental agencies involved with Vietnamese affairs.
The Post-Military Period subseries contains correspondence, speech notes and drafts, and interview transcripts. This material reflects Collins' personal, business, and civic activities. For example, Collins was involved with Pfizer International Inc., the Presidents Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief, the Limited War Panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee, the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy, the Foreign Student Service Council, and the USO National Council. Included is correspondence with Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, General Lauris Norstad, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and other business acquaintances and former military colleagues. Some of the topics discussed include U.S. foreign trade policy, events and personalities of World War II, Vietnam, the Boxer rebellion, and the U.S. armed forces.
The Appointment Books subseries contains nine appointment books. The Speech, Statement and Lecture Subseries, contains materials on nearly two hundred presentations by General Collins consisting mainly of final copies but there are also drafts, handwritten and typed notes, and outlines. This material relates primarily to military matters, national security, and foreign policy but also contains references to general patriotic themes and domestic problems and policies.
The Writings subseries contains articles, papers, reports and books written by Collins. It also contains drafts, research materials, correspondence related to his books, and book reviews. In addition to his autobiography, Collins produced other works on the Korean War, military matters, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The Printed and Miscellaneous Materials subseries contains copies of congressional hearings, some of which include testimony by General Collins. Annotations by General Collins can be found in several of the volumes. This subseries also contains two books which Collins reviewed and or critiqued, articles, papers, and newsclippings on such topics as Vietnam, Korea, World War II, and racial integration of the U.S. military.
The Photographs and Maps subseries contains lists of about 700 photographs which have been transferred to the Audiovisual Collection of the Eisenhower Library and maps related to World War II and the Vietnam War.
