Pentagon Papers: A visual presentation of data

Recently, the National Archives and Records Administration released an un-redacted version of the Pentagon Papers, official knows as United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by The Department of Defense, http://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/. (for more see my post on Learn Digital History at http://learndigitalhistory.blogspot.com/2011/06/pentagon-papers-online.html). The publication is organized in 47 volumes, one of which is Part IV. C. 10. Evolution of the War. Statistical Survey of the War, North and South: 1965 - 1967. This document includes 23 visual displays of statistical information about U.S. military involvement in Vietnam from 1965-9967. Data reported in the document included troop levels, the number of military operations, air sorties, and casualties. The display features 117 events featured on horizontal axises delimiting 3 month periods or yearly quarters. A small black triangle indicates the date of the event with descriptive text to the right of this chronological mark. Events are arranged in a cascading fashion from top to bottom, with the listing of events continuing at the top when space at the bottom runs out. The result is a series of five cascading lists running right to left across the 12 quarters. On top of the event chronology are line graphs displaying data sets. Each data set is represented separately on the even chronology display.

Below is one of the 23 visual. This one displaying U.S. deaths.


Larger version