Download the NASVA naval surveillance dataset

Downloads and caches the NASVA naval activity and surveillance dataset covering coastal surveillance operations in Vietnam (including Operations Market Time and Game Warden) from 1966 to 1972.

Usage

get_nasva(cache = TRUE, force = FALSE)

Format

A data frame with 670,242 rows and 69 variables. Key variables include:

reporting_date

Date of the surveillance report.

task_unit_code

Task unit code.

operation_code

Operation code.

area_designation_code_of_surveillance_area

Surveillance area designation code.

Source

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, MD. Electronic records collected by the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). Source file: Naval Surveillance Activities (NASVA). See Smith (2025) and its Online Appendix for full archival accession details.

Arguments

cache

Logical. If TRUE (default), the downloaded file is saved locally and reused on subsequent calls without re-downloading.

force

Logical. If TRUE, re-downloads the file even if a cached copy already exists. Default is FALSE.

Value

A data frame with 670,242 rows and 69 variables.

Details

Each row is a surveillance report record.

References

Smith, Gregory L. (2025). "Beyond body counts: Vietnam war ground combat data." Conflict Management and Peace Science. doi:10.1177/07388942251391081

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  nasva <- get_nasva()
  head(nasva)
} # }