Download the SITRA ground combat incident dataset

Downloads and caches the Situation Report Activity (SITRA) dataset covering ground combat events reported through allied situation reports from 1966 to 1973. SITRA is one of the source files combined in get_comb_inc_dta.

Usage

get_sitra(cache = TRUE, force = FALSE)

Format

A data frame with 77 variables (row count varies by version). Key variables include:

message_date: Date of the situation report message.
record_id: Record identifier.
data_type: Type of record.
military_region: Military region.
force_nationality: Nationality of the reporting force.
country_code: Country 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: Situation Report Activity (SITRA). 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 77 variables. Row count varies by version.

Details

Each row is a discrete combat incident.

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{
  sitra <- get_sitra()
  head(sitra)
} # }