Download the VCIIA Viet Cong incident dataset

Downloads and caches the Viet Cong Incident in Area (VCIIA) dataset covering enemy-initiated incidents in South Vietnam from 1965 to 1968. VCIIA is one of the source files combined in get_comb_inc_dta.

Usage

get_vciia(cache = TRUE, force = FALSE)

Format

A data frame with 29 variables (row count varies by version). Key variables include:

sitrep_number: Situation report number.
quarter_of_year: Calendar quarter of the incident.
province_code: Province code.
vc_military_region: Viet Cong military region.
corp_zone_division: Corps zone or division area.
utm_coordinates: UTM grid coordinates.

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: Viet Cong Incident in Area (VCIIA). 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 29 variables. Row count varies by version.

Details

Each row is a discrete enemy 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{
  vciia <- get_vciia()
  head(vciia)
} # }