Douglas Pike

Who was Douglas Pike?

Douglas E. Pike was a leading historian and foremost scholar on the Vietnam War and the Viet Cong based at Texas Tech University from 1997, was director of the Indochina Archive at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981 and prior to that served as Foreign Service Officer in Asia, with assignments in Saigon, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Taipei. Pike served for 15 years as the State Department's leading analyst. He was considered the leading expert on the VC and NVA before his death in 2002.

Pike has a bachelor's degree in journalism from University of Northern Dakota and international communications from UC Berkeley.

He was the founder of the journal Indochina Chronology which was subscribed to by academics and diplomats worldwide. He has authored numerous books and articles on the war and the VC. His book PAVN: Peoples Army of Vietnam has been described as "one of the two or three most significant books to emerge from the war".