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Pentagon Papers

A digital version of the formerly top-secret Pentagon Papers, a report from the U.S. Department of Defense of the country’s involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967.

Searching

Main Search Bar Tips

  • The main search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline
  • Once inside the Pentagon Papers database, the search bar will search only within this database, unless the Search All Databases box is ticked
  • Need something more robust? Click Advanced Search to perform a search using custom drop-downs
  • Need a refresher on how to construct a perfect search? Click Search Help for a quick reference guide to commonly used search syntax

screenshot highlighting Advanced Search and Search Help in Pentagon Papers database

 

Using the Main Search Bar

  • For example, enter the phrase "geneva conference" inside quotation marks into the search bar
    • With the one-box search, users can search for this phrase as it appears in the Title of any document or across the HeinOnline Catalog. Select Just search for to search across all metadata within this collection. In addition, users can also search for a specific Author or use the Citation option to quickly pull up a document.

screenshot of keyword search for "geneva conference" in Pentagon Papers

  • Use the facets on the left side of the page to narrow your results by Date or Section Type.
  • Terms matching the search query appear in bold text within the matching text page snippets
  • Sort search results by relevance, volume date, or title
  • Save to your MyHein account, email a result, display download options, or download a PDF using the icons on the right side of each search result
  • Use the icons next to the sort-by bar to modify your current search, to search within results, to toggle all matching text pages, or to turn OFF infinite scroll

screenshot of search results for "geneva conference" in Pentagon Papers

Venn Diagram Search

  • Venn Diagram Search offers a visual representation of how search terms interact with each other
  • Helps users both refine their current search terms and become better researchers going forward
  • Find the link to Venn Diagram Search on the Advanced Search page
  • Searches are constructed by stringing together multiple terms separated by the Boolean operator "AND," with phrases grouped together in quotation marks

screenshot of Venn diagram search for "gulf of tonkin" AND johnson AND vietnam in Pentagon Papers database

 

 

 

  • Results on the right side of the page pertain to the search as we originally constructed it (represented by the red slice in the center of the intersecting circles)
  • Select Clear for the ability to hover over the different segments of the diagram and see all possible search term combinations from our original query
  • In our example, we can see results for:
    • "Gulf of Tonkin AND Johnson
    • Johnson AND Vietnam
    • "Gulf of Tonkin" AND Vietnam
    • the terms "Gulf of Tonkin," Johnson and Vietnam individually
  • Sort the results, save or export, turn to the specific page of a result, or start at the beginning of a given title