CARMICHAEL, Denzel Loren.

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A Standard Vietnamese Typewriter. First edition, first printing, of this intriguing chapter in the history of Cold War information technology. Funded by the US, this report proposes a standardized design for Vietnamese-language typewriters to increase administrative efficiency in South Vietnam.Between 1955 and 1962, the Michigan State Viet-Nam Advisory Group led US-funded projects in South Vietnam aimed at developing the country's economy and ultimately containing the spread of communism. Public administration was an important policy area for the group. As the introduction notes, "the life blood of a government, and other organizations, is the paper which flows back and forth among the various organizational units" (p. 2). The study makes recommendation circumventing the existing need for Vietnamese typists, working with imported machines, to make frequent manual adjustments and to adapt to the 324 different Franco-Vietnamese keyboard layouts on the market. Following the completion of the study, the Vietnamese government quickly ordered 400 new machines based on Carmichael's suggested specifications.

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