Types of records include committee minutes, correspondence, memos, studies, reports, research files, cassette tapes, newsletters, photographs, and program logs. Dates covered are 1966-1969, 1981-1986, the bulk dating 1981-1985. Records are of the activities and research of the Texas Veterans Agent Orange Assistance Program of the Texas Department of Health including the Subject Selection Committee and the Agent Orange Advisory Committee. Committee files, correspondence, administrative files and other records document both the administration of the Agent Orange program and its work with the veterans including the collection of clinical data for pilot medical studies. Many of the records consist of studies, reports, and research materials on Agent Orange compiled by the program staff. Some of this material came from Agent Orange programs in other states. Contacts with the veterans were kept anonymous and confidential through the use of a numerical code assigned to each veteran. Program logs were used to keep track of the contacts and the codes.

Minutes are from the Subject Selection Committee and record the decisions of the committee as they reviewed the medical histories of referred veterans and selected those eligible for the Agent Orange program. Other committee files include memos and copies of legislation from the Subject Selection Committee and correspondence and cassette tapes of meetings from the Agent Orange Advisory Committee. Correspondence files include original incoming, Department of Health memos, and copies of outgoing correspondence. The incoming correspondence often has a Department of Health memo attached discussing what action was taken in regard to that letter. Subject matter of the correspondence consists of requests for information on how the program was set up, how clinical studies were carried out, the costs involved, the outreach program conducted in Texas, and the demise of program. Other frequent correspondence topics include the Agent Orange program annual report, clinical study protocols, enabling legislation, and preliminary results of the studies. Much of the correspondence is from Vietnam veterans, their families, veterans' organizations and support groups. State agency correspondents include the Attorney General, Department of Corrections, the Health Science Centers of the University of Texas, and the Texas Veterans Commission. Other correspondents include the U.S. Veteran's Administration, other federal agencies, physicians, and hospitals. The studies, reports and research files include a wide variety of data assembled by the Agent Orange staff as they tested for links between Agent Orange and health problems of the veterans. One item of interest is a photographic scrapbook of chemical spraying and defoliation in Vietnam. Other records include newsletters of Vietnam veterans organizations, reports and correspondence from Agent Orange programs from other states, and copies of the “Agent Orange Review” published by the Veterans Administration. Program logs were used to keep track of Agent Orange referrals, requests for consultations, and studies of the veterans. Veterans contacted the program seeking medical consultation and assistance on occupational, psychological, and toxicological problems. Selected veterans were included in an enzyme study, cytogenetic testing, or an immunity evaluation. The identity of the veterans was kept anonymous by using the coded number in the logs.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.