Notes
377 Notes All archival sources not otherwise attributed are from the CIA Archives and Records Center. Introduction 1. This summary is drawn from Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New York: Penguin, 1984), chaps. 4–5. The term Viet Minh is an abbreviation of Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh (Vietnam Independence League). The other two, far less populous, countries in French Indochina were Laos and Cambodia. 1. “The Effort Must Be Made” 1. The given name Dung is pronounced, approximately, “Zoong.” Diem is “Zeeyem” and Nhu “Nyoo.” Thuc is pronounced “Took.” 2. Paul Harwood, interview report DR-169, 19 June 1964, files of the East Asia Division, National Clandestine Service. This is one of a series of interviews of officers who had served in Vietnam conducted on behalf of the Operations Directorate . Dung’s reference to an armed and hostile population presumably pertained to the anticommunist religious sects the Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai as well as to the Viet Minh. 3. SAIG 3407, 26 July 1954, job 78-2412R, box 4, folder 2. 4. Hoang Van Thai and Tran Van Quang, eds., History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, vol. 2, trans. Merle Pribbenow (Hanoi: Vietnam Military History Institute, Ministry of Defense, 1994), 27–30. 5. Quoted in U.S. Department of Defense, Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed. (Boston : Beacon Press, 1971), 1:308. 6. John Caswell, interview by the author, 4 January 1991, Washington, DC. 7. Thomas L. Ahern Jr., CIA and the House of Ngo (Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2000), chaps. 2–3. 8. U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955– 1957, vol. 1, Vietnam (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1985), 611–14; Ahern, CIA and the House of Ngo, chaps. 5, 7. The best account known to me of the Diem government’s early strategy against the Viet Minh and its treat- 378 ment of the peasantry is Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972). 9. Ahern, CIA and the House of Ngo, chap. 7. 10. For a chronology of Lansdale’s assignments, see Cecil B. Currey, Edward Lansdale, the Unquiet American (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988). Currey’s credulity regarding many of the claims for and by Lansdale makes the book unreliable. 11. Ahern, CIA and the House of Ngo, chaps. 2–3. 12. Evan J. Parker Jr., Chief, FE/4, Directorate of Plans, memorandum for the record, “Indochina Positioning of CIA PW [Psychological Warfare] Officer,” 15 March 1954, job 1927R, box 3, folder 6; Edward G. Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 157–59; SAIG 3336, 12 July 1954, job 78-1927R, box 1, folder 1. 13. History of the Lansdale mission [description redacted]. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Paul Harwood, interview by the author, 16 May 1990, McLean, VA. 18. SAIG 3956, 17 September 1954, job 78-1927R, box 1, folder 4; Paul Harwood , interviews by the author, 14 August 1990 and 17 October 1989, McLean, VA. 19. History of the Lansdale mission. 20. Ibid. 21. Ibid. 22. Ibid. Several of Lansdale’s officers were preparing staybehind operations for North Vietnam, where there was a Western presence in Hanoi until May 1955. 23. Ibid.; David Smith, telephone interview by the author, 19 August 1995. 24. U.S. Department of Defense, Pentagon Papers, 1:306–7. 25. Ibid. The term cadre has various connotations, depending on context. In U.S. and GVN usage, it referred to any communist functionary, military or civilian , with significant supervisory responsibility or discretionary authority. In this scheme, a guerrilla squad leader or a hamlet committee member would qualify. The term was used also for more senior people, up to at least the provincial level. With respect to GVN personnel, the term was even more inclusive, applying to any member of a rural pacification program who had a substantive function. The term has this range of application throughout this volume. 26. History of the Lansdale mission. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Ibid. USIS is the term applied to overseas representations of the U.S. Information Agency. Also see Smith telephone interview, 19 August 1995. 30. History of the Lansdale mission. 31. Ibid. Lansdale’s first annual report and In the Midst of Wars are replete with his exhortations on leadership delivered to Diem during the first months of their association. 32. Ibid.; Rufus Phillips, interview by the author, 11 October 1989, McLean, VA. Notes to Pages...
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