VIET NAM GIVES BASIS FOR PESSIMISM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300490034-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: August 28, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/
CPYRGHT
LEXINGTON, KY.
HERALD (Sunday:)
HERALD-LEADER
M. 48, 79
S. 67,0 3
Front Edi Other
Pape Pegs 'Pape
Date: AUG1 2 8 11,
. ct Nci m Gives
U.
/A pessimistic report by a
Intelligence Agency office
expresses "serious d ubt that vie
tory can be won" hA South Vie
Nam. Unhappily his appraisa
seems ;to be far more realistic tha
some of the optimistic talk of sev
eral mhnths ago that America
.troops could be withdrawn from the
-Communist - beleaguered n a t i o r
within the next two years.
Little has occurred since Willarc
Matthias; the CIA officer, prepare
his critical` xepo7r in June tha
:would discount his view that a pro
Tonged stalemate is far more likel
than an early end to the South Viet
mamese civil war.. On the contrary
stepped-up guerrilla attacks b
;South Vietnamese Viet Cong, civil
CPYRGHT
FOIAb3b
e For essi ismm- <
against any type of military die
tatorship or bitter and distracting,
factionalism, both political and re-.
ligious, at the moment foreshadow
even darker days in South Viet,;
Nam, possibly the darkest since tl'ie
little country became independent
of France in 1954. .
Although it stands as' a likely
OOrize for Communist aggression by
North Viet Nam or Red China,."
South Viet Nam's troubles are most-?
ly with internal forces. Its problems
are more political than military.]
Its war is a civil war, one in which,,
the United States finds itself back-.
ing a national government that'
never has had the allegiance of
more than a third of the people or,
the control of more than a fourth,;
of the country's territory.
Thus while the situation in South
'-dirt Narn may be becoming more;
critical, it never has been too good..,
None of the governments with:
which we have been allied since;
1954 has won the allegiance of the;
people, yet these governments, in-i
eluding that of Premier Ngo Dinh'
Diem, overthrown and assassinated'
last year, always have constituted;
the strongest single force within:
the country. But none could have,
survived without U. S. economic
and military aid.
In South Viet Nam, it seems, the'
j United States is strongly commit-+
ted to the independence of a nation.
whose own people, including a
sizable Communist population, are.
more likely to bring about its down-'
fall than are external forces of ag-,
gression. This will be true until
the Saigon government can some-'
how win over the allegiance of its
own people. - _ :..
Approved For Release 2000/08/26 :- CIA-RDP75-00001 8000300490034-5
ian demonstrations and protest