INSURGENCY IN LAOS, SOUTH VIETNAM, AND THAILAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001200010021-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: July 16, 1963
• Content Type: IM

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SECRET
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OCI No. 2296/63
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
16 July 1963
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Insurgency in Laos, South Vietnam,
and Thailand
1. Laos
a. Communist forces in Laos continue to
improve their capability for an intensified mili-
tary effort. As part of their psychological war-
fare campaign, Pathet Lao propagandists are spread-
ing rumors of an early Communist takeover in Laos.
Other Communist actions to erode the position of
anti-Communist elements in the country include wide-
spread guerrilla activity, patrolling and probing,
and other forms of military pressure and intimida-
tion. Direct military activity continues to be
limited to sporadic shelling in the Plaine des
Jarres region.
b. Preliminary discussions in Vientiane
have not as yet been fruitful, and continued Pathet
Lao intransigence casts further doubt on the desire
of the Communists to reach a negotiated settlement.
Prospects, therefore, are for a continuation of the
de facto partition of Laos, accompanied by limited
military action by the Communist forces aimed at
gradually increasing their territorial holdings.
Such limited action would not exclude a move to
take over all of the Plaine des Jarres. Communist
propaganda seems to be trying to build a pretext
for such an undertaking by continuing to charge the
rightists with provocative acts and violations of
the Geneva accords.
2. South Vietnam
a. Viet Cong activity in early July de-
clined to its lowest level since February, with
only two confirmed company-size attacks so far this
month. The pattern of attacks is unchanged, and
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government forces have shown increased ability to
react swiftly and force the Viet Cong to withdraw.
On 13-14 July, government troops south of Saigon
engaged three Viet Cong companies with heavy losses
on both sides. Some bloc equipment and ammunition
captured on 11 July may have been only recently in-
troduced. A recent Viet Cong defector claimed to
be a battalion commander infiltrated from the North.
b, The resumption of public demonstrations
by Buddhist leaders, who also threaten new hunger
strikes and self-sacrifices, seems likely to increase
tension and encourage coup plotting against the re-
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