SOUTH VIETNAM SUMMARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A001400070001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 1, 1963
• Content Type: SUMMARY

Approved FoN Releasb.i004 CI RIT9A0014Q70001-4 K'.
25X1
South Vietnam
SUMMARY
24
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Approved F
GROUPI
Excluded from
outomati c downgrading
and declassification
r Release 200P CIg 9A001400070001-4
25X1%
 25X1 Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP79T00429AO01400070001-4
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP79T00429AO01400070001-4
 Approved For Relea9 700410710R ? rin-Rnp7gT00479n001
4aDD70001-4
(Information as of 1000 EDT)
25X1
25X1
2. South Vietnamese Vice President Tho, in a
one-hour talk with Secretary McNamara, General
Taylor, and Ambassador Lodge, complained that US
strength in South Vietnam is not being used "intel-
ligently," but declined to make any recommendations.
(Tho, a Buddhist and a southerner in contrast to
regime leaders, has little part or weight in the
government, and has long criticized its policies.)
He explained his complaint by the comment that the
US has been unable to do anything about the deep
discontent over the regime's police methods. Tho
said,,'diplomatic.protests and suspension of aid would
be ineffective, and remarked that instigation of a
coup, or introduction of additional US troops, would
be "idiotic."
Tho said dissatisfaction is widespread
not only in the cities but in the villages, because
the peasant is subjected to extortion and excessive
forced labor inside his hamlet, and to Viet Cong
taxation in his fields. Tho said that no more than
20 to 30 hamlets are properly defended, and supported
his opinion that the peasants side with the Vie;
Cong by stating-that Viet Cong strength has remained
constant. for. two years despite about,1,00Q casualties
a month. (Official figures.claim about twice that
many Viet. Cong killed in action over this period.)
3. President Diem's dinner for the McNamara-
Taylor mission Sunday night has yielded no signifi-
cant new intelligence reporting. He told Ambassador
Lodge at the conclusion of the Sunday afternoon con-
ference'that the newly elected National Assembly
will convene on 7 October.
Approved For R ease -
L
25X1
 Approved For Rel
x'070001-4
Diem did not indicate whether he would
make an opening address. In a speech on the anni-
versary of Confucius' birth Saturday, he called for
national unity to create democracy and promote
development in the interest of "the entire nation,
not the selfish interests of any group or minority."
4. Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia used an im-
promptu meeting with diplomats at a police academy
graduation ceremony on 28 September to refute
rumors that he is plotting with South Vietnamese
exiles or with Hanoi against the Diem regime. The
US Embassy in Phnom Penh is inclined to accept his
denials. Sihanouk said Diem must be removed if
South Vietnam is to defeat the Communists, but that
the change in regimes must come from within South
Vietnam. The embassy notes that the implication
that a new regime might defeat the Viet Cong with
continued US aid is a switch from Sihanouk's
earlier pessimism..
25X1
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP79T00429AO01400070001-4
 Approved For %pase 20TQP : pREI429 11400070001-4
Approved For Release 200 CCU PUIj29AO01400070001-4