THE VIET CONG CENTRAL COMMITTEE FOR SOUTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00472A000600040017-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2003
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 8, 1965
• Content Type: IM

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
8 November 1965
INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
The Viet Cong Central Committee
For South Vietnam
1. The Central Office for South Vietnam
(COSVN) is the supreme Viet Cong political-
military coordinating organization in South Viet-
nam. It is directly subordinate to the Central
Executive Committee (CEC) of the Lao Dong (Com-
munist) Party in North Vietnam. Firm details on
the organization and membership of COSVN are lack-
ing.
2. COSVN is charged with the implementation
of policy lines, plans, and instructions provided
by CEC in Hanoi, and,with reporting on the situa-
tion in.the South, including the successes or
failures of. Viet Cong military and political ac-
tivities. COSVT apparently has considerable
latitude, within strategic guidelines laid down
by Hanoi, for conducting the war in the South as
well as the Communist subversive effort.
3. A Central Office for South Vietnam was
known to be in existence during the latter stages
of the Indochina war against the French, but was
of less importance than the present COS N
Subordinate at that time to the Communist Party
central committee in northern Vietnam, the Cen-
tral Office was responsible for coordinating the
Viet Minh struggle against the French in the south-
ern region of Vietnam (former Cochinchina) and
Cambodia, where, the Viet Minh organization was
never as strong as in the north. The old Central
Office was located in the Viet Minh War Zone C
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bordering Cambodia in northwestern Tay Dinh Prov-
ince, about 75 miles northwest of Saigon--the same
location of the present Viet Cong COSVN. The Cen-
tral Office was apparently disbanded in 1955--or
possibly moved north to consolidate with the Lao
Dong central committee in Hanoi--because of the
shift in Communist activities in the South from
military action to subversion. In the period 1955-
1960, Communist activities were directed through
two broad geographical agencies, Intersector 5 in
the northern half of South Vietnam and Nambo in
the sou he
4. In order to cope with the rapid intensi-
fication of the Viet Cong military insurgency
against the Saigon government, Hanoi re-established
the Central Office for South Vietnam during 1961,
but with far wider authorit .
ecording-to captured a ong pris-
s personnel from the Lao Dong central committee
in Hanoi were first infiltrated to reinforce COSVN
in May 1961.
5. Directly subordinate to COSVN at present
are five geographical regions, or interprovincial
zones, embracing all of South Vietnam, plus a
special Saigon/Gia Dinh organization for the capi-
tal area, These zones roughly parallel the organi-
zation of the Viet Cong military command structure,
although there continues to be tenuous evidence of
the existence of the Intersector 5--and possibly
Mambo--committees as intermediary echelons between
COSVN and the five subregions. Below the level of
the five regional zones, the Viet Cong COSVN chain
of command descends to party committees at the prov-
ince, district, and village level. The village com-
mittees are responsible for hamlet activities.
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6. The work of COSVN is apparently conducted
by functional staffs, the most important being party
committees"fot(.political.x,abt .vibes and military
affairs. There have been varying reports as to the
.identity of the very top Viet Cong leaders in-the
Central Office. A Lieutenant General Hai Hau has been
reported as head of the party committee and a Lieutenant
General Tran Van Tra alias Nam Trung as head of the
military headquarters and the commanding general of
the Viet Cong. The military affairs committee or head-
quarters is reportedly composed of three staffs: a
military staff, a political staff, and a rear serv-
ices staff. Other specialist staffs of COSVN are be-
lieved to include a military intelligence section, a
security section, a communications-liaison section
responsible for postal services and transportation,
and a propaganda and training section. There are sub-
sections for such activities as civilian and military
proselyting.
7. In addition, COSVN is responsible for the
Viet Cong's National Liberation Front, through which
the Communists attempt to enlist support from the
general populace in South Vietnam. The party commit-
tees ubder COSVN at the regional, provincial, dis-
trict, and village levels are responsible for control-
ling the Liberation Front committees at their respec-
tive echelons. These party committees form the cadre
apparatus of the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP)--
the southern branch of the Lao Dong party in the North.
The top overt representative of the PRP in the public
apparatus of the Liberation Front is Vo Chi Cong, a
member of the Liberation Front central committee. The
Huu
acknowledged is chairman of known to beeaLmemberieithernof COSVNn
Huu Thos not ot
or of the PRP'.
8. According to documents seized in western Tay
Ninh Province in December 1963, there are almost 3,,500
personnel attached to COSVN, including both political
and military cadres. COMUSMACV estimates that about
60 percent of them belong to military organizations--
security troops, reconnaissance a nd,intelligence troops,
and other combat support units. The remaining 40 per-
cent, about 1,200 persons, are assumed to compose
COSVNs political staffs and organizations.
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9. There is no COSVN headquarters installations
as such. Rather, the headquarters components--per-
sonnel, as well as administrative, training, and biv-
ouac facilities--are dispersed throughout War Zone C,
a rugged, jungle-covered and partly mountainous ter-
rain extending some 40 miles along the Cambodian bor-
der and including perhaps 200-300 square miles within
Tay Ninh Province. As is the case with Viet Cong
regular military units, COSVN headquarters personnel
and support units frequently move from one facility
or camp, or village or hamlet complex, to another.
Administrative staffs, which could be personnel of
COSVN, have been photographed in Liberation Front
propaganda on covered-sampans along the banks of
rivers or streams.
110 At least two South Vietnamese ground opera-
tions have been launched against COSVN in War Zone C
with minimal effect.
A quick ground fol ow-up o the air,
strikes uncovered numerous Viet Cong installations, in-
cluding a communications training center, but proved
inconclusive in determining whether large numbers of
personnel had been killed.
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12. In addition to the difficulty of effectively
COSVN at this time, successful elimination
destroying
of the COSVN complex in Tanbe C would not would suffer
cripple the Viet Cong. and some additional prob-
a major psychological blow, and of the Viet Cong mil-bulk lems of coordination. uThe nist Party ersonnel would,
m
m
C
however, remain in-41-2 .
t
o
itary force and of
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8 November 1965
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INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
THE VIET CONG CENTRAL COMMITTEE
FOR. SOUTH VIETNAM
DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE
Office of Current Intelligence
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