THE SITUATION IN VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00472A002300010008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 9, 1965
• Content Type: MEMO

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 25X1
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MACV estimates that about 600 Viet Cong were
killed in a major battle fought northwest of Bien
Hoa by US and Australian forces and an estimated
battalion of Viet Cong on 7 and 8 November. The
engagement apparently ended yesterday.. Allied
casualties were, 50 killed (48 US) and 157 wounded
(151 US). Recent reports that DRV Premier Pham
Van Dong visited Moscow and Peking in mid-October
Pharr probably un er oo e
trip to seek more aid. Pham probably also was
pushing for a more coordinated stand on the war
by Peking and Moscow.
25X1
I. The Military Situation in South Vietnam:
Operation HUMP, a search-and-destroy ground sweep
initiated on 5 November northwest of Bien Hoa by
battalion-str.ength'task force. elements of the US
173rd Airborne Brigade and the Royal Australian
Regiment, entered its terminal phase today; cumulative
Viet Cong losses have been placed at 603 killed
(403 confirmed by body count) and five captured,
as against Allied casualties of 50 killed (48 US)
and 157 wounded (151 US) (Para. 1). Two ARVN bat-
talions.on a search-and-destroy operation south,
west of Saigon,,in Kien Phong Province, yesterday
inflicted significant losses on a Communist force
of undetermined strength (Para. 2). Eighteen
USAF B-52 strategic bombers yesterday attacked-a
suspected Viet Cong training and bivouac area in
Bien Hoa Province, 30 nautical miles northeast of
Saigon (Para. 3)o A one-day ground sweep conducted
yesterday by three battalions of the US 1st In-
fantry Division in Long Khanh Province failed to en-
counter any organized Viet Cong resistance (Para. 4)
In central coastal Binh Dinh Province, brigade.-
strength elements of the US 101st. Airborne Division
are continuing Operation SAYONARA, an action initiated
on 28 September to provide area and route security
for Routes 1 and 19 in the vicinity of Qui Nhon
(Para. 5),
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II. Political Developments in South Vietnam:
/ A Vietnamese
Government investigation into corruption in Binh
Tuy Province, from which US AID representatives have
been withdrawn, is still halfhearted and inconclusive
and may complicate a planned military operation in
the province later this month (Para. 4).
III.
Anoth-&
ra by
Military Developments in North Vietnam:
si a-- e 41st--has been found in phoToy-
(Para. 1).\
IV. Other Communist Developments: Communist
supplies o fuel and transport equipment are arriv-
ing regularly in North Vietnam (Para. 1).
V. Communist Political Developments: The
possi i i y that Premier am Van ong visited
Moscow and Peking in mid-October
(Para, 1).
VI, Other Major Aspects: The DRV Ministry
of agriculture may be encountering considerable
opposition from local officials to demands that
rice production be increased next year, despite
difficulties resulting from US air strikes.
(Paras. 1-3). Communist supplies of fuel and trans-
port equipment continue to arrive regularly in
North Vietnam (Para. 4).
9 November 1965
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP79T00472AO02300010008-8
LJ/~ I
1. The joint US/Australian search-and-destroy
ground sweep northwest of Bien Hoa entered its ter-
minal phase today, with no further significant con-
tact reported during the past 24 hours with battalion-
strength or larger Viet Cong forces in the operational
area. Casualties sustained by both sides during the
major battle waged on 7-8 November have been revised
upwards by MACV, with enemy losses currently placed
at 403 killed (confirmed by US body count), an esti-
mated additional 200 killed and carried away, and
five captured. Timely and effective US tactical air
strikes, heavy artillery bombardment, and automatic
weapons fire against, strongly fortified, prepared
Communist field positions were primarily responsible
for the high toll of enemy dead. Allied casualties"
have been placed at 50 killed (48 USj and 157 wounded
(151 US),
2. Two battalions of the 15th ARVN Regiment on
a search-and-destroy operation in Kien Phong Province
yesterday engaged a Communist force of undetermined
strength in a heavy firefight 80 miles southwest
of Saigon. Twenty-five Viet Cong were killed and
seven wounded, as against government losses of only
seven wounded. The operation is continuing.
3 Eighteen Guam-based. USAF B-52Stratofortresses
yesterday attacked a suspected Viet Cong training
and bivouac area in Bien Hoa Province, 30 nautical
miles northeast of Saigon. No ground follow-up ac-
tion was planned,
9 November.1965
25X1
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25X1
4. Three battalions of the US 1st Infantry
Division yesterday conducted a one-day ground
sweep in Long Khanh Province. The operational -
forces discovered 40 81-mm, mortar rounds and de-
stroyed two tons of rice. No casualties were re-
ported on either side.
5. In central. coastal Binh Dinh Province
brigade-strength paratroop elements of the US 101st
Airborne Division are continuing Operation SAYONARA--
an action initiated on 28 September to provide
area and route security for highways 1 and 19 in
the vicinity of Qui Nhon. Cumulative Viet Cong
losses currently stand at an estimated 333 killed
(81 confirmed by body count), 51 captured, 244
suspects detained, and 16 weapons seized. In addi-
tion, 51 tons of rice have been confiscated and
40-50 Viet Cong boats sunk. American casualties
to date total 17 killed and 70 wounded.
6. The action last weekend near Plei Me,
in which two companies of the US 1st Air Cavalry
Division engaged an estimated Viet Cong battalion
west of the Vietnamese Special Forces camp, re-
sulted in the capture.~of two Communist .50-cali-
ber machine guns, three LMGs, 21 rifles, 100
grenades, ten 3.5-inch rocket rounds, and 10,000
rounds of small arms ammunition.
9 November 1965
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP79T00472A002300010008-8
II. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN SOUTH VIETNAM
25X1
3. No official details are yet available on
the discussions between Premier Ky, now on a. four-
day visit to South Korea, and officials in Seoul.
Press sources are speculating that talks concern
closer military and economic cooperation, but that
Ky is not specifically requesting additional South
Korean troops. One topic evidently under discussion
is a. recent Korean offer to send additional medical
teams. Probably also under discussion a.re.the possi-
bilities of Vietnamese procurement of goods in Korea.
4. The US Embassy reports that the Vietnamese
government's investigation into corruption and misuse
of US aid on the part of the chief of South Vietnam's
9 November 1965
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Binh Tuy Province, initiated on 14 October, apparently
has been'clumsily and hastily conducted, with results
still inconclusive. USOM:representatives have not yet
been returned to the province, but it may become neces-
sary to return some US AID personnel before the investi-
gation is concluded, in connection with a planned mili-
tary operation later this month to secure and store
the rice harvest. If the province chief has not been
relieved by the time the operation begins, US personnel
probably will be introduced on a temporary status
ostensibly to deal with an emergency refugee problem.
9 November 1965
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III, MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH VIETNAM
1, Another new SAM site-the-41st--has-been.
found in photography The site is
northwest of Kep and has five occupied launch posi-
tions and an occupied central guidance position.
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IV. -OTHER COMMUNIST DEVELOPMENTS
1. Communist supplies of fuel and transport
equipment are arriving regularly in North Vietnam..
During the last half of October, almost daily
shipments of aviation gas and jet fuel, totaling
over 1,000 tons, were delivered over the Dong-
Dang.- Hanoi rail'line. Large. truck imports, mainly
from China and the USSR, have been noted recently..
The DRV is known to be planning to import-over
3,500 trucks and other vehicles from the USSR and
East European countries and imports from China
also are expected to continue,
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LJ/~ I
V. COMMUNIST POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
1. The possibility that DRV Premier Pham Van
Dong may have visited' Moscow and Peking in Mid-Oc-
tober
~Dong visited both
the Soviet and Chinese capitals sometime. between
12 and 24 October to discuss "urgent economic mat-
ters." Recent DRV propaganda has been stressing the
necessity of maintaining some form of economic
growth even in the face of the continuing air strikes
and Dong may have been discussing matters along that
line. It is likely, however, that if the premier
undertook the trip a primary purpose was also to
probe the extent to which the two bloc states are
willing to support the Vietnamese Communists with
military assistance. He probably also pushed for
a coordinated stand on the war by Peking and Mos-
cow.
9 November 1965
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1. Evidence of friction between Hanoi and its
local agricultural adminstrators over the regime's
projected agricultural plan has recently. come to
light. A meeting convened in late September by the
Ministry of Agriculture. to discuss the tasks of
agricultural production in 1966-1967 provoked "heated
discussions," according to an account in the party
daily. The Ministry of Agriculture was reported to
have demanded that rice and secondary crop produc-
tion be increased byten percent. over the 1965 level,
despite the difficulties resulting from US air
strikes.
2. The article did not specify what particularly
provoked the "heated discussions," but it is safe to
assume that local cadres and officials argued that it
had been impossible to meet the ordinary agricultural
goals even before the air strikes began and that in
the current situation a.ten percent increase is un-
realistic. The interruption of transportation from
air strikes, coupled with the drafting of agricultural
workers into the military and transportation repair
.teams, has probably made the fulfillment of planned
goals more difficult than usual.
3. The Hanoi regime undoubtedly realizes that
an increase of ten percent in the rice and secondary
food crop is unlikely next year, but it probably
feels that to show any sign of a letdown in its de-
mands in the face of the air strikes would only re-
sult in a general relaxation by local cadre. Hanoi
has had to fight a continual, battle against the
tendency of peasants and even.local administrators.
to keep what. they produce in their own area rather
than sell the required amount to. the national gov-
ernment. If the regime lowered the state norm, local
areas would remain self-sufficient but the national
government would be faced with an additional shortage
of distributable foodstuffs.
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TOP SECRET
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