B-52S POUND N. VIETNAM FOR 7TH DAY

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CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3
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RIPPUB
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K
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67
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December 9, 2016
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November 3, 2000
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1
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Publication Date: 
December 24, 1972
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NSPR
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WASHINGTON POST Approved For Release 20011942ft 451/k-RWAEhgaff4NRID in Saturday's raids. bringing to broadcast by Hanai Radio, at.; Ilea of the Bach Mai hospital,- wrecked the ear-nose-throat in- ass' ? 1 11-52s Pound dio claimed two more B-52s The North Vietnamese Fn . : were shot down over Haiphong eign Ministry, in a statemeat North Vietnam claims to have waging an :siitute and "completely de-. N. Vietnam. 17 the number of big bombers cused the United States of "extermination" molishedg a research section, F downed this week, bombing campaign against Hanoi said. A second 11-52 or 7'11:,Day gon announced that two I3-52s homes, schools and pagodas. The U.S. command in Sal- populated areas. destroYin" raid Saturday "laid a carpet, of bombs of different calibers were shot down in Friday's "By doing this. Nixon has , on a lone stretch going from From News Dispatches raids. It has now reported that committed crimes even morel t gate of the hospital to dif- U.S he . planes continued the a total of 10 B-52s have been barbarous than those of Bit- resent sections and patient heaviest assault of the war shot down since the renewed ler," the Foreign Ministry wards," the agency raported. on North Vietnam through a bombing of Hanoi and Hai- statement said. This strike damaged every sixth day Saturday, as Ha- phong began last Monday. A statement issued by the untouched room, including un- not accused the U.S. of wag-, Agence France-Presse corre- Hanoi delegation in Paris said derground sections of the hos- ing an "extermination" bomb-i spondent Jean 1.horaval re- B-52s had leveled villages hos- Pita', and destroyed the de- ing campaign against popu-1 ported from Hanoi that U.S. pitals and schools in . , partments of dermatology, in- lated areas. , planes made their 40th raid of "saturation bombing" raids ternal medicine, pharmacology, U.S. and South Vietnamese the week against the North Vi- against `..the most densely pop_ administration, kitchens, re- intelligence agents monitored etnamese capital at dawn Sat- ulated regions in North Viet- pair shops and laundries, i radio message reporting, urday. nam." .Hanoi said. , .i that North Vietnam's legen- He reported that while some The Hungarian news agency I a dary Defense Minister Gen. W . residents of Hanoi can he seen and Tess both reported that ! orldwide Protests Vo Nguyen Giap was killed : fleeing to the countryside on ! the Hungarian commercial I 31-minted on Bombing Friday in an explosion while ; bicycles or carts, people re-; mission and the East German 1 ' . touring a bomb-damaged area main in the city in "big num.; embassy in Hanoi were dam- ' From News Dispatches of Haiphong. i hers, .calmly continuing their i Denunications of the U.S. i need in the U.S. h V om iin?f a bombing campaign against ' But Washington Post corre- I daily activities, despite the -. spondent Peter Osnos report- alerts and the destruction of r,- aids. The Bulgarian news 'North Vietnam were reported ed from Saigon that the origin buildings, sometimes rig.ht in , agency reported that the Bul- in a number of cities around of the report, a spoken and . the middle of the city, that are, garian Embassy in Hanoi was the world yesterday. uncoded message from some-. in no way military." . also damaged. Radio Hanoi Sweden's Prime Minister where in North Vietnam, was Thoraval also reported that Saturday added the Albanian Olof Palme called the bombing not clear and intelligence the weekly Aeroflot flight and Cambodian embassies to an "outrage on . a level with sources expressed doubt that which lands at Hanoi's Gialam!,.the list of those which have the Nazi massacres of World it was genuine. .airport was cancelled Satur- been reported damaged by. War II. The North Vietnamese dee- day because the only stretch U.S.i bombs. . U.N. Secretary General Kurt gation to the Paris peace talks of runway left unscathad by i In New Delhi, U.S. charge Waldheim said he was greatly denied the report of Giap's bombs was too short to re- 1 d'affaires Lee Stull was sum- disturbed by the continued death with extraordinary ra- ceive a four-engine jet. i moned to the Foreign Ministry bombing and called for a I re- clay, to receive a protest su i mption of the Paris talks. pidity, Washington Post corre- But he said a turboprop Chi- Saturday damage to the Indian em- In Dacca, Bangladesh stu- spondent Jonathan Randal re- nese civilian plane managed to ported. The formal denial was land in Hanoi after waiting, in !bassy in Hanoi Thursday. A dents ransacked the U.S. In- U.S. spokesman said Stull ex_ formation Service building and In- issued 90 minutes after the re- Arming, Southern China, for j port first surfaced in Paris. more than 20 hours fur a lull !. pressed deep regret over any burned. President Nixon in night. Seven foreignbombers. embassies in in the bombing.. !, damage caused by American effigy Friday .1 About 200 persons demon- i The North Vietnamese mes- i lIanoi?those of East Ger- In Warsaw, U.S. charge d'af- strated against the bombing in I many, Bulgaria, India, Egypt, sage reporting Clap's death :' i Cambodia, Cuba and Albania? said he was killed Friday. at !faires Davis E. Booster saw :front of the U.S. embassy in and the Hungarian trade mis- the Tran hung Dao arma- i.' Poland's deputy foreign minis- !Tokyo. sion have now been damaged ments depot in Haiphong . ter Friday and delivered by American bombs, according, when a delayed-action bomb "profound condolences" for to reports from several capi- dropped by U.S. warplanes ex- :the death of three Polish sea-: taIs. plodcd. . Inca killed in Haiphong, when i The Soviet news agency Correspondent Osnos re- Itheir ship was reportedly hit ! Tass reported .Saturday that ported from Saigon that intel- I and sunk by U.S. bombers,' 'U.S: airstrikes on Hanoi had iigence officials said a rues- 01-ars= newspapers reported resulted in casualties ainunt,, sage of such importance would !today. American pilots held in the almost certainly have been in The Bulgarian and Hun- mainI POW camp in the North code. Vietnamese capital. "It could wellarian news agencies also re- have been a ported that the Pach Mai Hos- 'l'ass correspondent Alexan. plant," one official told ()silos. pi tat in Hanoi?head. ily dam- der11Iine,yeV reported from ? There have been erroneous re- . aged in Friday's raids?was Hanoi that raids sd a ti Ports before of 'the death of. int for the second time Satur- n' mg . iree 0 North Vietnam's top military! day. 1 'g , ^ 1 s dc di oPPed . strategist, who became a leg- The North Vietnam News camp, bombs in the area of a prison end after defeating (10.' French n Aeeey said Sunday. that .achere were wounded at Dienbienphu in 1054. "more than 25" workers at among the prisoners," he said. In Paris, the North Vietnam- Bach ,,iai IleTital and mem- He did not indicsde the nun, ese (101 ton to the peace hers of their families v.-ere her of casualties and repotted talks termed the report 01 killed in the two raids. Casual- (hat, Cliap's death "an outeind-out ties to patients were avoided ft POW (amp official saio invention of the CI :a." :`,. the injuri.d had Man taken to y evacuating them before the spokesman said: -We do not. .1 . . or .t eatment. al to denv this product of asite_ arit, buiphilla _pluiLk_ 1.,:orth vio f rrori nlilmiiTcd sat- ''t"Rel . 200.013iO4 ! QML-RDRUOrfultiviito00900020001-3 u.s.i.;.!ids ,i4hiattivedfore Rase , Lc . 1 airday add Sunday, Hanoi Ha- IA'arfare." bombing, U1 GUARDIAN Approved Wbf:kcailige 200103/NY: aliRDP80-016 C21 By Richard E Ward Second. of a series Clandestine sabotage, combat -and espionage missions have been conducted in Laos and Cambodia by U.S. military per? sonnet, despite White House denials and contrary to congressional prohibition. Such missions are top-secret actions directed by the Studies and Observations Group of the U.S. Army Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, located in Saigon and 'generally known by its initials, MAC-V SOG. The most comprehensive picture of these activities available, based on testimony of former participants in these missions, known as Cornmand and Control operations, is contained in a series of three articles by Gerald Meyer, published in the Nov. 5, 10 and 12 issues of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Unless otherwise indicated all material in this article is based on the articles by Meyer, a regular staff member of the Post Dispatch, who interviewed former Special Forces members, helicopter' pilots and others who. took part in the Command and Control operations during the 1960s and into 1972. The Post Dispatch's informants, whose names were not revealed to protect them from possible prosecution, stated that the clandestine commando raids were still in progress as of August. One informant said that in August when he left Bien Hoa, one of the Command and Control bases, more than 180 Army Special Forces were stationed there and reinforcements were being sent ? from Okinawa. The commando raids' in recent years, utilizing Army personnel who generally command teams composed of mercenaries from Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam, were also sent into North Vietnam and liberated areas of South Vietnam. There is evidence that the Air F.orce las operational jurisdiction over a similar program based at Nakon Phaon, Thailai3s1,Fit& reggaee Laotian boMRProveu Commando raids were ordered by volved in missions. ? Washington against the Democratic 'Republic of Vietnam in the early 1960's, as documented in the Pentagon Papers, but which provided few details. ?The present program, apparently undergoing a partial ticipated in Command and Control raids from Danang, said he had taken part in missions in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. "He said they were for the "Vietnamization," is an outgrowth of the. ether American missions threatened by purpose of gathering intelligence, rescuing original escalation of CIA-Special Forces North Vietnamese forces, destroying missions in Indochina ordered by !he supplies and disrupting enemy corn- Kennedy administration., munications facilities." Although the Post Dispatch does not Command and Control Central, operating' mention the CIA, it is clear that Studies and /ut of Dakto and Kontum, near the tri- Observations Group is a CIA operation. The, border area of South Vietnam and Laos and informant most knowledgeable about SOG. Cambodia, was used for raids deep within a Special Forces officer, was described by correspondent Meyer as fearful of being jailed or fined, saying: "If I talked to you and got 'caught, I could get 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine." ? The Special Forces officer said that the connections between Command and Control and the 'MAC-V SOG' organization in Saigon were so highly classified that we would not risk commenting on them," wrote Meyer. ? Despite his reluctance to talk the officer explained that the Command and Control operations were "formally" under the direction of the Fifth Special Forces Group until Jantiary 1971, when the Fifth Special Forces officially was described as having been withdrawn from Vietnam. Actually, according to Meyer, "numerous Fifth Special Forces were left behind at Command and Control bases throughout South Vietnam" and various efforts were employed to conceal their continued presence. They were forbidden to wear the green beret and ? Special Forces insignia while they remained in Indochina. Symbolic of the Command and Control operations, was a gestapo-like insignia, used 'by one of the units, a green-bereted .skull with blood dripping from its teeth. This Was the emblem of Command and Control Central. There were at least two other main units, Command and Control North and Command and Control South. The North, Central and South referred to the base areas of the commando teams. Apparently most of the operations under the Command and Control program, at least in recent years, took place in southern Laos. However, after the U.S.-Saigon invasion of Cambodia and subsequent Congressional prohibition against use of' U.S. ground troops in Cambodia, it is safe to assume that the secret U.S. missions were increased in the latter country. the two latter countries. "A Special Forces soldier formerly assigned to Command and Control Central said that the group's missions were handled by about 150 Americans and from 30Q to 400 Montagnard tribesmen. Men participating in missions first were transported to Dakto and then sent by helicopter across the borders, he said. "The missions were rotated among the men and casualties were severe, the man said.... Such teams usually included two or three American leaders and about half a dozen Montagnards. "Dakto was the starting point also for large 'hatchet forces,' with larger numbers of Americans and Montagnards. . . . "Less frequently?apparently only about once every six months?very large groups of Americans were sent across the borders on so-called Slam (Search, locate and an- nihilate) missions. More than 100 men sometimes participated in such missions. ... "Some penetrations into Laos apparently were quite deep. Both the Special Forces (two of Meyer's informants) said the U.S: operated a radio relay station on a mountain top about 30 miles inside Laos. ? "This station, called the 'Eagle's Nest,' was used to transmit messages between South Vietnam and Command and Control teams operating beyond the mountain top in the Laotian countryside." The radio station, whose .exact location was not specified, could have been located near the Bolovens plateau, in Southern Laos, where the Pathet Lao told this correspon- dent in 1970 there was a secret U.S. base. The Pathet Lao liberation forces captured Airborne bandits ? Typically, Command and Control missions comprised several U.S. officers or NCO's commanding a mercenary team .which would land in Laos or Cambodia, and "aimed at taking prisoners, gathering in- formation and disrupting communist ac- tivities." The commandos would -be tran- sported in . four helicopters, while four helicopter gunships would. provide air cover, itifilia;?0,1trArNallsb R00090002r- the forward air controller, were also In- WrSHINCITON POST Approved For Release 2001/03/04 2 9171A-FW80-01601R 11. hivo By ..Art Buchibald If Richard Nixon wins the election next week, most of .? the credit will go to Lu Doc Toy who heads the "Com- munists For . Nixon" Committee in -Hanoi. Lu Doc Toy who, until this election, always voted the straight Communist party ticket, deeided to support ? Nixon this year because he said, "I'm sick and tired of having my kids bused along the Ho Chi Minh Trail." . Having made the decision, Lu Doc Toy contacted the Committee for the Re-election of the President in .Washington. which sent one of their top CIA men to ...Hanoi to help him in the campaign. - Lu Doc Toy told the CIA man, "I need bumper .stickers, buttons, posters and a secret fund to- get the Communists For Nixon off the ground." The CIA map said, "We've written off North Vietnam as far as electoral votes go, but you could help us - tremendously in getting the President re-elected with a small favor." "What can I do? Lu Doc asked. ?... "Arrange a peace treaty with the U.S. -a week before :the elections." . . ? "It's clone," Lu Doc Toy said. "My cousin is a member -,.of the Politburo and he owes me a favor."-. Lu Doc Toy went to see his cousin Ton Son Not in his bomb shelter .the next day. During a 15-minute break in the bombing he said, "Ton Son Not, as you know I am head of the Communists For Nixon and I have a small -favor to ask of you." - "You have dishonored your ancesters, Lu Doc Toy," Ton Son Not said. "How can you support a man whose party would bug the Watergate?" "It was a prank," Lu Dec Toy said. "Everyone does it 'during an election year. Besides Nixon knew nothing about it." "Thats what all the Communists For Nixon say. But we -know differently. Besides, how could you work for :A man who said he would stop the war in 1968?" . . "Exactly," Lu Doc Toy said. "That's what I came to ,speak to you about Nixon wants to stop the war again, only this time before the election." '"It's a trick," Ton Son Not said. "What does he want in exchange for it?" ? "Nothing we wouldn't have given him in 1968. It's the .same deal. that was offered to him then." "But why now? I thought the U.S bombing was 'working." . ."Who knows what goes on with those cockamamie Americans? But I'm giving it. to you straight. If you 'people - say okay Nixon will send what's-his-name to paris to .sign the cleal.".., ; STATI NTL "Wait a mimic," Ton Son Not said, "If we agree to a Peace settlement, that means we'll have four more years ' of Nixon." "Look, Ton Son Not," Lu Doc Toy said, "We hold the key to the American presidential election in our hands. We have to decide whether we want Nixon for President and a generation of peace, or whether we want the mis- guided, badly thought out, socialistic programs of George McGovern." ?- The bombing started again. "WHAT ABOUT TffiEu? 1,1VILL HE GO ALONG WITH IT?" Ton Son Not yelled. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT THIEU," Lu Doc Toy yelled back. "HE'LL DO ANYTHING NIXON ASKS IHM TO!" ? . 1972. Los Angeles Times Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 STATOTHR Approved .For ReleasedgfINROA: ic -Rpm-0 1 601 ROO 1 1 OCT 1972 Ii61.-ce covertly hroadcast ropagancla to Vietnamese By I3ernard Zubres . ? . . ? . ? ritten fcrt The Christian Science Monitor The hews unit of the Voice of America has been covertly broadcasting anti-Communist propaganda to the North Vietnamese since the beginning of their spring offensive. The Operation was launched on direct orders from the White House ? reportedly over the protests of the newsroom editors. - The VOA's news unit is supposed to be as Untainted as possible. News writers are supposed to have two separate sources of Information on any story used (if it doesn't come from a field reporter). The Voice is . supposed to be a paragon of objective reporting, modeled on the British Broad- casting Corporation (BBC). The 18 hours of daily programming beamed at North Vietnam are intended to weaken the morale of the North Vietnamese. The shows Include reading the names of North Vietnam- ese prisoners of war, and any editorial material from American newspapers critical of North Vietnam. This propaganda activity is in apparent contravention of the VOA's charter which calls for news to be presented in a balanced and factual manner. Propaganda is left for ? the nob-news programming. On language programs other than Vietnamese the VOA news is generally scrupulous about its objec- tivity. The VOA's propaganda activity first came to. Public attention when the Japanese Gov- ernment protested the use of the American transmitter in Okinawa in broadcasting anti- North Vietnamese programs. The State De- partment flatly, and in good conscience, said no propaganda programs were being broad- cast from Okinawa. What the State Depart- ment failed to say was that the programs are simply being retransmitted from Okinawa. They are broadcast from Washington. The voice has not staffed the operation with regular employees, because they don't be- lieve it will become a fixture. The special programs are supposed to end simulta- neously with the termination of the spring offensive. VOA newsroom editors and man- agers protested its existence. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military aircraft often drop transistor radios to the North Vietnamese so they can listen to the programs. Critics of the programs say the broadcasts probably are self defeating,. The North Vietnamese can listen to the BBC, Radio Moscow, French, Dutch, Australian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese newscasts. There are those who say the harm to the VOA news' repptation from these U.S. propaganda pro- grams under VOA auspices is great. Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 BE .H7' CO Available Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved For ReleaseTtlikeinPATCPCIAIWORD-T04601R0009 1 Oct 1972 ct: ? . ' ? , ? : 44 ? c: ? -; / Pr A. Falk, ju,t LL.ck :rf.m AN-,;rciir.,..=, 1,'Zir, a favora- :neeton P.ic'oard strtictive 1espf;:.1se," .he law at Princo- Cortin" 'some ttJ tt:ree IlAve been er,,n pp-w,s 3-c:er,..,..:;;;;.i ;;...:roi, ati;t,..;d,:.- ofikr.Mri..-Ti? Cia:Iris the 1);;:el4:-.a atlon fcir r.:iettse or the threa rnoy ha,.?;; d pt.r or in tiordig the safety of z;ii 'POW's ron:ztrued as a in North North 'Vietnam by --?!;Jrc" such as hal::ng esp;ona,c;0 rilaterials tht: of North Viet- pLzeL?fige:,, t:. jr . . f:imi1rs.. . . ? :tIanis-;vteitt In taiidng the aci- pric:oners; Faik -..kts -per.istently" (}! CIA. , pitois boon se:`..t to. ;;?.r, thcir ;Inc: cil:sert1;txt .tnuirtrtvrt Pi ? 1.:e.artu;s" "a recap:ar,..er,ri:Inor.y ratra,r n "5(:C:";te,".:d 6.aLtd 1hz;r1 a r-- " "What i'otn..:1 most irre- dr".1 s? Li" -"? vel of Mia.h, unc fcr.ir? p n : I Cie i02.:1Ce Wil0 r. roieritc...:, of this tn.'",?-cd tr.e ?OW*3 from not ,niy hara:is- Hanoi, the rr.lea,,,e ";;;ds n;.,, }-.;ut an 0:1,,,,2!ricnce to !..oe whether;zovera- , , cait a*, Ther:t.o its, thu prmts, or cf.',ostc..;(tive. rt:spo;:.? ti-,c v..hy it mig:It. port if the Unitc:i Goy- ;;;?:.:T:ad..1.f.r.., thu chance3 of efrohenr." ? c,:horsif t?hey per.,,isk?f-i Ia hi "it ;11:in't a con- octet,," said the pr,-.f..,ssor of saisi there was no ioe basis far such fc " t"::roe were prc.1-.)an.-. to t::rn the.n...?eic?e3 ti) tory after a fcx days haci with thei- :a---'1:os," Falk utid the Nu' Vtat- soy f.:rthr rf this typ. La th,-iy did F..ay in a c.ega- Iiv tazt aN.cm.:s to -Jeu!..3r.1;ve further prison...r ...eleae.os," F.:111:s W?22 c , . \ tb: of tic:' c,..n- finer?r-J " Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601AORMW0001-3 Pui-CELAND, ORE. OREGONIAN OM- 1197k - ?4q),132 S ? 407,186 Col. Hogan in Hanoti it looks as if Hanoi's Communist propa- ;? ga.ndists have gone astray, again, in charging that packages received by American prisoners of. war Irani their relatives at home have con- tained hollowed out peanuts, .soap and toys with - messages and a giant-size tube of toothpaste with a radio receiver in it. The accusation is that these and other de- vices have been sent to POWs in an effort to enlist them as spies. Spies? From prison cells? The Politburo must be tuned in to those everlasting re-runs of the TV comedy series, Hogan's Heroes, who are pictured as World War 11 POWs raising all kinds of hell for the Nazi war machine from a spy base in Stalag 13. It's really too much to believe that relatives would knowingly endanger their sons and hus- -hands in Communist prison quarters by sending them materials for spying. Or that the CIA, the Pentagon or any official of the U. S. government would do it, considering the futility of such .a project. The display was shown to the anti-war ac- tivists who went to Hanoi to help Hanoi's propa- gandists publicize the release of three American POWs. One of them said, "It looks to us an un- mistakably professional job." Meaning, one supposes, the CIA. The CIA has done some silly things, only revealed when their agents have been caught, but wed hate to think the agency is as naive as the Hanoi Politburo is in making such charges, and the people who swallow them. V Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved,. For Release 2001 601 2 9 SEP 1972 STATOTHR Inade North Vietnam This is one of a series of articles by the chief Washing- tot correspondent of the St. ,LOuis Post-Dispatch, Richard Dudnian, who has returned front two weeks in North ,Vietnam. ? ? , .Long before it was bomb- ed this year, the catherclral of Phatdiem was_ a routine 'showplace for foreign visi- tors. North 'Vietnamese , leaders wanted to refute the . idea that they suppress ,. Catholicism. , Now the wrecked church t complex has become a high- priority exhibit of the hor- rors of the war for such ' views as the three U.S. pilots i released this week and the American delegation that went to bring them home. A tour of the area on Sept. l: 4 showed at least four bomb craters within the cathedral t compound. t_ 1 - The central Cathedral Is 1 In two parts, one Of them an i , ornate stone belfry topped *, with swooping Chinese-style :'? roofs and human figures as ; well as crosses. It was tin- damaged. Behind it, the huge wood- en main building, 230 feet long and 70 feet wide inside, : had ben battered by a bomb : that had struck in a court- yard beside it. Fragments of , 'tile lay in the pews, and the : wreckage of carved wooden ' paneling lay on the floor. , ? Flagstones from the court- yard lay on the roof, where ? they had ben hurled by the . explosion. ., ' Two Churches Gutted ! To the west, across the ' eourtyard, two -smaller ! churches, St. Joseph's and 1 St. Peter's, both had been : gutted by the blast. A choir i hall had been wrecked by 1 another bomb that shattered Itwo .walls and the roof. On the east side of the ! main cathedral, St. Roco's -`, Church had been smashed - by another bomb. Behind it, a small all-stone church said to have been built in 1875 , and to WOO group *-1 a religious statues had been had been there. I ran to the removed for safekeeping. place and f was about half Catholic. He ;fou ? , Take Toil Some of the churches in - the Roman Catholic com- plex had been damaged by the Johnson administration's bombing raids of the 1960s. Officials said they had been restored by the time regular bombing of North Vietnam ' was resumed this year. The craters and wreckage ob- served there this month ob- viously were fresh. A local official, Pham Ngoc Ho, vice chairman of the Kimson district adminis- trative committee, said that two of the churches were hit July 24, when six bombs were dropped on the area. He said 19 persons were killed and six injured. Ho, who said he was not a , Christian, reported that a second attack came on Aug. 15, which he said was a reli- gious holiday?"the day St. Mary went up to the sky." , Aug. 15 was the Feast of the Assumption. He said five were killed and three j ured. ; "The Cathblics had sev- eral masses that day, but they were in an evacuation church away from here," he said. "Four planes came just before 4 o'clock in the after- noon. They circled overhead for 20 minutes. Then they dropped 10 bombs on the churches and some houses next to them." Survivors presented Several victims and survi- vors of the two attacks were presented. One of them was a 12-year-old girl named Nguyen Thi T,ho, who wore a St. Mary medal on a string around her neck and the customary white cloth around her head for mourn- ing. "On Aug? 15, my mother was drying rice in the sun on the stone pavement near the church, on the other. side from our house," she said. "When I heard the warning, I got into our shel- ter. The American planes :came, and I heard a bomb. explode close by. People there. She was already. dead." "Little Tho," as the Viet- namese call the girl, is the eldest of four children. Their father, a farmer, now builds, dikes and digs irriga- tion canals, she said. The pastor of three focal parishes expressed tile opin- ion that the bombing of the churches was deliberate.. The Rev. Vu lieu Cue, 75, was interviewed in a parish conference room decorated with a crucifix, a defunct grandfather clock, two sets of water buffalo horns and an elephant's tooth. A.sign on the wall in Viet- namese said, "Deep regrets at the death of Ho Chi Minh." "I think the Americans have suffered heavy failures on the battlefront and now are trying to threaten us by killing many people," he said. "And now they are trying to kill many Chris- tians and -destroy many churches in order to arouse the people against the gov- ernment." If that was the intent?to turn a potentially dissident minority group against the government?he said it had failed in his parishes. "Fight to the End" "These Christians know very well the crimes corn- mitted by the Americans," he said. "They know that they must take up arms, and I know they are willing to fight to the end even if the war drags on for many years." He said he was advising Catholics to dig bomb shel- ters at their homes and around the churches. In an- swer. to a question, he said he would shoot down an American plane if he had the opportunity. . ? Father Cue said the con- gregations of his three par- ishes totaled 1,850. The num- said it hit in the churchyard ber of crosses and religious . on the other side of the medals worn by townsfolk m /lurch. Faed `rC./ TAD -Ara., many Catholics there were . in all of North Vietnam, but he said there were 80,000 in Ninhbinh, province, which includes the Phatdiem dio- cese. Officials in Hanoi. said there were 800,000 practicing Roman Catholics in North Vietnam. Some well inform- ed U.S. government speci- alists consider that figure reasonable. ? Whatever difficulties the 'Hanoi government may Ii eve had in the past with its ? Roman Catholic minority, the Catholics now appear to be regarded as a loyal segment of the population. Officials referred to what they called a propaganda campaign by the United States in 1954 to try to per- suade all the Catholics to move south of the 17th par- allel. They described the campaign as partly success- ful. Reports Disputed Reports that the Hanoi government had executed some 500,000 Roman Cath- olics in a ruthless land-re- form. campaign in 1955 and 1956 have lately been dis- puted. On the contrary, it is said by some students of the episode, this "bloodbath" story was a piece of black - propaganda fabricated by ' persons subsidized by the U.S. Central Intelligence v/ Agency. ? In any case, many Roman I Catholics remain in the North and continue to prac- tice their religion there.. Their attendance at daily mass in large numbers and their obvious knowledge of the ritual supported the of- ficial line that freedom of religion is permitted. Whether the Catholic; can be considered first-class , citizens in a Communist so- ? ciety is another question. One bit of evidence suggested blhabbir-b not. Continued tv kg Re easib2Q0a1/003/04lieCIA412plo ontaggp o nd her lying said he did not know how EIZ Approved For Release 2001/031,9440PARDP80-0$61X111M1 27 SEP 1972 Reds gay ? 71-3)T{17 U.; B (71Z- fCgiti:5 Peking (.4 ?American anti- war activists, in Pelting with three prisoners of Nvar released by North Vietnam, disclosed yesterday a charge by Hanoi that United States packages mailed to POW's have con- tained spying devices, rigged into' such things as cans of The Pentagon called the charge ridiculous. The charge was first made on the American delegation's second -day in Hanoi Septem- ber 17. Hoang Tong, editor of the official Communist party newspaper, Nhan Dun, said his government was "extremely upset by electronic devices hid- den in packages regularly sent to prisoners." The activist delegation?Cora Weiss, David Dellinger, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin and 1/Richard Falk?who went to " Hanoi to get the prisoners, said they asked for evidence to , prove the charge. This evi- dence, they assert, was dis? played Monday shortly before the group left for Peking and thence Moscow en route' to the United States: As described by the delega- tion, the nearest thing to an "electronic device" seemed to be material for a radio re- ceiver. A correspondent accompany- ing the .group did not see the display. He had attended var- ious meetings with the three released POW's and seven - other POW's who were brought forward for interviews Mon- 'day, but was not advised that !- the alleged espionage materi- als were to be shown. - Later Mrs. Weiss told of the ;display and passed on photo- graphs which she said the North Vietnamese had de- scribed as showing packages ' and contents sent to American "Too ridiculous" A Pentagon spokeSman, Maj. Gen. Daniel James, said when asked to comment in Washing- ton: "The charges are too ri- diculous to dignify by trying to . address them in detail. I know , of no instance of such actions ' taking place, and I think it is just another of the propaganda web that Hanoi is spinning to obscure the real facts concern- ing her intransigent jiasition in refusing to negotiate meaning- fully for our prisoners of war." From the pictures could be discerned three -names of al- leged recipients?Charles B. Tyler, of Mesa, Ariz.; Edward A. Brudno, of Harrison, N.J., and William Robinson, of Rob- ersonville, N.C. Mrs. Weiss's group told of the following: 1. An extra-large tube of ; Colgate toothpaste which when squeezed revealed what Hanoi said was a receiving apparatus with a battery compartment ,and an earpiece. I 2. Inside a candy bar were ;two pieces of cellulose paper, each 2 by 3 inches. with in- structions for writing messages :that would not. be detectable. The special paper was to be folded so that it Made a sharp edge, and the secret message was to be written with this edge, the North Vietnamese said. Then, by using a code word in a normal letter, the prisoner would tell the person receiving his letter that there was a special message to be found by special processing of the paper. 3. A peanut shell that had been hollowed out and con- tamed a message, .and also cans of milk and instant coffee which -Hanoi said also had con- tainedyiessages. 4. A toy hipOpotamus about Pk inches long, sealed, which when opened showed an enclos- ure with raised writing on one side reading "see secret hiding place" and on the other, 'hold together, stand op." 5. A wrapped bar of soap that had been cut in half, each half gouged out and con- taining plastic hags full of cap- sules said by the North Viet- namese to be used for secret writing. One small cellulose sheet was said to have asked for verification of the deaths of five American fliers, as an- nounced by the North Vietnam- ese, and information about any others known to be dead. - The same sheet asked recipi- ents to provide any informa- tion about prisoners captured anywhere in Indochina. The instructions with this were said to read: "Identify X reference word X provide details on letter writing procedure X. Are you under constant observation by guards or interrogators while writing home queries? Are some POW's not allowed to write? Do you get to keep your letters from home? Do POWs have access to or control of communications receivers? What frequencies and times. can you receive queries? If not available, what critical parts are needed to build a receiver? How effective is covert POW I communications?" Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved For Release 2fttil1Y03ffi4eatliA-RDP8001601R September 1972 STATOTHR -a! k r--i ? 1 L.1 Lj L.] Li r-4r:-1":1111' Tr's t . ? I\J J, ? t 3 L Li U c ? 4 ; 4 ' 1..J ? - ;41'7.-1 , . -- H,---- r?f; 1-- --"1" k i , - ? 4 1 i 1 1 * : / - : ' . k i .., ? , il? i i-- ,, - ._1\ ,..1 . ,L.,.77.i..,r.i.?,.:, \t,.._ 1. ..-::---' t".,''. . - E. OLD WORLD WAR TWO C-46 bounced ' - ?'? But he manago?die drop down and .-. and yawed in the violent turbulence as contour fly the valley floors, below the Lts:tWin engines strained to maintain 160 .: -:-Red radar, and just after dawn they knots. Its American pilot gripped the landed back at their base. They climbed. - .:controls with every ounce of strength he ? I.' :from the plane, -their gray uniforms could muster, and his eyes ached from Soaked through with sweat, and the pilot - ' the strain of searching the darkness-- -. muttered for the thousandth time, "There's gotta -.- to avoid the towering Himalayan :- : .. :- -;:.--. -- ..?-- ?.; be an easier way to make a buck." ?? mountains on each side. Th .o C-46 was ancient, but its skin had been polished ley'd taken off from an secret base over _ -? ? _?to shine like a mirror. Back toward the tail were three hours ago and were threading small blue letters that spelled out "Air America." The ' their way cast of the Tibetan capital of '-', only other identifying marks were the fresh ' ?-?-Lhasa,-long occupied by the forces-- ?' - 37mmholes in the left wing panels. of Rd China. Their mission: drop . . . .. . ,agents -and supplies to a band of Tibetan:: .1-Throughout Asia, people have come to rc,cognize '-.---' - . . guerrillas who were still fighting: -- . ? ?. -. - ? ,- these strange aircraft and their even stranger . the Communists. American pilots.?.Especially the pilots. You learn to -.-. The copilot, .sweating over the air chart :'-_-,..--,:-. spot them wherever you are. They!re the guys in his lap, tried to guide thorn to.the-n ? in the gray Air Force-type uniforms, crushed caps, drop zone that a mysterious American - - . '_.: .cowboy boots, with pistols hanging at their. 'T..-!.`civilian"- at their bi,se had earlier ?-?i,._-.:?sides. They can be found raising hell in the Suzy :described. "Hold your course," he '-'- -7...- --,-1-.Wona section of Hong Kong or racingmotor died. "Another two minutes should bikes along Tu Do Street in Saigon or joking with the -put us right on." :- ? - girls at the Vienq Rattay Club in Vientiane. .: They're the pilots of the cloak arid dagger Air America, one of the world's least known airlines. Many are "old China hands" Who first , began flying for the "outfit"..back?when mainland ' . China belonged to Chiang Kai-shek. They're I0 last of that breed known as soldiers of fortune, ,and these devil-nay-care mercenaries .will. he VpViIbt kached nup, flicking Orr the - 'get-ready" light to alert the-Tibetan- -agents who'd be jumping, and.the lane crew who would kick--the supplies out :,"Gol." he, yelled and switched ?- on the buzzer. . rjtist as' the last chute-Opened, the old plane -was suddenly rocked by deadly Communist 37mm antiaircraft fire and the:pilot cursed to himself, "Goddam? continuod A.porlintett Igo rilFtbrkklg@IMMOMPA : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 r bastards were waiting for us:' NATIO= GUARD IAN Approved For Release 200160Ra4n..91A-FWARallif0 r; 11 (2.?, ) ; V:',L4 6Li uy Wilfred Burchett Gitardian tag corivpondtril Q:1-.) U:'J. A pi:14.72-7%, ? tiL \U U Where the dikes are not directly bombed the nearby 1-1 bombing causes cracking Gf the earth of the dams and in t r.5 e77:;;) ? , ; ? 3 ( this .way the result is the same." !!' Waldheim continued: "I am deeply concerned about t-'`..) this development and I-appeal to stop this kind Of born- binge which could lead to enormous human suffering, enormous disaster." Waldhcinr enraged the White House. Nixon .promptly declared the Secretary G('neral and other "well in- tentioned and naive' people" had been "taken in" by Hanoi's statements. The President was clearly put on the defensive. He got the State Department to hand out a re-port?palmed largely by the CIA?that claimed "no major dike has been breached.?.. . Photographic evidence shows conclusively ? that there has. been no intentional bombing of the dikes." But the report admitted damage had been caused .at 12 points?allegedly because they were "close to identified individual targets." By ?the end of July DRY radio was asserting theedikes had been damaged at, 60 points. Waldheim met with U.S. representative to the UN George Bush. Bush emerged from the talk ''subdued and troubled," according 10 one account. Bush said ,the talks were "frank and full" and "I think the best thing I can do on the subject is to shut up." The Sc.e.retary General's condemnation of the? dike bombing's is the strongest UN censure yet of any U.S. actions. But .he had made other statements against the Vietnam war. An earlier memo the Security Council said: "I feel strongly that the UN can no longer remain a mute spectator of the horror of the war and of the peril which it increasingly poses to international peace."' And in a statement in May he said it war, time for the "full machinery" of the UN to be used to stop the war. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. George McGovern (S.D.) said Nixon "stooped beneath the dienity of his office yesterday in bragging, that %Nye could finish off North Vietnam in an afternoon.: "The President is again deceiving and misleading the - American people," McGovern said: "And at the same time, it nm; becomes clear he is rimning the war, and peace talks to try to fit his own election timetable." It was Nixon who boasted March 10 last year that those' who think Vietnam is going to be a big political issue next. year, are making a grave miscalculation. The truth s that the Nixon-Kissinger attempt to sweep the Vietnam question under the rug has turned out to be an abysmal failure a?d?iniscalculation. The barbarous attacks against the dikes in North Vietnam are a measure of Nixon's fury ?oyel? his gre'at failures. "lust and generous". At the peace talks July 13, Porter called attention to the "just and generous" nature of Nixon's peace proposals. "As you know," he said,' ,"they envisage first of all the ? return of all U.S. POWs and an accounting for I !lose reported missing in combat." . There was no mention in this most "just and generous" proposal .of a reciprooal release of Vietnamese POWs (North Vietnamese and NU) who are held under the most barbarous conditions in South Vietnam. This is one more symptom of the racist nature of the war. The main point is that, as with every ?other question, Nixon tries to place the cart before the horse. Ile tries to extort the roost favorable conditions for the U.S. while refusing to tackle the question of the comprehensive political and military - solution to the war. Paris President Nixon's real attitude toward the Paris talks on Vietnam, the pilot wisoners-of-war and the Vietnamese people was sharply resealed at his July 27 press conference when he aid .he. conk) "finish off North Vietnam in an :lltenioon were it not for the "great restraint" he 'has been e.erting. On July 13, when delegates took their places around" 'the Paris conference table for the fir it time in two months, it was cleat Nixo'n still believes that because the ? U.S. is a ? supe'rpower and Vietnam a small, ecantornically un- derdeveloped ,country, the U.S. delegation can negotiate front a "position of strength" and the ? DRV-PRG delegations from a position of weakness. U.S. "strength" has been shown in the last few weeks to result in-devastating deleats on't he battlefield at Quang Tri and An Locand.in a censure of its bombing of the dikes in North Vietnam by the Secretary General of the UN, Kurt Waldheim. . Saigon. President Nguyen Van Thien ordered the provinc,e of Quang Tri. including its capital city of the same name, captured by July 13. Despite paper claims to the contrary, Thieu's troops were reeling back front the area on the. target date, never having entered the city and not having retaken anything of importance in the rest of the province. Unprecedented bombings This defeat occurred despite the use on an un- preeedented scale in military history of 8-52 bombers and the big guns of the 7th Fleet to escort the Saigon troops &cry step of the way. By the Aug, 3 peace talks, the elite paratroopers-.had been withdrawn, having lost one full regiment?a third of the only parachutist division loSt in one action. The division had already been severely mauled in other actions during the past three months. The citadel in the heart of QuangTri city'remains in the hands of the resistance forces and it is now Saigon's single Marine division that is being cut to pieces in the same area?all to insure a prestige victory and give U.S. am- bassador to 'the talks William Porter- a "strong hand" at the 'negotiations'. As for An Loc, the battle began there :when Thieu or- . tiered Highway 13, connecting An Loc with Saigon, opened early this April. Three months later it is still shut down and another division?the Third-- is out of action. The Nixon administration received another jolt in late July when jiiN Stig-Atztv G cegilaar conunciAiwoi /M opii 's Vyk A reports of ni .9(.!! ,kft Oc191re'13-RWA?%ffett!Mq,,,91cY outrage at the bombing of-the dikes, said: "Even in cases : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 -utninued Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R0 SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA MERCURY 1 August 1972 10 Aa-s'4-tia ion locked Dv GA SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) ? was still alive atthe time he The CIA opposed a suggested was working on it. The North American plot to assassinate Vietnamese leader died on North Vietnamese leader Ho Sept. 3, 1969. Chi Minh and the attempt smith met newsmen - on was never made, the author file publication date of. V of a ,history of the intellig- - The Secret Ilisto- /Tice agency said Monday. ? ry of America's First Cen- t/ R. II-a rris Smith, whose tral Intelligence Agency" book deals with the Office of published by University of Strategic Services (OSS), California Press. predecessor of the CIA, told Smith tells in his book of a nev.,s conference that he the OSS backing Ho Chi Minh heard about the assassina- during World War II. Lion plot from an ex-CIA offi- -The OSS felt an emotional -cer but, had no documenta- rapport with Ho," Smith tion. said. "They felt he was fight- "The plot was. conceived Mg to free his country from by a retired high -I evel the Japanese. and also to free State Department official it from colonialism. ? but was opposed by the "An OSS medic once saved CIA director and was Bev- iTo's the in the jungle and er put into effect," Smith then 20 years later the CIA, said. which followed the OSS as The suggestion was consid- America's intelligence agen- e'red at the highest levels of cy, apparently saved his life,' government 'and was turned again by its opposition to thel down by the White House at assassination plot." ? the CIA director's recom- mendation. the writer said. . "CIA got into the act be- cause they were the ones who would have had to carry out the plot," he said. "They opposed it as politically fool- ish, stupid and insane." Smith said the man who gave him the information did not say when the plot was conceived, but that it ? must nave been between 1966 and I.969, because these were the rears that the informant was active in the CIA. He was in- luential in both the Johnson and Ni o n administration, :he author said. Smith, 25, a former CIA analyst, told the news confer- ence he did not use the inci- dent in his book because Ho STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Ye.T.i;- Approved For Release 2001/03/00;00A-13E2P80-01601R STATOTHR U.S. Terms Damage to Dikes Minor and Accidental ? Special to The New York rtints come from such sources as the WASHINGTON, July 26 Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake; secretary general of the World Council of Churches and Secre- tary General Waldheim of the United Nations. President Nixon, Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, and Secretary of State William P. Rogers have denied that American aircraft have been 'authorized to bomb the dike system. But for a month, State and Department officials The Administration said today that any damage done to North Vietnams dike system by Ameri- can bombing was accidental and had only "the most incidental and minor impact' on the sys- tem. Repeating what has become an almost daily denial that American aircraft are deliber- ately bombing the irrigation Defense system, the State Department said that any damage to the dikes was a result of legitimate attacks on military installations such as antiaircraft sites. . Charles W. BY.ay 3d, the de- partment spokesman, said that the 'United States had evidence to bear out Ins contention that 'There has been no new inch-. cation of anything but the moat incidental and minor. impact on the system of levees as the re- sult of strikes against military installations." "This is a fact," he said. Administration Annoyed In recent days, the Adminis- tration has made no secret of its annoyance and frustration over the growing world con- cern that the American bombing of North Vietnam might lead to catastrophic results during the curfent rainy season if the dike ;system breaks down, North Vietnam has repeatedly charged the United States with system-atic bombing of the dikes and has invited various observers to inspect the dikes. Expressions of concern have. have acknowledged ? as Mr. Bray did today?that some bombs may have fallen on or near the earthen levees along the Red River, either by in- advertance or because a mili- tary target was there. The Administration made plans to hold a special briefing for newsmen yesterday to pre- sent photographs to buttress its arguments but at the last moment the briefing was not held. Informed sources said that the Administration recog- nized that Hanoi could also produce photographs. ('We cOuld show an undam- aged dike and they could show one with a crater in it. Or if they didn't have one, they could drop a mortar in it and make one," one State Depart- ment official said. So far, despite the start of the heavy rainy season, there have been no reports of any flooding. The Hanoi press has printed several articles exhort- ing the population to take part in the regular summer dike building program to prevent a repetition of last year's flood- ing,- the. worst since 1944. - In another matter, Adminis- tration witnesses opposed to- day the adoption of a Senate resolution that would outlew the use of weather modifica- tion as a means of war. Witnesses from the Arms Control and Disarmament: Agency and the Defense De- partment refused to discuss the military uses of weather mod- ification, asserting that such information was classified. They testified before a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on oceans and international environment. ? Senator Claiborne Pell, Dem- ocrat of Rhode Island, the subcommittee chairman, said there was "no doubt in my mind that the United States has in- deed beenconducting weather modification operations in SOutheast Asia." The New York Times re- ported on July 3 that the United States Air Force and the Cen- tral Intelligence Agency had conducted cloud-seeding opera- tions over Laos since 1967, and over South and North Viet- nam since. 1968. The Pentagon has denied-that anoy of it5..1 air- craft were involved in seeding over North Vietnam but has re- fused to discuss operations else- where. Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 ll to oci se _sk Ill a Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-016011%.010080M001-3 BENNINGTON, VT. pANNER jut. 13 1972. E- 6 , 409 onkeying with weather The first man-made snowstorm took place about 25 years ago in northern ? Berkshire County in Massachusetts, when scientific researchers of the General Electric Co. dumped some dry ice pellets into a cloud and produced a snowstorm over Mt. Greylock. (There are 'those familiar with the Pittsfield, Mass. snow belt who might wonder why anyone would want to produce any more snow in that area, but there's no accounting for the whims of the scientists. They probably seeded the cloud because it2was there). , But show and rain making have made some unheralded advances from the days when they were a matter depending largely on either witchcraft et? prayer, depending on one's religious ? point of view. Now we find rainmaking in the news ; again and also find that it has become a highly sophisticated and effective enterprise. Last week the New York Times reported that the. United States has been secretly seeding clouds over Indochina in an effort to use rain as a Weapon against the Communists. It seems to have been going on in one / fashion or another since 1963, initiated \/ ? by the.,C19_and then pursued by the Air Force and Navy, reportedly under direct White House supervision. As with the civilian rainmaking attempts over the past quarter- century, there is dispute about the effectiveness of the Indochina operations. But the more basic dispute involves the whole concept Of ?geophysical warfare" -- of tinkering with the atmosphere in this manner for military purposes. The Pentagon seems to feel that it doesn't matter whether one drops bombs or rain. But scientists have protested that using weather as a weapon is fraught with ugly poten- tialities. At best, cloud-seeding is an unpredictable and. nonselective tactic, more damaging to civilians than to combatants. Further, although the federal government is spending an estimated $20 million annually on weather-modification research, there are no reliable answers to questions about the long-term impact on regional of global ecology. Particularly disturbing to scientists is the danger that the Pentagon nenmakers may cripple current ef- forts to expand and strengthen the World Weather Watch, an in- ternational program of global weather forecasting with huge potentialities for benefiting all mankind. Many of the nations now participating are likely to pull out if they feel that the information they are furnishing to the program may be put to military use. Last year the National Academy of Sciences recommended that America take the lead in seeking a U.N. agreement under which the whole field of weather modification would be put under international auspices, with a specific ban on its Use in war. It is a recommendation worth pursuing. And as a preliminary step the Pentagon should be firmly instructed to lock up the Pandora's box it has opened in Southeast Asia. Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-016SIIIR-989999020001-3 BOSTON , MASS. RECORD-AMERICAN M - 438,372 ADVERTISER S - 432 063 30Lii -1972, A Fair-4'(.f her Protest? irrameenstsx-eacw,smaketeneuezatoo,,,vemier......,-.... A minor storm has been bvewing in recent weeks over reports that the U. S. has; been tamper- ing, with the \\Tattler in Indochina to hamper North Vietnam's-, military operations. Several con,gressmen, a few scientists and some members of the liiti-war crowd ha' e lodged pro- tests alleging that. the Pentagon is engaging in cruol, a'nd unusual weather warfare, causing floods and other unpleasaiit Pentagon spokesmen deny the accusation, in.- sistiug that it is merely a propaganda ploy de- signed to blame -Uncle Sam for monsoons that have been occurring in Indx-hina for centuries. Apparently, however, the. CIA has seeded a few clouds MIST 11,19 Ho Chi Mini"' flail. But these rain-making efforts to hinder Communist supply and troop Infiltration movements haven't been very st.i:eessful. And if they were. would that be so had? The .purposF.:, after all, seems to he 'to curtail the .right ? lug.,.\.nd we have noticed that, year afters year, there is always, a lull in the battle during the mon- ;soon season (just as the turn-out at. anti-war i hies is always much smaller xvnen it's cold and damp). Anyway, isn't it. more humane to hit tile enemy ;with raindrop, instead of bombs and 11.A - palm? If they had their wits about them, the pro- testers should be applauding the CIA's cloud-seed- 1117 efforts and Nvishing -them more success in the futute. In fact. if the war h2r-n't encir.7d before they can hold another anti-war rally in the Common. \ve e:,:pect to see at least a few signs that read: "Make Bain, Not \..--cr" next time. Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 STATOTHR Approvocj ForRelease2001/03/04 : CIA- coUjJR (?)16tET - 239,949 S - 350.303 America s new morality: 'What's worse, 7 F17;27.0.:. THE SAME-? people who gave the y.a.d the Gatling gun, the A-bomb and plastic shrapnel we now have, once again, a new, im.- ;- proved way of making war. V , The U.S. Air Force and the CIA can now make it rain on your parade, whether that parade is a - military convoy on the lb o Chi ' Minh Trail or a political demonstration in . Saigon (or Louisville?). ...We understand . the Nixon administration's '.unwillingness to brag about the cloud-seeding operations that the United-States-haS'-been conducting in :Indochina. Any. braggingainiv-:- .. - or. 'even any. ;admission that such operations have,- indeed, taken - place?would make ? if ap- pear that Defense Secretary Laird lied to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month when .he was asked about Air Force rainmaking activities. The Secretary said, "We have not engaged in any over North Viet- nam." . Now at least a dozen present and former ...military and civilian officials tell The New , York, Times that our planes have seeded i- clouds over North Vietnam at least as late as 1971--and over Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam as well. In addition to damaging Secretary Laird's impeccable credibility, premature admissions to rainmaking might also lose Mr. Nixon the ' votes of those environmentalists, if any, who still take him seriously when . he puts on his Smokey the Bear hat and proclaims himself hard to beat at admiring and protecting Mother Nature. For it appears that Mr. Nixon, who rarely hesitates to rush in where angels and Demo- crats fear to tread, has outrained?as well as outbombed?the previous . administration. ? State Department protests that our tinkering with Indochina's .rainfall was taking environ- mental :risks of unknown proportions appar- ently, persuaded former Defense Secretary McNalnaral to ..call.'-off:-;c1bud:Seeding'.?.epera- - tions in 1967. .. ..' ,-?'. ' ' -'.' ..- ' ''' , '.-,'. ,?? .,,- r? .. - ,:. But; ? in the 'word S' -Of - one ' pre-rainmaking ' official; "What's worse, dropping , bombs or rainr,'. Added ingredient possible If we overlook the fact that Mr. Nixon and his generals (or perhaps, as seems to be com- mon, ithe generals without Mr. Nixon's con- sent) are dropping both, it's a fascinating ques- tion. The: residents of our drought-stricken Sbuthwest probably would reply that bombs are worse than rain. However, the citizens of Rapid City, S.D., or our eastern seaboard might not _agyee. Ad_ the tightly cl s mouths atApp,M1 otoihROle4Sen ? 13ombs or rain? tempt the people of Rapid City to. ask a few - more ' questions about- that cloud-seeding ex- periment that was conducted _ in the Black Hills on the day their city was flooded and scores of their friends and relatives were- kille d. The anonymous official's question also prompts a 'second question: Is the destruction wrought by our bombing in Indochina as in- discriminate as that wrought by the forces of ,nature? If it is, then we've been lied to again about the pinpoint accuracy of our at- tacks on wansupporting lirdtstrieS and sup- plies in North Vietnam, in which. our ``smart" bombs always seem to demolish our targets but leave the civilians unharmed. If it isn't, then the rain could be far worse than the bombing?especially during the two monsoon seasons when, as ...an official explained, the cloud-seeding amounts ? to "just trying to add on to something that you already got." One thing the Indochinese peoples have got during those seasons is the strong danger that they'll be wiped out by floods. And it's a safe bet that the soldiers in that American Special Forces? camp that received seven inches of rain in two hours, courtesy of a CIA blunder, didn't laucch ? In addition to sizable quantities, the Ameri- cans, never content to let nature go unim- proved-upon, can now deliver two kinds of rain?either the plain, old-fashioned variety or a new, improved rain with an extra secret . ingredient. This new rain, according to one source, has "al acidic quality to it and it would foul up . mechanical equipment?like radars, trucks and tanks." We're left to wonder ,whether it damages other mechanisms, such as humans and trees. But-, even if it doecn't, we hope the White House reserves the fancy rain for. export only. ,If,our government begins using rain to break up political -demonstrations,.- as the CIA did in Saigon. when the Diem- regime was totter- ing, we nope the protestors will be spared the , ? additional indignity of having to hitch-hike home. . Richard Jordan .Gatling,. the inventor of that primitive machine gun that we see used with - such effectiveness against the Iadians in Western movies from time to time, hoped that by developing such a terrible weapon he would make men more reluctant to resort to arms. If meteorological warfare fulfills its po- tential, Mr. Gatling's dream might yet come true. Our future disputes may be settled by a few wizards?heads of state, maybe?at con- trol panels, instructing Mother Nature where -------020001-3 There'll be no need of arms then, and "World War" will have a new meaning. 13ALTIM01113 NITIS .111ERICAN Approved For Release 2001/113/514.:9-tc-RDP80-01601R00 Laird Acknowledges Some Viet likes Hit ? WASHINGTON (UPI) ? Softening previous flat U.S. de-1 Mats of Hanoi's claims, Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird has acknowledged American warplanes may have damaged some flood control dikes in North Vietnam. Laird charged, however, that most of the claims result from a deliberate effort by Hanoi to duck responsibility for failing to repair the dike system ade- quately after disastrous monsoon floods a year ago. North Vietnam's dikes themselves have never been the target of U.S. bombs or rockets, Laird said Thursday. But he said in certain cases dikes may have suffered damage during attacks against antiaircraft weapons firing from them or supply convoys traveling down roads built on them. Laird said U.S. pilots are allowed to fight back against antiaircraft fire "wherever it comes from," including from emplacements on the dikes. He said he considers this proper, but implied it does not happen often. ? Other defense officials said they saw no inconsistency be- tween this policy and the presi- dential order against attacking dikes. Although the dikes are prohibited as targets, these of- ficials said, neither are they in- tended to be sanctuaries for Hanoi's war effort. The CIA declined comment on hhe -.reports, which indicated the , experiments were conducted in past dry seasons along with other .0 S. efforts to hinder supply-truck Movements from North Vietnam to Communist troops in South Vietnam and Cambodia. Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 DAILY VIORLTI ApprSTA.TDTI- oved For Kelease 2001/03/b4iPtI1A7-iRDP80 - r The very phrase "war crimes" is tabu in Wash- ington because it fits the deeds of the Administra- tion, military, CIA and other circles. It cannot be said that they can claim to be unaware of their crimes. Their maneuvers give them away. The National Academy of Sciences last year issued a statement urging the Nixon Administra- tion to sponsor a UN resolution "dedicating all weather modification efforts to peaceful purposes and establishing, preferably within the framework of international non-governmental scientific organ- izations, and advisory mechanism for consideration of ? weather-modification ?problems of potential international concern." The request has gone unheeded. Pell, with 13 other Senators, has filed a resolu- tion calling on the U.S. to join in a treaty outlawing an use of any environmental or geo-physical mod- ification activity as a weapon of war, or the carrying out of any research or experimentation with respect thereto." Pell has so far drawn Zero attention from the Nixon Administra,tion. But that does not mean it is indifferent to the issue. What it means is that it is opposed to it. ? 1 The proof is that at the recent Stockholm world conference on the environment, sponsored by the UN, the U.S. delegation managed to have inserted a weasel-worded limitation into a recommendation calling on all governments to "carefully evaluate the, likelihood and magnitude of Climatic effects", as a result of weather modification. Not only were efforts made to produce deluges of rain, but special types of rain, such as an acidic rain to foul radars, trucks and tanks. In 1971, the program was under the direct con- trol of the White House, but the operation was kept secret from all but a few because it was so dreadful and foul a deed. The Department of Defense refused to give information. "This kind of thing was a bomb, and Henry (Kis- singer) restricted information about it to those who had to know," a Government official told Hersh. The horror of this inhuman warfare is intensified by the danger that it may be combined with the de- struction of -dikes, flooding all of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ? and its people, down to the babies. The last time there was a flood, two million people died of starvation. While warfare unrestricted by law or human or moral considerations is conducted in Indochina, the Commerce Department'sNational Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration is establishing rigorous regulations for weather modification in the U.S. with fines up to $10,000 for violations. This contrast indicates in its own way the genocidal character of the U.S. aggression in Indochina. Lying, of course, accompanied the secrecy in which this hideous "scientific advance" was cloth- ed. In April, Sen. J. William Hulbright asked. Sec- retary of Defense Melvin Laird why the secrecy. Laird replied: "We have never engaged in that type of activity over North Vietnam" ? but the U.S. had. The U.S. delegation insisted on adding "to the Maximum extent feasible." According to the New York Times (July 3): "Officials later acknowledged that possible military use of weather modification was the basis for the an- endment." It was not "possible military use" that was the consideration, but actual use. Used in 1963, rain- making waslaken up by the CIA. "We first used that stuff in about AuguSt of 1983, when the Diem regime was having all that trouble with the Buddhists," a former CIA agent is quoted by Hersh as saying. Notice, Buddhists. Rein-making activities were expanded in ?the following years and by 1967 the Air Force was in- volved. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in February 1967 proposed wider use of rain'-making to the White House. Operations were kept super-secret because even Calloused war-makers felt it "might violate what we consider the general rule of thumb for an ? illegal weapon of war ? something that would cause unusual .suffering or disproportionate damage." according to a former State Department official. Ile sai also there was "concern because Of possible ecological risk. Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001JA3/041MIA-RDP80-01601R( M 15 JUL 1.972 7e?1/67. ce',56-'nge4 nor ..,........??????.-..r,...NC.isl.gy.yaes,r,,asr/9?14.47.rFreia.dtfed?msmh..g.gg.g..n.lqkVollenwv.alnr.nsticpae3- FAKE ALTERNATIVE The working of the war-maker's mind is a Wonder to behold. The calloused Indifference to human values is stunning. When it became known that the .U.S. military and CIA had been using rain-making devices in Indochina since 1963 in their drive to win the war, one Administration official (unnamed by the reporter) asked: "What's worse, dropping bombs or rain:?" These are not alternatives; both are destructive. That a real alternative exists ? neither bombing nor spreading genocidal destruction by precipitating deadly rains ? apparently never entered his mind. . ?LOUISE MARTIN, Bronx, N.Y. EDITOR THE DAILY WORLD APS 191?) 14E:VI YORK 10011 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 ' PhiiviLENCE, P.1. STATOTHR JOUR 1 ?war girRelease 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-0 M.? 66,673 S ? 209,501 tt By BRUCE DE SILVA Former Navy Secretary john II. Chace and the White Ifouse both refused comment yesterday on Providence 3ournaleItulletin and New York Times reports that the Pentagon has seeded clouds in Southeast Asia for military reasons. Dave Sweet, a member of Mr. Chafee's Senate cam- paign staff, said Mr. Chafee will entertain questions on the matter at his press confer- ence tomorrow morning "and not before then." The New York Times yes- terday gave the first: indica- tion of Navy participation iii the seeding project, which is believed to be predominantly a Central ,..intellieenee Agency and Air Force opeeTition, The Tirnes quoted a "well informed source" as saying lhat Navy scientists devel- oped a chemical which when deposited on clouds produces an acidic rain that fouls radar equipment, tracks, tanks and other mechanical equipment. The Times story mu died, but did not state, that this chemi- cal has been used in South- east Asia. Sen. Claiborne Pell, Mr. Chafee's November opponent, has said he believes the Unit- ed States has sedded clouds in Southeast Asia for military reasons. . Press aides with the Pres- ident at the Western White House in San Clemente, Calif., ? yesterday took two hours to scrutinize a list of seven ques- rVions submitted earlier in the ikty by the Journal-Bulletin. ? 4.'he 1Vhite House then' re- . fet+ed the questions to Jerry W. Priedheirn in the Pen- tagon's public affairs office. When Fished. if this meant that the President would not ,comment at all on the matter, a press aide, who asked not to be quoted by name,. said: "Yes, it does." 4e reel; The New York Times yes- terday quoted an unnamed former high-ranking official a.s saying that the weather modification activities over Southeast Asia have been under the direct control of the White House since 1971. Mr. Friedhenn, reached in his Pentagon office yesterday, said the United States has never enetteed in rainmak- ing activities over North Viet- nam. They were the same words used by Secretary of . Defense Melvin R. Laird dui.- - log a confrontation with Sena- tor l'ell and Sen. J. William Fulbright, D-Ark, in a Senate foreign relations committee hearing several 111011thti ar,O. toW0V4,1', Mr. Friedheiro said, "It. can't enlarge on that" when asked if rainmak- ing activities have been ear- Tied (111t. ii South Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos. When asked about the U.S. capability to produce acidic , rainfall, Mr. Friedheirri re- plied: I have no knowledge of that." 545 N.Y. Vines News KervIve Washington --- Two former high-ranking officials of the ; Johnson aelministrat ion said yesterday that Robert S. Mc- Namara, while Secretary of Defense, specifically ordered the Air Puree to stop all rain- , making late in 1997, well be- ? fore its first use in North Wet- But other officials, who-e! .? served in both the Johnson and Nixon administrations, said they recalled 110 stleh. cleareut order. It was not clear whether McNamara's order was dis- obeyed, ignored or -- as one official seggested "there was a kind of slippage" in putting it into effect. . According to a number of government sources the rain- making program apparently has grown in importance in the last few years. The two of- ficials of the Johnson adminis- tration both recalled the rain- making efforts to be little . .more than experiments con- (-7:4* ti At' g I Repeated- State Department protests tdiouf the project led to a re?evalualion by the Pen- tagon, a former Defense De- -partment official said, "and MeNamarit killed it." ''lie had reservations about ? it," the former official added. 'There was a dial met feeling that we Were dealing with something shady --- something tled could cause frotilee in case people were killed be- cause of it.'' A former high-ranlene. in- telligence oif keel similarly re- called in an interview that "the 'technical poSSibilittea Were briefly explored ond it was de.eided that it not be used." These official recollections -- that the program had been stopped. by the end of the Johnson administration -- were disputed by a number of Nixon ad minisn'at ion ol ficials. One well-informed eovern- ment source said that he had 'received regular, pe-chapi monthly, top-secret reports on operations from 1997 he left the government in 1971.. He said specifically that he had received the documants without interruption. A former ? hieh-ranking Air .Force official who els? served in both administrations said that it was his "recollection that there was no elearcut line of demareation.regarding the effective cutoff of the pro- gram." "Within the various en- claves of the government," the official added, "there are Intel pretetions and interpreta: tions ?7 even of White House orders." . "Don't forget that the peo- ple who are espousing the prOgrnm feel that it is great," he said. "And it's clear that you can affect weather." Ft?, Discussing the continuation of the program in tie fece of at17elgious government objec- tions, the former official also said: ''The fact is that tree thime did go by fits and starts, There .were holds and delaf.s and in- torruptions and reinterpreta- thins. These. alines are very complicated 'When they're so sensitive. Approved For Relqp99y03/CiftlatfA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 ?u PRoVIuENCE, R.I. JOURNAL__ Approv:Gator FEbigpase 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-0160 - 66,673 S - 209,501 r 440!1Q,-1,0"eoiliticl A k 0 V9 r Vi U.S. C1 PI , 4aria '.!;!, iloi .......? ? By BRUCE / ---- Quoting unnamed Central Intelligemia-Agone.g.,and State Department sources, The New, York Times News Service yes- terday reported new evidence that the Pentagon is changing the weather over Southeast Asia for military reasons. In a story by ? Seymour M. Hersh, the reporter who first broke the story of the My Lai massacre, the Times said the United States first began ?seeding clouds to increase rainfall over Hue in the north- ern part of South Vietnam in 1963. . According to a former CIA official, the action was taken to prevent Buddhist demon- strations in that city against the South Vietnamese govern- ment, the Times reported. "They would just Stand around during demonstrations when ? the police threw tear gas at them, but we noticed that when the rains came they wouldn't stay on," the former agent is. quoted as ? saying. The story repeats, as first reported in the June 25.Provi-- dence Sunday Journal, that seedili g operations were begun in the mid 1960's to create heavy rains which !.- washed out portions of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and impeded .? infiltration of supplies and .- men to the South. ?, Sen. Claiborne Pell said late - last Month he strongly ?be- lieves the United States is : seeding clouds in Southeast s'. Asia for?military reasons. f ? . Reached.- at his home last ...night and informed of the Times story, the Senator said: 'This. provides additional : foundation for ray own belief, a belief that I have advanced ; for several months, that these 1 activities have been conduct- ed by the United States." . ., The Senator is planning , .Senate hearings for later this summer - on his proposed ! treaty to hau. the use _of: ANiailtrove41,17C1E0ReOatise 1. weapon 0f war. ? ., DeSII,VA .In addition to impeding infil- tration, the Times reported that the Pentagon rain-making program has the followilig pur- poses: 0 To provide rain and cloud cover for infiltration of South Vietnamese comman- dos and intelligence teams into North Vietnam, o To serve as a "spoiler" for North Vietnamese attacks and raids in South Viet- nam. 01 To divert North Vietnam- ese men and material from military operations to keep muddied roads add other lines of communication open. The Times quotes a "former high-ranking' -of- ficial" as saying that by the end of 1971, the Program was under the direct control of the White House, Henry Kissinger, the Pres- ident's special adviser ler na- tional security, felt the pro- gram was politically sensitive and ordered it kept a secret from all but a handful of ad- ministration officials, the of- ficial is quoted as saying. . The ? Times quoted a "well informed source" as saying Navy scientists developed a new chemical agent effective in warm stratus clouds that produces an acidic rain capa- ble of fouling "mechanical equipment -- like radars, trucks, and tanks.". The story implies, hut does not say, that the chemical was actually used over the North. The Times reports that of- ficials interviewed said the United States did not have the capability to cause heavy flooding during the summer in the Northern parts of North Vietnam last year. The flood- ing destroyed crops- and re- portedly killed thousands. STATOTHR ? However, Sen. Pell and David .Heaney, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee's- ? professional staff, told the Journal they believe the United States does have that capability and was responsible for the floods. In a letter to Senator Pell last year, Rady Johnson, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, said the . Pentagon has the power. to increase rainfall by up to 50 per cent. A 50 per cent increase in the torrential monsoon rains of the region could obviously have a considerable effect. 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 LL A,):.u:c4.ii aig,.e STATOTHR STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03k4jYaiRDP80- '%?.a.infrialcing, is L As Weapon ? by Cloud Seedin? g in Indochina CHICAGO TRIBUNE Approved For Release 20011/63/04 :IMA-RDP80-01601R00 Era -A I ? BY WAYNE.THOMIS An increasing series of such [Aviation Editor) , raids have come from the sea_ shift. [ChicRgo Tribune Press Service] SAIGON, Viet Nam, June 14 coasts and from helicopter air- The riders are heavily ar- - ?Hanoi broadcasts infrequent- bridge links in Laos and .Thai- med. Not one operation has; failed, and none of the raiders mention "works of s a bo- land to points where damage have been trapped, according teurs" in North Viet Nam's can be done or information oh- to informed sources. . panhandle, and Saigon's ver- tamed from the North Viet- naeular press occasionally re- namese, it was learned from Casualties among these spe- port odd little aircraft acci- reliable sources. cial forces have been low. Pay dents with nonmilitary planes Communist broadcasts from scales are said to be "quite high" and morale among these in mountainous regions or Hanoi in the past have used Laos, Northwestern South Viet "saboteur" in an ideoligical specialists in demolition, elec- Nam; and sometimes in North- sense. Now they are referring tronics sabotage, and interro-, eastern Thailand.' to actual dynamitings by these gation is very high. The men These are mere peeks by the raiders. They specialize in tar- regard thetnselves as an elite general public at a tremen- gets which are too difficult for corps. ? dous submerged "iceberg" of - bombers to identify from the ? Financed by CIA clandestine operations continu- air, or are too well hidden to The mysterious, CIA-financed ously.: and now increasingly be spotted by aerial photogra- Air America civil flying fleet carried out against the phy. They also carry out a seems to operate on a super- munist North. traffic in agents not otherwise national basis across Cambo- These actions probably nev- Laotian, and South possible under present condi- dian, Thai, Cr will be disclosed in full de- tions. Vietnamese. borders. It has tail but it can be said respon- Size, Diiration Vary had a part in some of this sibly that today they constitute work. However, much of the an important phase of this Reports filtering from Ceri/ Nvork is being done by mil- tral Intelligence Agency an Southeast Asia battle. associates :military establish- itary detachments, temporarily It is a silent war.- It is ear- posted to the special forces. ried out by special forces and ments indicate such raids may The military establishment vary from 20 to several hurl- by mercenaries. It is a hit- here generally ? attempts to tired men. They may stay in and-run ?war in which units are suppress mention of this side North Viet Nam from:a. few airlifted or sea borne dcep into of the war for a number of minutes to 24 hours. North Viet Nam for demolition reasons, with security aOnst missions, for seizure of prison- Mercenaries enlisted for enemy knowledge being the ers, for probing forays, and?it such secret actions include least important. The North Vi- now is -understood?for accu- Europeans, Chinese, Malays, etnamese are fully aware of mutation of information on iJapanese and Americans. T h e the nature of the CIA-directed American prisoner of war camp oerations are c a re f u 11 y and financed special opera- locations. ? I planned and surrounded by the tions. . This type of action has been tight security. / It is known that after each taking place in the North Viet- The CIA now believes the /such raid all civilians and mil- namese panhandle f Tom the large-scales American attempt itary personnel in the North Demilitarized Zone I to well I to free prisoners from a camp who have had contact with the north of Vinh during the last I hear Hanoi a year ago failed raiders are subjected to rigor- 60 days Ibecause of a security leak bus and lengthy questioning by Communist secret police and political commisars. The U, S. forces seek to hide the clandestine side of the war to prevent embarassment to Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian governMental departments. It is recognized by American leaders that such concealment is merely "token" but is re- quired in certain diplomatic Approved ForAelease 2001/03/04: C1AiRDB804116061R000900020001-3 tries fringing South Viet :Nam. Maintain.' which resulted in a prisoner STATOTHR STATOTHR TIE miAla HERALD kA, 16 June 1912 Approved_For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R American prisoner of war i I; f!)iv,-tl,cr \T:7-7 0 lJ L, iIi \, v T 0 .,, AR V He 11:M MIR Saboteurs Harass North's Panhandle ?y WA.YNE THOMIS Mlamj Hereld-Chiceria 'irit:zre Wire SAIGON ? Hatioi infre- quently broadc.asts mention "works of saboteurs" in. North Vietnam's panhandle. Saigon's vernacular press occasionally reports odd lit- tle aircraft accidents with nonmilitary planes in moun- tainous regions of Laos, northwestern South Vietnam, - and sometimes in northeast- ern Thailand. These are mere pecks by the general public at a tre- mendous Submerged iceberg of clandestine operations continuously and now in- creasingly carried out against the Communist north. These actions probably never will be disclosed in full detail, but it can be said re- sponsibly that today ti ey constitute an important phase of this Southeast Asia - battle. It is -a silent war. It is car- Tied out by Special Forces and by mercenaries. It is a hit-and-run war in which units are airlifted or sea- borne deep into North Viet-. nam for demolition missions, for seizure of prisoners, for probing forays, and ? it now is understood -- for accumu- lation of information on Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 camp locations. THIS TYPE of action has been taking place in the North 'Vietnamese panhandle from the Demilil:arized Zone to well north of Vinh duriag the last GO days. An increasing. number of such raids has come from the seacoasts and from helicop- ter air-bridge links in Laos and Thailand to points wht7re damage can be done or infor- mation obtained from the North Vietnamese, it was learned from reliable sources-. Communist broadcasts from Hanoi in the past have used "saboteur" in an ideo- logical sense. Now they are referring to actual dynamit- ings. These raiders specialize in targets that are too diffi- cult for bombers to identify from the air or are too well hidden to be spotted by aeri- al photography. They also carry out a traffic in agents not otherwise. possible under present conditions. THE MYSTERIOUS, CIA- financed Air America civil flying fleet seems to operate on a supernational basis across Cambodian, Thai, Lao- tian and South Vietnamese borders. It has had a part in some of this work. Howeve.r, much of the work is being done by military detach- ments temporarily posted. to the Special Forces. The military establishment here generally attempts to suppress mention of this side of the war for a number of reasons, with security against enemy knowledge being the least important. The North Vietnamese are fully aware of the nature of the CIA-directed and CIA-fi- nanced special operations. It is known that after each such raid all civilians and military personnel in the port!) who have had contact with the raiders are subject- ed to rigorous and lengthy questioning by Communist ia:roaTs rILTERING secret police and political I commissars. from the Centn-11 Intelligence: / Agency and associated mili- tary establishments indicate that such raids may vary from 20 to several hundred men, They may stay in North Vietnam from a few minutes to 24 hours. Mercenaries enlisted for such secret actions include Europeans, Chinese, Malays, Japanese and Americans. The operations are carefully plan- ned and surrounded by the tight security:. The CIA. now believes that the large-scale American at- tempt to free prisoners from a camp near Hanoi a year ago failed because of a secu- rity leak, which resulted in a prisoner shift. The raiders are heavily armed. Not one operation has failed. And none of the raid- ers has been trapped, accord- ing to informed sources. Casualties among these special forces have been low. Pay scales and morale are said to be quite high. STATOTHR e- ( viA31-.TINGToli .20S(.g Approved For Release 20DVQ.440497CIA-RDP80-01601 ii rOps AfiiaR GtaerrillaS )oteursRaid 110 By D. E. Ronk ? Special to The.Washington 'Post ietnaa Inaccessible . ' CIA - maintained - where they conduct sabotage, - VIENTIANE, Laos, June bases in Laos are used to espionage a n d propaganda i :14?Use of Laotian territory train, house, and transport the missions in that country's least i and? specially recruited. As- guerrillas. inhabited and defended areas. ian mercenaries for CIA- Nam Yu, the CIA's most se- Precise information on targetS, .' cret base in. Laos, situated in and types of guerrilla action sponsored espionage a n d northwestern Laos near the is not available 'here. sabotage missions in North town of Ban 'loud. Sal; is re- It is known, however, that / . Vietnam has been confirmed ported to be the primary train- the CIA is distrustful of many here by American sources log center. claims made by the guerrilla close to the operation, Nam Yu was formerly a infiltrators and frequently ' The missions are original- base for intelligence teams equips the units with cameras ! ? ; ing from a number of small being sent into South China so they can photograph them- mountaintop sites in north- to ? report on telephone and selves at targets. The photo- ern Laos within 30 miles of road traffic, a program dis- graphs prove the missions the North Vietnamese bor. continued last year when were carried out, and provides / President Nixon accepted an intelligence data for CIA V der. The guerrilla troops areanalysts. invitation to visit China, transported by unmarked - From Nam Yu, the guerril- Each mission uses at least! ?Air America planes. lag are moved to the Long one specially equipped twinsi engine Otter plane, said to 1 .- - The existence of the guer- Cheng area 80 miles north of . rilla missions inside North Vientiane where they continue carry half a million dollars Vietnam was first reported to train; -making forays into worth of radio and electronic the surrounding mountains in- gear for pinpoint navigation in Saigon earlier this week. side Laos on lower-level recoil- and locating of ground forces. Such missions were known naissance missions for season. 13e-cause of the twin Otter's to have been initiated in ing and practical experi^nce virtual silent operation as it early 1960s, but were not re- in avoiding capture and inflict- Passes close over the ground, its short take-off and landing garded at the time as very jog, harm. on Communist forces. capability, and the load it can i effective and were apparent- carry, its basic function has ly suspended after the 1968 : Many of the potential North been the h e clandestine ilISCT- - bombing halt. 'Vietnamese infiltrators are tion, pickup and resupply of highly trained mountain "weeded out" during this guerrilla missions. tribesmen from northern training period, sources say. - There are also reports of Laos and some Thai mercenr , Resident newsmen here have, been unable to visit Lonc guerrillas being snatched froin Cheng in recent months. '' enemy-occupied territory by a aries with Ion g experience - Jump-off points for the hook dangling from rescue ,s in special operations are said here to make up the guerrillas are considerablv aircraft. The guerrilla on the teams. Most . of the guerril- east and northeast of Lon' wig ground inflates a large balloon ? ? las are said to speak Viet- Cheng, according to the sour- th lighter-than-air gas, at- taches it to a thin line which name-se, some fluently. ces, most being tiny hilltop is then 'attached to a harness - Officially, the Air Amer positions hardly known to . he fastens to himself. The res- exist. A major point of de- -: : lea management in Vienti- paste is said to be at Bouamiclou(emc passes over the hal- , raft pasture ane is unaware that the corn- Long, sometimes called "the; up. hooks on and hauls him s pany's - pilots . or planes are fortress in the sky," about 40. ---- - miles northeast of Long Cheng," -?"Qualified sources here say, . flying such .missions. Air ., America is a quasi-private , a base the Communists have meantime, that they believe . ' airline under contract with never been able to wrest from that such espionage missions U.S. government agencies. .ts Meo defenders, will be increased in northern Practical training exercis.es Laos' and may be resumed ._ inside China itself, to sabotage are also conauctect at Botiam . war material that?because of Long. Communist radio broad- the mining of Haiphong?is casts frequently note the pres- once, capture or killing of expected to flow increasingly. through China's Yunan Prov- commandos from Bouam Long ince and the Laotian Province in the Sam Neua area of north- nearby rth Vietnam. of Phong Saly on its way into east Laos. Caves in mountains contain the head- No quarters of the Communist- supported Laotian rebels, The highest priority, how- ever, is given to missions that Fefasen20011(t3404eQ G move _into North.. Vietnam Pilots used on the espio- nage-sabotage mission flights are carefully selected and re- ceive special pay for hazard- ous duty by a "white envelope system." This means that the money received is not account- :able or traceable, even for tax purposes, sources say. Official U.S. spokesmen in Vientiane decline to comment on the operation, but informa- tion pieced together from Ameriiitcp proved) ForrRe .here indicates that virtually STATOTHR -RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 SCH3NCE YQ1.1.1411 ? Approved For Release 20014:4/9411 -RDP80-01601R ? ??.?.(C6rantinarritolo raids- on North 'Mercenaries' (CIA recruits?) hit supply. and transport lines STATOTHR By Daniel Southerlan.d Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Saigon United States-hired commandos are mak- ing unannounced raids into North Vietnam, according to U.S. sources in Saigon. The sources said the raids are being made against North Vietnam's supply and transport system, mainly in the country's southern panhandle', by ? "Asian merce- naries." Most of the commandos are be- lieved to be recruits of the U.S. Central In- telligence Agency .in Laos. Many of. the commandos are being in- serted into North Vietnam by unmarked aircraft, the sources said. But according to one report, some have been slipped into North Vietnam. on boats. ' The sources said the raids are being staged from a "neighboring country," un- doubtedly .meaning Laos; But it was thought that bases in Thailand might also be in- volved. Targets spotlighted ? Truck parks and supply depots are among 'the targets, the sources said. The CIA had organized sabotage and in- telligence raids into North Vietnam in the early 1960's, but these were believed to have met with little success. In early 1964, the raids were stepped up and came under the control of the U.S. Mil- itary Assistance Command in Saigon. Some of the details of those raids were disclosed in the ."Pentagon papers" published last year. The raids were apparently suspended after the bombing halt in 1968. The renewed raids are no secret to the North Vietnamese. Hanoi publications such. as Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) have made at least half-a-dozen references over the past few weeks to "puppet ranger groups" making raids in the north. Publication warns ? The armed forces publication recently warned that the United States is "attempt- ing to conduct surprise attacks by infantry or commandos in vital areas to sever our transportation to the front line." I In another issue, Quan Doi Nhan Dan said that North Vietnam's locOrtorces,ar " termined to..Ratlegi 9irPaY groups." "Alt present, along with using aircraft and warships to . . . attack us, the Nixon clique. is maneuvering to continue to use rangers. to carry out sabotage activities in the north," the paper said. "These activities are aimed at sabotaging our communications lines and military and economic installations. "They use aircraft, boats, and rubber rafts to land these rangers or send them across the borders. Their basic plot is to land secretly, quickly carry out sabotage activi- ties, and then withdraw quickly." But it added that "sometimes they leave. behind a small number of rangers to carry ?out activities for a long time." Although the North Vietnamese publica- 'aon called the raids "desperate," activities which "cannot escape being appropriately punished," there is no evidence So far that the Communists have had much success in stopping them. . . 'Along with the bombing, mining, .and commando raids, the United States has also resumed the dropping of propaganda leaflets aver North Vietnam. The Voice of America has increased its broadcasts to North Vi?-!!..int from a pre- offensive level of 6 h?;_-?,,cs a day to a current level of 13 hours a day. 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 . DISSENT STATOTHR sprinz 13072 Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80- D-21101-,7 We Sank Erillt`a Vthi Joseph Buttinger 0 ne of the most puzzling questions future historians will have to deal with is why the United States ever got involved in the con- temporary struggle for Indochina that has been going on since 1945. Did the consid- erations that determined the course of 'American foreign policy after World War II , make this involvement inevitable or could in have been avoided in spite of the tensions 'that arose after 1945 between the West and the so-called Communist bloc? On this point, opinions will probably always remain . di- vided, but those who believe that no other . course could have been chosen without dam- :age- to the West or the United States would do well to consider the following: (1) no Indochina war would have taken :place if France had not insisted on reestab- lishing its control over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos after these countries had gained in- dependence following the Japanese surrender in 1945; ? (2) if is questionable that the United *: States would ever have reached the point of even considering intervention in Vietnamese affairs. if it had refused from the beginning to support the reestablishment of French rule in Indochina. It is indeed one of the important conclu- sions' of the Pentagon Papers "that the Tru- man Administration's decision to give mili- tary aid to France in her colonial war against the Communist-led Vietminh 'directly in- volved' the United States in Vietnam and .`set' the course of American policy." 1 Yet this decision was made only iti. 1950, after the victory of Communism in China and the recognition of Ho Chi Minh's regime by the Soviet Union and Communist China. It would never have come about had it not been preceded by the decision made by the victorious Allies at the Potsdam Conference of July 17 to August 2, 1945, which gave the French not 'only a free hand but also Allied support for the reconquest of 'Indo- china. This Potsdam decision, supported only by the British under both Churchill and At- Roosevelt had still been alive. It was op- posed by Nationalist China under Chiang Kai-shek and certainly not favored by Stalin. Vigorous American opposition to it would probably have led to the acceptance of Roosevelt's concept of a United Nations Trusteeship for French Indochina as a first step toward full independence. ? Surprisingly on this crucial point the con- clusion of the Pentagon Papers is that Roose- velt "never made up his mind whether. to ? support the French desire to reclaim their ? Indochinese colonies from the Japanese at the end of the war." 2 In view of the forceful statements Roosevelt made against the re- turn of the French to In.doehina?to his Secre- tary of State Cordell Hull and to his Son Elliot, as reported in their inemoi?rs,8 this conclusion must be :regarded as erroneous. There has been much speculation about the question whether American massive mili- tary intervention in Vietnam might not have been avoided if President Kennedy had been alive. It is unlikely that this question will ever be answered with any degree of cer- tainty. But it is probable' that Vietnam after 1945 would have experienced a period of peaceful evolution toward independence, un- der a regime not unlike that of Tito's Yugo- slavia, if Robsevelt had lived and succeeded in imposing his anticolonial solution for In- clochina. Nor is it far-fetched to assume that Roosevelt would not have disregarded the appeals of Ho Chi Minh, in at least eight letters to Washington in 1945-46 for United States and United Nations intervention against French colonialism.4 "There is no record . . . that any of these appeals were answered." 5 Not until publication of the Pentagon Papers did the American public hear of the existence of these letters. Yet the Truman administration's policy toward Vietnam remained ambivalent for at least the first three years of the Indochina war. On the one hand, the U.S. "fully rec- ognized France's sovereign position," as Sec- retary of State George Marshall said in a still secret State Department cablegram sent to StATOTHR ? I tlee, might noAt have been .taken_if PresidenLthe U?S. Embassg in Paris....: I t'isfeViiMp pproved For Release 2001/03/04 ? VIA-RUPF. - 90002900e1c3t 1 STATOTHR Approved For Release 206/002124 tArriA4R131g30411601 June 1972 " The Pentagon 1)afiers? A Discussion The publication of "confidential" materials has inevitably given rise to a debate concerning a number of different but related problems: To what extent do the revelations contained in the documents throw light on events or policy decisions with which they deal? To what ex- tent, if at all, does the publication of the information contained in the documents jeopardize the processes of .executive decisiomnaking? How can the conflict between the public's right to know and the ex- ecutive's need for confidentiality. be reconciled? 'The editors of the Po- litical Science Quarterly have in tL': past published a number of arti- cles dealing with the issue of access to governmental information and the terms on which that access. is made available, notably, Adolf A. Berle's and Malcolm Moos's reviews of Emmet John 'Hughes, The Ordeal of Power (P52 LXX IX, June 1964) and Theodore Draper's review of Jerorne Slater, Intervention and Negotiation: The United States and the Dominican Revolution (PSQ, LXXXVI, March 1971): The recent publication of the Pentagon Papers has given the contro- versy neW urgency. U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, - candidate for the Democratic party nomination for president, and Professor John P. Roche, from 1966-68 special consultant to President Lyndon Johnson, were aSked by the editors of the Political Science. Quarterly to review the Pentagon Papers and to debate in print the political and legal issues to which their publication has given rise. - Publication of the Pentagon Papers has raised a storm concerning the right of the press to publish classified government documents. But the contents of the papers are so sweeping in their disclosures of official suppression of the realities in Vietnam, so revealing of the disastrous, secretly conceived policies and practices which .led us into this tragic war, that it is impossible--in fact it misses their true significance?to discuss them in such abstract terms. The integrity of our democracy is profoundly involved, not. only in the constitutioi-A sense Nvith respect to the warmaking power, but in the basic sense of the reality of government by pop- ? ular rule. It is axiomatic with .us that a free people can remain free only if it is enlightened and informed. it is axiomatic with us, as well, that a free press is essential to the creation and main- tenance of an enlightened and informed people. A press which Approved FcmiRejeA495 pcklictaio4c...vpiAgRpnot4:0691RoDostaoo2oom -3 what our executive leadership knew and what it led the nation ? Approved For Release 206 ginDP80-01601 Duplicity on Vietnam The comments on "Nixon's Peace Spec- tacular" in the March Progressive were ex- cellent. It is .a bit misleading, though, to emphasize that "virtually every item in his plan had previously been proposed by the United States, and all had previously been rejected by the other side." The important point is not that the proposals have all been rejected in recent years: the impor-? taut point is that nearly every item was (leo-Herr Iln Chi 1'1;1. I. is -our steadfast refusal to oltsetve agreement that makrs. it diffirillt Jut tb Vietnamese to believe tic now. We now offer to repent some of II,. promicrs which we f? In but reprat Own) iii gteatly v.eatctir Anulcr circumstances V1 /Iv The Vietnamese ate acutely a - even . though we like in foTrt that ?iiiIrtrialioital agreements involving th, .United States are made ineaningle,s by the /- aCtivities of the CIA., ?vhi(h .tm,?rates .complete disregard of international law, specific I, cities, declarations of principle, or. -tradition. In 19711, it .violated the Geneva accords as soon as they wile signed, by stimggling in tons of ptohibitcd military snpplies, sabotaging North Viet- namese railways and bus lines, and Imming down those W ho In, ml been pumnitietil iii the snuggle for Vietnamese independence. At present, the CIA is placing major emphasis on "Operation Phoenix"? a pro- gram for subsidizing the assassination of individuals suspected of being part of "the Vietcong infrastructure." On July 19, 1971, William- E. Colby, who had dire.cted the program for the CIA, testified that it had killed 20,587 suspects since 1968, and that the program was being stepped up. Pre- sumably, therefore, N5 P. have managed to murder at least 30,000 Vietnamese by now. Since Vietnam is less than one-tenth the size of the United States, this is equivalent to slaughtering more than 300,000 Amer- icans, as far as political impact is con- cerned. Would Nixon really insist that the 1972 election was a fair one if the Dem- ocrats were allowed to assassinate the 300,000 most prominent Republicans be- fore November? William Palmer Taylor Hamilion, Ohio STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 STATQTH April 17,Aptrittved For RergatigINFIVOISIbT4 MiialtiFf8kaiV01R0009000 001-3 suit of startup problems at Litton's new facility. In terms of concept and design, Litton has taken a revolutionary ap- proach to shipbuilding that if successful, would greatly improve both efficiency and costs in our shipbuilding industry. How- ever thus far the experience of Litton has resulted in neither increased efficiency or lower costs. - In October 1968 Litton won a contract ' for 7 Merchant marine ships including four container ships for the Farrel Line. Three weeks after launching, the super- structure of the first Farrel container ship sank by 1/2 inch. There is no doubt the Farrel Line is very dissatisfied with the shoddy construction on the ship and delays in its deilvery. -There have also been significant labor problems at the Pascagoula facility. Dif- ficulty has been accounted in recruiting ? both skilled labor and managerial per- sonnel. The turnover rate at the new west bank facility has been twice that at the old cast bank facility reaching levels as high as 50 percent per year. Litton has also undertaken a major recruitment .program of skilled managerial personnel which I understand has been quite suc- cessful. In addition to labor problems, there have been production problems at th yard forcing the movement of some ship from the new west bank yard to the east bank -facility. Several' of the merchant marine ships which initially were sched- uled to be built in the west bank yard are now being constructed on the other side of the river. In addition, some of the .LHA ships have been moved to the old yard and some DD-963's may be con- structed in the older and traditional facility. In sum, Mr. Speaker, we have a huge ' mess on our hands. The Navy chose dur- ing a 13-month period to pour more than $3 billion for 39 ships into a brand new and untested shipyard. The result thus far has been nothing less than disastrous. Cost overruns, delays, and now a series of complex negotiations between the Navy and Litton have been the -result. It is no secret that now Litton expects a major increase in the cost of the LHA program. . It is my hope that the Navy will an- swer all these serious questions that I have raised during the next several weeks. It is also My hope that the Navy will hold Litton to its original contract, and not grant ? huge price increases to Litton. The Navy and the Congress must resist the temptation to bail Litton out. The letter to Mr. Staats follows: CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HOUSE OF ItEPRESENTATIVEs, Washington, D.C., April 17, 1972. Mr. .ELMER STAATS, . Comptroller General of the United States, General Accounting Office, General Ac- counting Office Building, Washington, D.C. ? DEAR M. STAATs: I am writing to you to request the General Accounting Office mi- dertake a study of escalation charges in the 3a ship DD-9133 program. In its latest Se- lected Acquisition Report (SAR) for the DD- 963, the Navy estimates that the cost of escalation' will be $509.6 million. In the same report the Navy also indicates that it has ? revised its method of computing escalation and the result has been an increase of $136.5 Mr. Speaker, this morning's New York million in estimated cost growth. Later Ln the Times carried an editorial which notes same report an increase of $455 million as that: . recorded "due to including contractors esti- mate of escalation", Apparently there is Every new air raid means more pilots shot a down and captured. discrepancy in the estimate of escalation cost . by the Navy and Litton of approximately Since it is clear at this point that our $145 million, prisoners will not be returned while we Specifically, I hope that the General Ac- bomb North Vietnam and maintain a counting Office will evaluate: . 1., Has Litton Industries realistically evalu- ated the escalation charges for the DD-963 South, it is plain that Mr. Nixon's pri-? program? Are all the costs reflected in the mary interest in the POW's is their use $455 million the result of escalation and cost as pawns, for his actions only serve to growth? prolong their detention and to increase 2. Why is there a discrepancy of $145 mil- their numbers. The Times editorial is lion between the Navy's estimate of eseada- an excellent one, and I wish to read- it tion and Litton's estimate of escalation? Is in full at this time: the Navy including escalation charges under other items in the Selected Acquisition Re- [From the New York Tilnes, Apr. 17, 1971] port (SAR) ? OF BLOOD AND SLOGANS I also hope that the General Accounting Slogans Can have a fateful significance. Office will be able to determine if all of the Taking office in 1969 on a pledge "to end escalation estimates by both the Navy and the war and win the peace," President Nixon Litton Industries seem to be reasonable and made a fateful decision concerning the true within guidelines established by the Bureau content of that vague but beguiling cam- of Labor Statistics. paign slogan. "Winning the peace," he de- A member of my staff, William Broydrick, cided, meant that an anti-Communist Gov- is ready to discuss details of the studies with ernment had to be consolidated in power in any member of your staff. South Vietnam. Otherwise the "peace" would Thank you very much for your coopers- be lost because additional military effort by tion. the Communists would soon bring them the Sincerely, _ - victory they have long sought. LES Asrm, Since the United States and its South Member of Congress. Vietnamese allies had not conclusively de- feated the Communists on the field of bat- tle, there was no immediate visible way to "win the peace" in Mr. Nixon's special sense of that term. As a result, "ending the war" had to be indefinitely postponed and the subtly but significantly different objective of "winding down the war" had to be substi- tuted. Even this phase had to be defined In a special sense. The war itself was not wound down; on the contrary, it was extended to Cambodia and Laos and American bombing greatly increased. What was "wound down" was the scale of American involvement in the ground fighting. When these special Nixonian interpreta- tions have been decoded, that 1968 promise "to end the war and win the peace" trans- lates into ordinary English as a promise "to continue the war until the enemy concedes defeat and accepts American peace terms." Would the American people have accepted Mr. Nixon's leadership four years ago if they , had understood the true import of his slo- gan? The question is unanswerable. What can be said is that the Communist forces in Viet- ? nam ate not prepared to accept Mr. Nixon's special definitions. The Moody fighting of the last ten days demonstrates that the war was not ended. South Vietnam's Army has been able to achieve at least a temporary stalemate but on terms that have ominous implications for stated that massive bombing of the North long-term American involvement. Only mas- has no noticeable effect upon the flow of sive American bombing, including heavy raids supplies to the South. Why then are we in North Vietnam itself, enabled the South bombing? The fact of the matter is that Vietnam forces to halt the Communist ad- Vietnamization has been an abject fail- vance. And it is the precarious position of South Vietnam's embattled forces that has ure, as it was doomed to be from the be- led to the weekend's American escalation of ginning. The South Vietnamese military the air war near Haiphong and Hanoi. ? Is no better able to defend itself from If American air support on a large scale the people of Vietnam than it was 2, or is the essential prerequisite for staving off a THE BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the. House, the gentle- woman from New York (Mrs. Antra) is recognized for 60 minutes. Mrs. ABZUG. Mr. Speaker, the Ameri- can people have made it clear time and time again that they want this Nation to get out of Vietnam and to get out now. They want this withdrawal to include not only our men, but our planes, and our bombs, too. ? They want it to be contingent solely upon the release of our prisoners of war. They do not want it to be contingent upon the continued existence of the cor- rupt Thieu dictatorship or upon the de- struction of the North Vietnamese people and nation. It has been so long since the will of the American people became apparent .that it is truly incredible to see this ad- ministration reescalating the death and destruction and returning us to the dark days of 1967 and 1968. The Pentagon's own studies have 3, or 10 years ago. Mr. Nixon, recogmz- south Vietnam defeat, the United States Ing the political impossibility of recom- may be fighting an air war in Southeast Asia mitting American ground forces to this for several more years?on and on into the futile conflict, thinks that if he devas- indefinite future in an elusive effort to "win" tates North Vietnam from the air, he an ever-receding "peace." will somehow secure the position of the , America's involvement in the Vietnam Thieu government. There is no other war cannot be satisfactorily ended until this conceivable reason for his action. The country obtains the release of its prisoners Defense Department's own studies show of war. Every new air raid means more pilots shot down and captured. The number of that the bombing will not stop the flow American prisoners steadily grows. Thus, ev- of supplies, and will, therefore, be of no cry raid not only brings death and devasta- use in "protecting" the American troops tion to Vietnam but postpones the ?kid of the who remain in Indochina. war. Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDF'80-01601R000900020001-3 WASHINGTON POST Approved For Release 2001/g30*:1*-RDP80-01601R 'The Washington Merry-Go-Round ? ..,:ilL L By !Jack Anderson IP/%V Secret; ' ' ' , ? A Government red tape and t secrecy . rules have kept hundreds of documents on prisoners of war in Saigon for up to. two years while the POW families waited and won- dered about their loved ones. . ? One classified data includes reports of Vietcong prisoner Interrogations, CIA mentos, 4 Army intelligence papers and 1:other fragments of military in- ,.-formation gleaned from the 'field in Vietnam. - Interwoven with genuine se-i cretS are such innocuous factil las the location of POWs, thei cOndition, orders given fo their protection and even an Intriguing plan to buy freedon. for some prisoners throtah double agents. . - - ... Although the White House has paid lip' service to the POWs and their families, it did not unlock the files until the case of Sgt. John Sexton came to light. His family feared he was dead, although U. S. intelligence authorities had heldja letter from him for two years which said he was alive. .To bead off more "Sexton cases," Defense Secretary Mel ? Laird ordered a housecleaning of old POW data. This brought bales of documents to Wash- ington from U. S. intelligence fileinin Saigon. The suppressed documents included nothing so dramatitli as the Sexton letter. Neverthe-, less, some of the details, if rei leased sooner, would have spared the news-starved fami4 lies months of anguish. --. To the credit of the Army tausalties section handling the data in Washington, once a new fact was discovered it was telpehoned to the family, or in some cases an officer flew to , the, POW family's home? to ibrlef theM. . , : . A :: ? 4 it STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 SATURDAY MN1131I Aprl 1 1972 STATOTH ovF6T6a-'4%nit9M1 inPAONEWA1 SR: 60VA he A c t ? ST ATOTAW Review Editor: ROCHELLE GIRSoN IN THE MIDST OF WARS: An American's Mission to Southeast Asia by Edward Geary Lansdale Harper & Row, 386 pp., $12.50 Special Committee on Indochina held on January 29, 1954. Why is this important? Because if there is one word Lansdale uses re- peatedly it is "help"?and he uses it personally, simulating a Lone Ranger- like urge to offer spontaneous assist- ance. Thus, the first clay he ever saw Diem, ". . . the thought occurred to me that perhaps lie needed help. . ? I voiced this to Ambassador Heath. . . Heath told me to go ahead." The in- formal atmosphere continues when Lansdale, upon actually meeting Diem, immortalizes him as "the alert and eldest of the seven dwarfs deciding what to do about Snow White." Further desires to serve inform Lans- dale's Concern for the "masses of people living in North Vietnam who would want to ... move out before the communists took over." These unfortu- mites, too, required "help." Splitting his "small team" of Americans in two, Lansdale saw to it that "One half, under Major Conein, engaged Jo refugee work in the North." "Major" Lucien Conein, who was to Reviewed by Jonathan Mirsky ri With the exception of the Pentagon Papers, Edward Geary Lansdale's memoir could have been the most valu- able eyewitness account of the inter- nationalizing of the Indochinese war. Lansdale, a "legendary figure" even in his own book, furnished the model for the Ugly American who, from 1950 through 1933, "helped" Magsaysay put down the link revolution in the Philip- pines. He then proceeded to Vietnam where, between 195-1 and 1956, he stuck close to Ngo Dinh Diem during Diem's first shaky years when Washington couldn't make up its mind whom to tap as the American alternative to Ho Chi Minh. Lansdale's support insured Diem as the final choice for Our Man in Saigon. While the book's time span is, therefore, relatively brief, the period it covers in the Philippine and Viet- nam is genuinely important. There is only- one difficulty with In the Midst of Wars: from the cover to the final page it is permeated with lies. That Harper & Row finds it possible to foist such a package of untruths on the public?and for $12.501?several months after the emergence of the Pentagon Papers, and years after the Publication of other authoritative studies, exhibits contempt for a public trying to understand the realities of our engagement in Vietnam. The lie On the jacket describes Lans- dale merely as an OSS veteran who Spent the years after World War II as a "career officer in the U.S. Air Force." In the text Lansdale never offers any explicit evidence to the contrary. In- deed, on page 378?the last of the text? ile states that at the very timc Diem was being murdered in Saigon, "I had been retired from the Air Force." For all I know Lansdale drew his pay From the Air Force and, as the photo- graphs in his book attest, he certainly wore its uniform. This is irrelevant. Lansdale was for years a senior opera- tive of the Central Intelligence Agency; Ott page 244 of the Department of De- Pentagon Papers, however, reveal that fense edition of the Pentagon Papers, the CIA "engineered a black psywar Lansdale, two other men, and Allen Dulles are idenlifi. strike in Hanoi: leaflets signed by the Approfibas FrairMI6lisbic20011/03sfeart:inCIAQRDP804 how to behave for thc Vietminh play the the major role the CIA had in the murder of Diem in 1963, is identified in the secret CIA report included by the Times and Beacon editions of the Pentagon Papers (see SR, Jan. 1, 1972) .as an agent "assigned to MAAG [Mili- tary Assistance Advisory Group] for cover purposes." The secret report refers to Conein's refugee "help" as one of his "cover duties." his real job: "responsibility for developing a para- military organization in the North, to be in position when the Vietminh took over . . . the group was to be trained and supported by the U.S. as patriotic Vietnamese." Concin's "helpful" teams also attempted to sabotage Hanoi's largest printing establishment and wreck the local bus company. At the beginning of 1955, still in Hanoi, the CIA's Concin infiltrated more agents into the North. They "became normal citizens, carrying out everyday civil pursuits, on the surface." Aggression from the North, anyone? Lansdale expresses particular pleas- ure with the refugee movement to the South. These people "ought to be provided with a way of making a fresh start in the free South... . [Vietnam] was going to need the vigorous par- ticipation of every citizen to make a success of the noncommunist part of the new nation before the proposed plebiscite was held in 1956." Lansdale modestly claims that he "passed along" ideas on how to wage psychological warfare to "some nationalists." The anot legion in early October [1954] including items about property, money reform, and a three- day holiday of workers upon takeover. The day following the distribution of these leaflets, refugee tripled." registration he refugees?Catholics, many of it_ whom had collaborated with the French?were settled in the South, in communities that, according to Lans- dale, were designed to "sandwich" Northerners and Southerners "in a cultural melting pot that hopefully would give each equal opportunity." Robert Scigliano, who at this timo- was advising the CIA-infiltrated Michi- gan State University team on how to "help" Diem, saw more than a melting pot: Northerners, practically all of whom are refugees, [have] preempted Many of the choice posts in the Diem government.... [The] Diem regime has assumed the as- pect of a carpet bag government in its disproportion .of Northerners and Cen- tralists ... and in its catholicism.... The Southern people do not seem to share the anticommunist vehemence of their North- ern and Central compatriots, by lvhorn they are sometimes referred to as un- reliable in the communist struggle, , [While] priests in the refugee villages hold no formal government posts they arc gen- erally the real rulers of their villages and serve as contacts with district and pro- vincial officials. Graham Greene, a devout Catholic, observed in 1955 after a visit to Viet- nam, "It is Catholicism which has helped to ruin the government of Mr. Diem, for his genuine piety has been exploited by his American advisers until the Church is in danger of sharing the unpopularity of the United States." Wherever one turns in Lansdale the accounts are likely to be lies. He re- ports how Filipinos, old comrades from the anti-Huk wars, decided to "help" the struggling Free South. Thc spontaneity of this pan-Asian gesture warms the heart?until one learns from Lansdale's own secret report to Presi- dent Kennedy that here, too, the CIA had stage-managed the whole business. The Eastern Construction Company turns out to be a CIA-controlled "mechanism to permit the deployment of Filipino personnel in other Asian countries for unconventional opera- tions.... Philippine Armed Forces and other governmental personnel were 'sheep-dipped' and sent abroad." Elsewhere Lansdale makes much of Diem's success against the various sects, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, and Binh Xuyen. (At every step Diem was ad- vised by Lansdale who, at one pathetic moment, even holds the weeping Chief 1)6 Ott ROD 09120020001yd ing de- Approved For Release 2001/0 VeDP80-016 viessGst? s?.. a. soot ? ?Gisss ass ,ss.so ',us, GS ? . ? ? ' ? ? ?-?sisesesss.,..?ssi,tas,?.lass.vms-r4sa. - ? .. ? ? , ? - , ? ? 1 4,:;?:?;?4 .??? ? ,4??.;??? a... .4" . ta, Vat r.G.Oesss-ssGsss?-??????? ses stses,..........u.ss*Issows......oss....s1Gsas .s? sr, 10-Trs 1 ? ? r . ? . ? y " 4.;;;..1....43.rwmi.r.-..i.,1..:....a.s.4..4-43,:?.4,?:?44;*V. aa??????.????"." WI. AWL 44: rEt. ); %t? STATOTHR ? Awn. .....0????????????-?;?em? ' ???????????,....14., Ilti,,r1M9?110- ? (A?br .);.?.1.4????? Text by Morton Kondracke - Photography by Dennis Brack & Fred Ward ? Approved For Release 2001/03104: CIA-RDP80-01601-R0009000Ma14d. PROGRESSIVE Approved For Release 2001/0&041:96A-RDP80-0160 What the Pentagon Censored ? Publication .of the Pentagon Papers by several prominent daily news- papers last June confirmed the general suspicion that the Government's secur- ity classification system serves as much to protect political leaders from embar- . rassing public scrutiny as to preserve genuine military secrets. Now the publication' of the Penta- gon's own censored version of the Pen- tagon Papers demonstrates that the system is not only abusive of the dem- ocratic process but self-deluding as ?The Pentagon rushed into print with its "sanitized" version of the Papers when it became known that Beacon Press was about to publish the original, classified version of the ? papers?as made, available by Senator. Mike Gravel) Alaska Democrat. The Pentagon's motives were un- 'clear, but the effect was to reveal what it considers to be the most sensitive ,portions of the original document, a development of interest not only to the American public but also to any potentially hostile foreign power. - Much of what the Pentagon cen- sored had already appeared in 'The Neil) York. Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, and other newspapers. The rest of what .was deleted was immediately apparent to those reporters who possessed the original papers and should _now ' be evident to. any foreign intelligence ser- -vice which takes the time to put the Pentagon version and the Beacon Press ...version side by side. An analysis of what the Pentagon. .deletcd shows that the Government is still anxious to conceal the role of the United States in several crucial aspects of 'the -Vietnam involvement: how the first U.S. combat troops were sent to :Vietnam, how plans were drawn up to use nuclear weapons against China, Mow the secret war?in Laos has been waged, how the CIA conducted exten- STATOTHR "If escalation brought about major sive covert operations in North. Viet- Chinese attack," Rusk is paraphrased nain, and how U.S. officials plotted the overthrow of .South Vietnam Pres- by the Pentagon Papers historian as declaring, "it would involve use of ident Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. nuclear arms. Many free world leaders Other deletions were more predict-. Nvotild oppose this. Chiang Kai-shek able, largely the record of diplomatic had told him [Rusk] fervently he ? dealings with the Soviet Union, the . did, and so did U Thant. Many Asians Western European powers, and several "Third World" countries. seemed to see an clement of racial dis- crimination in use of nuclear weapons; The most inexplicable deletions deal something we would do to Asians but ' with the Diem coup. The Pentagon not to Westerners... One must use the censors obviously failed to get the word, -ree onc had; if Chinese used masses from their Commander-in-Chief, Pres- Thmanity, we would use superior ident Nixon, who admitted openly at a ? - White House press conference Septern-! iirepower." On the eve of President Nixon's trip bcr 16 that "the way we got into Viet-' ! to Pekihg the ?Pentagon censors obvi- nam was through overthrowing Diem ously thought it best to leave such and the complicity in thc murder of ? blatant "Yellow Perilism" on the cut- Diem." ?, ? Iting room floor. But unless China's se- Yet the Pentagon censors sniPPcd. curity officials are as obtuse as ours, out page after page of narrative detail-. it is likely that Rusk's remarks are al- ing the intimate .involvement of U.S. ready part of their briefing book for Embassy officials in the sordid maneu-the visit Pres?m em,a.1to_Pekiruz. ble explanation, in current political RO-S- and . MoaTON KozsmaAokr. wring. that led to Diem's fall. A possi- ? terms, is that the deletions contain sev- eral citations of U.S. hostility toward General Dtiong Van (Big) Minh. Minh sought- briefly this year to mount a campaign against President Nguyen Van Thieu but backed out, charging that Thieu had tigged the elections with tacit U.S. approval. The deletions covering the diSpatch of the first combat troops to Vietnam in 1965, amount to more than six pages. Apparently they were -made to obscure indications that the troops were con- ceived from the beginning as the van- guard of a' major offensive buildup, not the small, defensive, and support force they were depicted as being at the time. In the original version, the Pen- tagon historians concluded that the evidence pointed ?"in support of the phased build-up proposition." The deletions about nuclear- weap- ons include a devastatingly matter-of- fact comment by Secretary of State Dean Rusk in 1964 that nuclear weap-. ons would be used if Communist China entered the Vietnam war.? (Air. Ross and Air. kondracir;e are 'erns(Lingto;: correspondents for the Chi- cago Sun-Times.), STATOTHR ? Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDI580-01601R000900020001-3 11:02:(0)1 c-i:J.Amv; Approved For Release 2001/03/ :1biA-'-libig80-01601R0 1 I/. n 9 r ,P.,111.:11L11[(!;\'!I r- [ '11 47i-:)) 1 1'"; il 1 1 1 _1 :;.) j?_) iiLi Li ci I?Clflr,-;.)1 :I Li u I I Li Li "flood relief." In a report to KednedyTaylor wrote: "The risks of backing into a major Asian war" by -way of SyN. are present but are- not impressive. N VN is extremely vulnerable to conventional bombing, a ,.--we?a,kpess Which should be exploited diplomatically in convinc- ing Hanoi to lay off SYN." - In a report of Nov. 8, 1961, endorsing the Taylor recommendations; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara spelled out ti-m implications of al?-military victory with the use of U.S. troops: "The other side can be convince-d we mean business only if we accompany the initial force introdtiction...by awarning ..to Hanbi that continued support of the Via Con will lead to punitive retaliation against North Viet- By Richard E. Ward nam. Fourth of a series on the Pentagon papers "If. we act in this way, the ultimate possible extent .of our .military commitment- must be. faced. The struggle may be brolonged and Hanoi and Peiping (sic) may intervene directly hi view, of the logistic difficulties faced by the other side, I believe that we can assume that the. maximum U.S. forces required on the ground in: Southeast Asia will not exceed 6 divisions, oil! about 205,000 men."- Although the 'Kennedy administration never) actually made the decision to send the forces. for fighting a full-scale war, its strategy (con- tinued by the Johnson administration) foresaw their use and its actions laid the necessary groundwork for the subsequent escalation. One of these preparatory steps deemed necessary. by Washington was the elimination of the Diem regime. ? t- -- U.S. responsibility for the eliminationf Diem was no less than for- his installathiM'in ?Saigon. Both roles have always been offici;illy disclaimed by Washington, although there has been sufficient evidence of tile facts for anyone who wanted to draw the correct conclusions. Of course details were missing. Some of them have been supplied in the Pentagon report. The published communications between Washington and the U.S. embassy in Saigon show that the U.S. gave .the plotters full assurances that the U.S. desired a coup. The U.S. furnished the generals with plans of Saigon military installations and at the time of the coup a CIA liaison man waS in the generals' command -post. White House officials and ,Am- bassador Henry Cabot Lodge were aware that Diem was likely to be assassinated and made no serious effort to save him, despite all his Past services to the U.S. . The - published documents . tuld narratives concentrate primarily on the U.S. role in Diem's downfall, but provide less details on what is perhaps a rnore important question?the reason -why the U.S. prompted the coup. Yet there seems, to be enough evidence to say that the primary reason was not the regime's un- popularity at home- and abroad, but rather because with the increase' in U.S. troops in Vietnam Washington7wanted T'a.gt?eater degree of control over the Saigon adminiStration than -Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were willing to grant. . If only John F. Kennedy had lived, certain, writers have asserted, the U.S; never would have become bogged down in a major war in Southeast Asia. ? The Pentagon papers are unkind to that-- myth, for the documents clearly show that the Kennedy administration set the ,Stage for the escalation in Vietnam by its successor. In effect, Lyndon Johnson carried out a program germinated by the Kennedy administration, some of whose chief figures contemplated as early as 1961 the massive use. of U.S.. ground forces and the bombing of North Vietnam... Tho. Kennedy administration took office:just a month after the formation of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam in Decem- ber 1960. The NLF quickly gained wide sup- port throughout the South and the U.S.-spon- sored regime of Ngo Dinh Diem was soon- on the defensive militarily and politically. FrOm 19.61, there was a steady escalation in U.S. interventio.nary activities. Espionage missions against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were stepped up and the first regular American ground troops were sent to the South as "advisors" to the Saigon armed forces wliich were being expanded by the U.S. By mid-196-3, the White House- concluded that its ainifl'of victory in Vietnam would not be possible wider the. Diem regime and the U.S., gave the green light for a coup in Saigon. As the number of U.S. personnel in Indo- china approached 20,000?an almost 20-fold increase in. less, than three years--the Kennedy administration came under increasing domestic criticism. In response, it stated the U.S. military presence in Vietnam had reached its peak and would be concluded by 1965. While that was what the- public, heard, the Pentagon papers reveal that most top administration officials were aware that the commitment of the first complemerr,-. of U.S. troops implied a larger American combat role in the future. The President's' personal military advisor, Gen. Maxwell Taylor, recommended the use of U.S. forces on a limited scale in early November 1961, fonwing a visit to South Vietnam. Taylor himself discounted the,POssibilit.y?that a major war would restill from the .use of American troops, which he sucTested could be sent - to Approvedefore ReJeasei21I03I04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 -00ntimAna . ? STATOTHR STATOTHR Ea' 6)ciP-5 Approved For Release 24y9M3:7plA-RDP80-01601R000 LI il Py CADJLL Washington, Aug. ii (NEWS Dureau)--- The United .? States and the Chinese Nationalists for 20 years launched espionage, sabotage and guerrilla forays against Conunu- nist China from Cliktng Kai. slick's is kind bastion of 'Tai- wan, a former State Department official told Congress to- day. Allen S. Whiting, professor of political science at the 'University ,of Michigan, who served in the State Depart in ent's Bureau of intelligence and in the U.S. Con- sulate in Hong Kong from 1901 to 1908, said the covert "opera- tions included support of the ill- fated uprising in Tibet in 1959. Increased After ii ocean War Whiting said America's "slm- dowy involvement" in the clan- destine operations grew steadily after the Norean v?ar and the 1954 Geneva Conference. He- said they triggered the FO11110Sa Strait crises of 195-1 and 1.9-dS and helped set the stage for the Sino-India war in 3902 along the -Tibetan frontier. . Testifying before a subcommit- tee of the Senate-House Joint. Economic Committee, Whiting said the publication of the Pen- tagon papers provided partial documentation of the operations, particularly U. S. and Nationalist .Ghine'se vverflights of mainland China. ? Quoting from a tdp-secret mem- orandum from Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale to Con. Maxwell Taylor, Whiting said a Nationalist Chi- nese airline called Civil Air Trims- port carried out "more than 200 overflights of mainland China / and Tibet." in addition, the line Provided aircraft for an abortive CIA effort to overthrtr.v the Su- karno regime in Indonesia in 1058, and helped transport sabotage teams into North Vietnam as early as 195-1, the witness said. . Airline Linked to CIA In 1960,- Whiting told the sub- committee, a new Taiwan-based airline, China Air Lines, came in:: to being, and engaged in "clan- destine intelligence operations" as well as commercial flights to Laos and Vietnam. He linked the airline to the CIA-backed Air America, which raided Northern Laos iiithe course of the CIA's "secret war in Laos." ..?t times, he said, the bombers strayed over the border, hitting mainland Chinese territory. This may explain "much of Peking's expanding military presence in road construction and antiaircraft activities in Northern Laos," he. went on. STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 )1ATIONA3J GUARDIAN ? Approved For Release 200140th4:brA-Ps-CIPA81(b9-101R I !I t, _ (7:2' ): \ti C:(-011'.1);;:i n ?"- to?A too, koi ? ill ? ))). tk; . W J ?????,-!' L r. - By Richard E. Ward i , nstructions from President EisenhOwer and Secretary or ? . Zhird of a series of articles .: State John- Foster Dulles opposed any international . ? - . - . recognition Of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Official U.S. policy statements on Indochina issued, to which had existed for 'nearly nine years and led the ! the public characteristically have charged the Viet- resistance against the French. namese with the crimes actually being committed by the Blind policies ? _ _ , .U.S. From 1954. to. the present, day, among the U.S. Prior to the Geneva conference itself, Washington .ideological keystones have been the spurious claims of policy papers of 1954 underscored U.S. aims in Indo- North Vietnamese aggression and violations of the 1954 .china as "a military victory" for the French, whose Geneva settlement, armies were on their last legs?indicating the lack of ?. Although . U.S. responsibility for sabotaging the realism in Washington. Thus it is not surprising that the 'Geneva agreements has been recognized widely for well U.S. worked to destroy the new peace. Till? was evident .. bvcr a decade, the first time it was seriously suggested in at the time to anyone who wanted to see what was. the New York Times was. last month in its final happening in Vietnam. ? . . . ! installment of documents and reports from the Punta- Clearer than before, the ..newly available documents . gon's history-of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. - shovi. that the U.S. never intended to respect the Geneva .? Following - the disastrous French defeat at Dien- settlement. On August 3, 1954, just two weeks after the ; . bienplitt in. May 1954 as well as serious military reverses Geneva conference concluded, the National Security i elsewhere in Indochina, France finally faced the neces- Council discussed Vietnam. About the meeting, Fox j, sity of negotiations to avoid complete destruction of. its Butterfield in the Times wrote: "The objectives set by forces. The ensuing settlement at Geneva contained. the [National Security.] Council were 'to maintain a : provisions for .a . durable peace in Indochina. But as friendly non-Communist South Vietnam' and 'to prevent : quickly as French troops left Indochina the U.S. began a Communist victory through all-Vietnam elections.' " its direct intervention, preventing essential provisions of Although the Pentagon analyst denied that the U.S. ? the Geneva agreement from being carried out. "connived" with Diem to prevent national elections,. Butterfield noted that Washington had made its desires Armad resistance houins known to Diem and when Diem later blocked the As is well known, the U.S.. caused its puppet Ngo? elections, the U.S. indicated its full "support." The , Dinh Diem' to be installed in Saigon, even before the Pentagon papers could hardly conceal the fact that Diem I- settlement had been reached in Geneva. Under programs remained in power by virtue of U.S.- backing, although financed and largely conceived by his CIA tutors, Diem the dependence on the U.S. is sometimes obscured, instituted a neo-fascist regime. Thousands of patriots particularly in ascribing to Diem the repression, for ? who - had served in the anti-French resistance were. which U.S. was ultimately responsible. assassinated or jailed and tortured. Armed struggle Washington's cynical attitude toward the Geneva became the only road to survival; this developed settlement. was stated by John Foster Dulles'in a cable to, . spontaneously in some regions or under the direction of the U.S. embassy in Saigon on Dec. 11, 1955: "While we - local 'cadres in others. Full-scale, coordinated resistance should?certainly take no step to speed up the present began with the formation of .the Nittional Liberation process of decay of the Geneva accords, neither should Front of South Vietnam in December 1960, which was we- make the slightest effort to infuse life into them." - - headed by a representative cross-section of the leader- Perhaps thc. most 'revealing new document from the - ship of democratic ,and progressive-organizations in the ' post-Geneva period is a lengthy report on the activities . South. , ? of the so-called Saigon Military Mission, headed by Col. / ? In the U.S. version, which the American press rarely Lansdale of the CIA. Ostensibly written by anonymous ? challenged (except to gj.ve a partially true picture as? members of the group, there is no doubt that the report " Diem nearedhis end in 1963), the Saigon puppets were .which eulogizes Lansdale was largely his doing. Lans- treated_ as .the legitimate rulers, threatened by subversive dale's-activities were described in. fiction by Graham agents acting on behalf of Hanoi. In essence, according Greene, in "The Quiet American." Lansdale's chauvin- to Wanington, in the late 1950s the U.S. was not ism and callousness might also be compared to the comic intervening in ,Vietnam while "foreign aggression" was strip character, Steve Canyon, like Lansdale an Air Force carried out by Vietnamese. - - . . .. .. 7colon el: S.- , Unfortunately the press has only published a small. amount of Material from the Pentagon study _on the period .following the Geneva settlement. However, there: is ,sufficient information from the Pentagon report to idemonstrate that Washington consciously and deliberate- ly was. trying to crush the revolution in Vietnam and that virtually every public statement was-nothing but a ; tissue .of lies designed to conceal U.S. activities frorrrthe :. AmeriCan people. ? ? ?COntinuod- .. At various stages the U.S. and its apologists have blown hot and cold about the Geneva agreements. At the conference itself the chief U.S. delegate,. Walter' / Bedell Smith, pledg,ed that the U.S. would not mit them by force. (ApprovediforsIReleasee, 1/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 ambiguous, hardly concealing their dissatisfaction: Dis- satisfied . they well might be, for Bedell Smith's initial ?: STATOTHR Approved For ReleasV/O1bikY41?C9A-WS80-01601R 22 JUL 1971 STATOTHR A E-3z.D77.0.1....2:.[:;,?c7.37:717.D7.-.D7r ' ? ? '71 nThi ??,1-7.:;,;-,..,? 0 '-r;?-s] 67) r? ? - cIt. 2.1 z; The articic. that follows is part of The A/ Planning of the Vietnam ?War, a study by members of the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington, including Richard J. Barnet, Marcus Ras-kin, and Ralph Stavins.* In: their introduction to the study, the authors write: "In early 1970, Marcus Raskin con- calved the. idea of a study that would . explain how the Vietnam disaster hap- pened by analyzing the planning of the ,War. A group of investigators directed .- ?by Ralph Stavins concentrated on finding out who did the actual plan- :nin.g that led -to the decisions to bomb North Vietnam, to introduce over a half-million troops into South Viet- 'nam, to defoliate and destroy vast. areas of Indochina, and to create ?,millions of refugees in the area. ?? -"Ralph Stavins, assisted by Canta .Plan, John Berkowitz, George Pipkin, and Brian Eden, conducted more than 300 interviews in the course of this .studji. Ainong those interviewed were many .Presidential advisers to Kennedy and Johnson, generals and 'admirals, middle level bureaucrats who occupied strategic positions in the national security bureaticracy, and offi- .eiali , military and civilian, who carried; out the policy in the field in Vietnam. ' "A number of informants backed up their oral statements with documents ,ctn , their possession. including informal minutes of meetings, as well as por- tions of the official documentary rec- ord ".now known as the "Pentagon . Papers.? Our information is drawn not, only from the Department of Defense,. but also from the White House, the Department of State, ,and the Central Intelligence Agency." , The study is being-published in two- ? volumes. The first, which includes the, - article below, will be published early in August. The second will appear in- ? May, 1972. . .? .*The study is the responsibility of its ' authors and 'does not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute, its trustees, or- fellows, . nh L. Stavins 6.71 ? : , At the end of March, 1961, the CIA .circulated a National Intelligence .Esti; mate on the situation in South Viet- nam. This paper advised Kennedy that Diem was a tyrant who was confronted with two sources of disContent the non-Communist loyal opposition and ' the Viet Cong. The two problems' were closely connected. Of- the spreading Viet Cong network the CIA noted: Local recruits and sympathetic or intimidated villagers have enhanced . Viet Cong control and influence over increasing areas of the coun- tryside.. For example, more than one-half of the entire rural region south 'and southwest of Saigon, as well as some areas to the north, - are under considerable Communist control. Some of these areas are in effect denied to all government authority not immediately backed. by substantial armed force. The Viet Cong's strength encircles Sai- gon and has recently begun to move closer in the city. ? ? ? The people were not opposing these recent advances by the Viet Cong; if anything, they seemed to be support- ing them., The failure to rally the people against the Viet Cons was laid to Diem's dictatorial rule:' - ? There has been an increasinc, dis- position within official circles and the army to question Diem's abili- ty to lead in this period. Many feel that he is unable to sally t'ne people in the fight against the Cornmunists because of his -reli- ance on virtual one-mad rule, his tolerance of corruption extending even to his immediate entourage, and his refusal to relax a rigid system of public controls. ? The CIA.referred to'the attempted coup -.agains! Diem that had been led by Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP8 STATOTHR '?oeneral 1 in Tovember; 1960, and concluded that another coup was likely. 'In spite of the gains by the Viet Cong, they predicted that the next attempt to overthrow Diem would originate with the army and the non-Communist opposition. The Communists would like to initiate and control a coup against Diem, and their armed and sub- versive operations including united ftont efforts are directed toward this purpose. It is more -likely, however, that any coup attempt which occurs over the next year or so win originate among non- Communist elements, perhaps a combination of disgruntled civilian officials -and oppositionists and army elements, broader -than those involved in the November attempt. In view of the broadly based opposi- tion to Diem's regime and his virtual 'reliance on one-man rule, it was unlike- ly that he would initiate any reform measures that would sap the strength of the revolutionaries. Whether reform was conceived as widening the political . base of the regime, which Diem would not agree to,. or whether it was to consist of an intensified counter- insurgency program, something the. people would not support, it had; become painfully clear to Washington that. reform Was not the .path to victory. Buf victory was the goal, and Kennedy called upon Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric to draw up the. victory plans. On April 20, 1961, Kennedy asked Gilpatric to: a) Appraise the current status and future prospects of the Communist drive to dominate South Vietnam. b) Recommend a series of actions .(military, political, and/or econom- ic, overt and/or covert) which will prevent. Communist domination of ? that country. ? - 150 k t-jk al s ac, Lt.?& P A v?- vl vt L, 0-01601 R00000:102001-3 NEWSWEEK Approved .For Release 2001iO3/440: gbi-gpipso-co 6 Lansdale's Secret War They were America's first Vietnam " warriors?a small team or Central Intelli- gence Agency operatives called the Sai- gon Military Mission,- headed by the leg- endary Col. Edward Lansdale, and sent " into Vietnam in the chaotic, eleventh- hour summer of 1951, to try to stave off a ' Communist take-over. How they did it was revealed last week in a diary kept by some of. the SNINI agents and excerpt- ed lw The New York Times among its n- al selections from the Pentagon's secret study of the war, Undated, unsigned, the diary chronicles one year of CIA op- erations in North and South, Vietnam-- operations plainly in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the Geneva agree- ments, which the U.S. had pledged not to disturb?and provides a revealing glimpse of the earliest covert moves that led ultimately to massive, open U.S. involvement in the war. It was fearfully late to be establishing a U.S. mission. Ho Chi Minh was rushing to consolidate control in the north, and so wobbly was Premier Ngo Dinh Diem's original government in the south, the diary relates, that high-level officials in Washington already considered Vietnam probably lost. "We admitted that pros- pects were gloomy," the diary states, "but were positive that there was still a fighting chance." Lansdale was certainly the man to I. take it. A tough Air Force career officer turned CIA agent, Lansdale had become the foremost American counter insurgen- cy expert helping the Philippines Eamon Magsaysay crush the Communist Huk- balahap rebellion .two years before?and reportedly was the model for Colonel Hillandale in "The Ugly American." He threw SMM?and his own prestige?be- hind Diem, and sent a crack American paramilitary team to Hanoi to try to slow the Communist take-over. The northern team was led, ironically, by U.S. Army Major Lucien Conein?the same CIA agent who, nine years later, was to sit in on the planning and execu- tion of the South Vietnamese Army gen- erals' overthrow of President Ngo Dinh' Diem. This time, using the refugee evac-. nation program as a cover, Concin and his men worked furiously to recruit a team of North ?Vietnamese insurgents (c.xide-nanual Binh), "exfilt rate" them for training at a secret U.S. base' and smuggle them, with supplies and am- 1111111a1011, 'Ma into the north before the 'Vietminh seized Hanoi. They were also engaged in psycho- logical warfare?and sabotage. According to the diary, one leaflet circulated in Hanoi, ostensibly announcing Vietminh plans for such program us as in re- form, so demoralized the populace that the value of Vietminh currency fell by half and refugee applications to move south tripled in a single day. But when Hanoi finally fell in October, Conein and his men very nearly fell with it. On their last raid, the team attempted to wreck Hanoi's bus system by pouring a contam- inant into its oil supply. "The team," the diary relates, "had a bad moment in an enclosed storage room. Fumes from the contaminant came close to knocking them out. Dizzy and weak-kneed, they masked their faces with handkerchiefs and completed the job." Tricks: SMM was up to the same kind of paramilitary, psy-war tricks in the south?including recruiting another team of Tonkin-bound insurgents code-named Hao, and publishing an almanac filled with calamitous astrological forecasts for the north. But Lansdale's biggest head- ache seems to have been keeping the man he had backed in power. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Nguyen Van Hinh made no secret of his eagerness to over- throw Diem, and it apparently took all of Lansdale's considerable wiles to keep him from doing it. Ile managed to stave off one coup by dispatching Hinh's two key aides on a junket to the Philippines, and he developed his own spy-lines to the general. "Our chief," the diary re- lates, "... was a friend of both Milli's wife and his favorite mistress ((lie mis- tress was a pupil in a small English class conducted for mistresses of important personages at their request ...)." Within a month, IBA had departed for France, spurred on his way in no small measure by Lansdale's operations. , The diary's conclusions ring with pride in a job well done. "We had smuggled into Vietnam about eight and a half tons of supplies," it relates. "Our Binh and our northern Hao teams were in place, com- pletely equipped. It had taken a tremen- dous amount of hard work ..." Later, Lansdale had an opportunity to see where it all had led. When he returned to Vietnam in 1965, the man he had backed was dead, the South Vietnamese Army was all but inoperable?and the U.S. had begun the infusion of half a mil-' \lion fighting men. STATOTHR Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000900020001-3 ? ...W;.; Approve se 2uul#)3104 ? i? . / ' / \ ' `, I " ? I .? -,77:;7-7:,1 ? ADP80-016 5 I ? ; STATOTHR, 7. 7 / ; ? I r.', 4 r2. () - . I 5 ' ' triCS, C...y13ielly '1:,,-.1;.1i:lii ti-ot.-Irrta. and 13an.,h.co 1 1 ..,./,.! 1 ., : . I 7-- 1 i -i ,..- -?,,, lin ot.b..).",vord::, slittee thrt,.. 11:1:T:so:ice ' ' ....,...- i .?' f, 1 .il .i I.." t. i i i,--..,-- eittn-lcrit's e.c:-.e1a'.-fsii.:).11-v?r; pi-ocess for 'au::: Penta- I_I . Lon 1o, 111u goveramenL u..,et-Itht. courts z-',.;"; Thr.?,r.e, t Wo (deo-write-the tv..o.vsceic time span a II ICto 'get the3:?"!O'.;S::-24.?0;" ZttOIOSS." and t'il:: 10-itelli liet.---'3-rointerlocititv',.. . U.S. A .to: rley Whit ncy l'orti.i. Seymour first 'fogoi.be.r they censtituto the heart of the :::.,.),..-- stImitted a 22-pnge "sps,cial appencilx" hiz.,fetre erearient's contention that it \vent into court, the, fcdfu n1 Appellate Coart in I-I.-v.; York in the not to prevcrat crInbarraSSTIC'nt to .'provic;...15 - NOv.' YOla In case, cining items- in tilf... Pen- administrations or to t"iwart the First Amend- Cazon . study which ths. f],o....-eitttracrit believed moot, btit to it Off -1..,.1,....tp.:.:1:-it)10. injury" to. v..ould c.?.tiFe. ;.:.,i,,ve- r",,,,tiomd e?,,,,,,,,,, if dis., the Elt;)a.! Sr."CZ1!* of the United Statc:s. - , closcd. l',,fhsn. the Cirf.O MOVCd tO ti;C: SI.IpretrIO (Utinici Eii.,1,,c1..,?,. t'ilc fofmc.t. pc,ita4c,i?Ttaf.: -'..0-,Z1'1, Li CII General Irwin K. Grisv,'old. for and Rand- Corp. e-mi...10yrt, has said re_ s.umr.-inri".,er_l these mat'ers in Pis 1D-iten-1 list pealedivi that he x,s the. conduit to ;he Itfc.,s, gi`,'en to ilia justices in a serakd crivelc,po for I OF:.: 11111CS, CO,C. POSt 'Fild other newspepers,), In-charuhers pent:fat. . -,,,, , -,--.. . As proof of ih,r.:. ---,0'.,:cl'ili-i'l:-,rj-'6????tic---,=;--,',s in this Wl-it,.t the govemnr.-:nt l':elieves it has been t.:y....T. l'''. "Tk.i.3..I.1-I.iP.S'ii rca,),":.et, the ocial citcd the rator- Of stories SUCC.`,2'..flil in preventireg it": the pniplicatiton or iu 1:,,,,,. 'riroes 'aid fr"'cist,nite7: the StIpucinc Celli. 1.. details of c.ertain 1?entaLtn J' 15 on that list, c..-111,..1 or. OLr V:t'?,?....11.1,..:-.1:'n 1:.7r,":.1.1 . , ,,,-,,,,Iva them pt,rrn;,..,.--..,.'?or., it:, rc.,:stam,-_,, publio,ai,ior, of obtain's,d to), this ropc.,..-tc.r. The cor..tcrus E.V3 ? 2 ??,..o.p:"I'xilt, !?,-4.;.!, I.;.? Th, r),?,,-,.?., N,,,,,,.:, stimintirizted here oaly iri iteneral forms so as. I he P,.itagon papers. \VASIIIIIC'Ci'ION ---- One pc rc aeon vyhy the government 'went it-ito court to try to sten pub- -rhey haven't surfoc.:eti nny cf. the lilt l'a t-,...tn- - to vi'-'iat'' s'f-ci-t-'n.Y. . ? The Nevis 1-1F.,5 been nssured that the foil is tzi_iff eii the 10-itel ,, - i-list.," he si.id. . lication of 'the PC1-0.:::,".:On t'apE."1"5 ",".,?::::'S a -Ica": that certain disclosures1r ;' 'tvreck tho ct. ,111. stcr --, 1,,.71?..t th,...,.gov,,,,,,,,,I. f?..,1 ,..,d froin it.,, irl,,. paints, withotit 1 ut [her 'amplification, e.0 planning thca under -way for Pre.sidsr,t Nixon's 1 iav.'s,'its., in spip. ef 01,-, .Sii:;r:.:me Coml. \-,,x, not 1.ite1 an:,,, security breach or threat to the eofivo. 1C11 1(1 tr un clict ip to Commist C1-"ina. . ; p lc in lved In t",oing, to court, the governmetit's top law.. -,..) 1 1-.,,-. tefo-v,:c_ek injunction re.fiod gave the Ci Thz-',1-I)c'''11;a6:r011 .i.1utl.:'..-7 ilichill'-'q Pr'IF'? C1-0C1-1-- : yet s believe they f,..iso saved the lives of sev- ContiA IntelliLetIce zi.,.,'ency (CIA) sufficient. 1-11.?1.1``.11''' of '.1fle.fIc-`'1.` Iec-cr'.1..."-:s.s'2111-'..:' 0-11'..1..41-' era1 Aroericenrs, headed -c?ff sorne f?.,,,save se.eu.-. time. to "cy.fract" tc.,--y agents frorn dely,."..erous telligence activitiC,5 In Vu.VI:ig ccrtam Asian -countries supporting I---Ianc,i's side in the Viet- Tity Icai-S- anci .preserve) the macbinery of 0,5:iignmcnts n'orc,"-.d. . ,..,.. some Of tOd,ly's rt-ios.t delicate and, s'ecret peaco ifincse a,'gekAs "airaost certain.1}., wotild have riar'..,1 I'''"' , .. 1 ne-se. act,viiies were itnov,,n. to be taking 3110V OS in'v'01\,:nz; many IL "'S of the. II.,2ast Local hiilIsci," one" source said, 11,,d ESVOl'al Pan- , ee ,t,-,-,' the s,-,ied-uoon countries but they and I,,Vesf. . . ? tag on ..I..or.uroc-tits been printed or described in :? .?,?;,,, , ? ,.. 1- I ?.....,. ,. t ? ,,,I, t,,,,,,lica.ly ?,o,,,)1,_" to sioizi it ano so f.ack The Washington-Pol.ing thav/ is one of thorn.. detail, - . . sear, potrunf, publicly. . Mr. l'sli:wn, it Call br?. said on high aiithority, "Ily soing into c...6iii.l. we gained enough time - - .- ;- ' - - 4' ? ? ? 7' '' ' shares tills .vicv,I. . ' to "get th,.:ro. the hcil cot," Ite. said. . trom ine I' '1 papers, cicLaii:,.:17'S'nec.:7