PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF THE U.S. PACIFICATION EFFORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000500060089-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 89
• Publication Date: March 29, 1967
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/14: CIA-RDP80R04720R000500069-0
29 March 1967
V MOT A NDU,M FOR THE DD -C TOR
5::_; EC, Proposed Reorganization of the U. S. Pacification Effort
? . On your behalf, i represented the Agency at the 29 March State-
JOS meeting, which constituted Ambassador Bunker's and 1-mbassador
Lockers first formal session with the Joint Chiefs since their Saigon
assignments were announced. All the Chiefs were present save the Marine
Commandant, General Greene, who was represented by a three-star
alternate whose name I did_ not get. State was represented b
;t. niter, C -- and Y Ambassador
_mbassador Locke and. Under-Secretary Foy Kohler.
l=irabassador Bunker asked that General Wheeler and his colleagues
open the meeting by raising any questions or problems on their minds or
Oints to which they felt his (Bunker's) and Ambassador Lockers attention
should e drec~ed. Wheeler first talked about Cambodia, then raised the
=after of the ornan ization of the U. S. pacification effort.
e ensuing exchange of remarks, it was evident that the
of pacification organization had been discussed at Guam in some
iva e session which nether of us attended. (Bunker specifically referred
such a Guam discussion without elaborating on its content. Wheeler nodded
_!- a r='-a-nner that indicated he knew of, or had participated in, the session in
s icn ) Apparently, the Guam discussion resulted in a proposal -- or
:ent -- that the U. S. pacification effort should be placed under General
estr=jore,and's overall direction with Komer running the civil side of
cificaton and reporting to Westmoreland (not directly to Bunker or Locke).
-nZ inferring that
t this is what was agreed at Guam from the remarks Bunker
made, which did not spell out any details and, hence, were rather cryptic
c soi. nc_,,ne not privy to the background apparently shared by Bunker and
Approved For Release 2004/06/14 CIA-RDP80R01720R000500060089-0
 Approved For Release X4/06/14 : CIA-RDP80R01720R0005000F0089-0
4. ;tinker did say that "yesterday" (i. e. , 28 March) a memo had been
forwarded -- presumably to the President -- by Rostow's office, recommend-
4_ g ~ccA:icn or of "time orgar_.:_:ction discussed in E,zuam, unker said that
o or had. discussed 'these organizational arrange .m.:. its with f st orela~ld
i Sec icon (where Kopper went when the Guam Conference broke and the
I ar c In' m e m o ou o I ~r:osto~u s office was l a:;geit based '9 on these K o !e-r-
v-..a t":noxeland discus,,?ions. 3-u':.ke1 also said that the re i =~ decided
to '" eserve his decision" on these organizational changes, at least for the
t wr__e eing.
5. ~_o~mer called r e shortly before I left for the State- CS meeting
to talk about some Chieu ~ioi statistics. 1 asked him what his travel plans
were. lJ~e said he did not know, since they were not firm and would be determined
:by Ambassador Banker's (sic) as yet unexpressed wishes. He said not one
word about any reorganize in of pacification. In fact, when I asked him about
i..-.e New York Tines story re General Abrams (the Times suggested that
now visiting in Saigon, was going to take over pacification prior to
coming West_nor eland's successor', Komer replied that this was nonsense
a ~d no n ~a or cha-nges, other than those already announced, were in the wind.
indicated in our telephone conversation, 1 am nos advocating
~'~3
t_-_t we fight the problem if yet another reorganization of the U. S. pacification
effort is indeed in the wind. 1 do feel strongly, however, that in light of the
Agency's -rn.an-power, budgetary and logistic resources now committed to the
C- `On effor-; -- resources whose disposition and control will inevitably
i._::.o od by any major com m.and, relationship changes -- we have every right
uiow nl-ICISe y What is in the wind or under active consideration. i a. so
believe in our own interests we ought to find out what is being planned or
ides in order to discover just how our interests, responsibilities and
would be affected.
Since this matter of pacification reorganization was raised and
c~__: o of the 23 March `? ostow nemo9' made at a formal gathering to which
-,: .. z' Y,r officially represented, it
sea ns to me t