VIETNAM: THE VICIOUS LEGACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87-00462R000100120004-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP87-00462R000100120004-9
TF DIRECTOR OF
CENTKAL INTELLIGENCE
National Intelligence Council ' 24 April 1985
NOTE FOR: DCI
DDCI
C/NIC
SRP
Each NIO
" A/NIO
NIC/AG
FROM: Herbert E. Meyer
VC/NIC
This article by Paul Johnson is
quite powerful. I thought you might like to
see it.
Herbert E. Meyer
Attachment:
Vietnam: The Vicious Legacy
London Times, 4/20/85
Approved For Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP87-00462R000100120004-9
 Approved For Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP87-00462R000100120004-9
THE-TIMES SATURDAY # PRIL 201985 PA6E S_
Saigon fell 10 years ago this month. Paul Johnson; reflects on the paralysing
effect.on. US, readiness to oppose Soviet expars on s -uutil-Reaga
n
tr
letO
The fall of Saigon in 1975 and the
decade that has followed illustrate a
maxim endorsed by wise historians.
it is %%illpower, rather than physical
power, which determines the o4t-
come of wars. i
In analysing the 40-year, tragedy of
Indochina we must never forget that
from 1945 onwards it was. the
determination of Ho Chi Minh, the
communist leader, and his ,suc-
cessors to dominate all of Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia, which was the
principal dynamic of the struggle'
and the ultimate cause of all the
bloodshed. They refused to allow
their aim to be deflected in' the
smallest degree by the appalling
casualties their subjects suffered or
inflicted. The accusations of geno-
cide hurled at the Americans thus
have a bitter irony. It wat ever
known. Vietnam has -become 'in
,Allan Prussia. with 1,200,000 melt'
tinder arms, more per capita than
and other country.
These forces are 'a-: tdee(titi dote
merely to near neighbours such as,
Thailand and Malaysia but to noff?+
communist regimes throughout~ a,
vast new air of,)rn.sion, _;f2rracttng;.
through sot,th and south-cast Asia
deep' inur'the Indian and ' Pacific,
oceans. In this immense 'sector of
the world, hitherto almost, un+
troubled by ;:Soviet ? geopolitics,
Moscow can act rn motioh difficult=
ies for the West at little or no cost to
itself. The Soviet ocean-going naval
and fishing fleets, with Vietnam
are the physical means by which-
these dificultie% can be exploited...,
Ode oppohunity.presents itself iw?
ii
Sri Lanka. There is another ,in, Nc
' Caledonia: where the Ftench have
made an ' almighty' hash f things,(as.
they 'did in Indochina. There is
trouble with Mauritius,. now nego-
tiating with Moscow. The Vietna-
mese are showing an. activq interest
in Vanuatu (formerly the New
Hebrides). ?he ?R ussians thenisclves
are negotiating "fishing rights" with
Kiribati (formerly' tlte, Ellice ;(s-'
lands): and, where. tfie Soviettrawlers
come their nuclear; submarines are
rarely.far behind.
At this delicate momenc thq Ng''w
Zealanders L who after all have tar
more to lose then we have hivf
chosen to put in power a Comic
Methodist lay-preacher whose first:
major aft has teen to destroy. the;
Anzus Trey y.
Hence, while! the psychosis in.
duced'by the fall of Saigon has been
largely exort:ised the physical-legacy
remains.-: In the, early 1970s ? we
allowed to emerge in south-east Asia
a political and ,militaryFranken-.
stein influenced from . afr+ by its
Soviet progenitors:- We must, bolt all
the doors in they region that we can:
O Than Newspispeft IJMiut, IMS' '
> :L
?
A Ail
0.9a 01-40c; 1 p
It i'c,~ta" fife'
' 1*N 1A Hone
rh ~ir 2rxfi *v h!!'{fCtt' trl' ='ft
? -
PU$t 0 Ot fx
January 27, 1973: the four-party agreement ending the war.
Then came Watergate - and the communist onslaught
l tt s;t, 4 cI '..tti '1"
t&ifi t b ,:i i
~rtX 1Xi~* arri it '
#nttlittncs ,: ittir
kzil
l33'a mflAi `r :silt
nut`ir1l no-i 19yimitt.
i3t! i t all') f/ itp'n 'ts' .'?
to rlr,t '1.~s' (Sjt?"t, ~.
d-sl;rtr
April 29,1975: as the communists close in, foreign nationals flee Saigon`by.US naval helicopter.
Approved For Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP87-00462R000100120004-9