CIA MAVERICK RELIVES EXPLOITS OF VIETNAM ERA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130114-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 114
• Publication Date: April 12, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130114-4
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ARTICLE APPEARED
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CIA Maverick
Relives Exploits.
Of Vietnam Era
'His CIA code name was "Upin."
He used the pseudonym "Pat
Gibbs." A huge, congenial Hungarian
refugee who joined the U.S. Marines
during World War 11, he was first
bloodied in the battle of Iwo Jima.
But it was his exploits in running
a secret "spook troop" for the CIA in
the jungle hills of Indochina that
made him a legend.
? To American diplomats he was an
uncontrollable maverick. To his en-
emies-and some colleagues-he
was as fearsome as the Marion
Brando character in "Apocalypse
Now," with a similar penchant for
collecting the ears and heads of the
communist guerrillas he was fighting
in the 1960s and 1970s. The Laotian
tribesmen he led revered him.
Perhaps because a newsman more
than a decade ago blew Upin's CIA
cover as a Continental Air Services
official, he has a passionate distrust
of the press. But Upin agreed to an
interview when my associate Dale
Van Atta tracked him down in
Udorn, Thailand, where he is leading
the life of a gentleman farmer.
After some coaxing, he regaled my
associate with war stories of his days
WASHINGTON POST
12 April 1984
among the Hmong tribesmen, and
told of the dozen-odd times he was
wounded in the anti-communist
cause.
When Upin talks, it's not the rich-
ly embroidered boasting of many old
soldiers. His exploits are confirmed
by sources who either applauded or
wrung their hands at the time. Miss-
ing fingers from a booby trap that
also killed a friend are evidence that
Upin was no armchair agent.
A 1953 classmate at the CIA's
training camp in Virginia recalls:
"He had all the attributes that
were desirable in a paramilitary case
officer. He knew how to survive, and
he was fierce. He could move unde-
tected across hostile territory. He
demanded an outdoor life and could
never endure the more prosaic ex-
istence of an embassy-based intel.
ligence case officer."
Southeast Asia was a natural hab-
itat for Upin. He had recruited Ti.
betan Khamba tribesmen and ven-
tured into the Himalayas with them.
He fought in South Vietnam and
Cambodia, and slipped into China
on several occasions.
But Upin's heyday was as the
leader of thousands of Hmong and
Yau hill tribesmen in the CIA's se-
cret war against the Pathet Lao and
Vietnamese in Laos. The operation,
based at a huge CIA station and air-
field, was intended as a diversion to
siphon Viet Cong away from the
main battle area in South Vietnam.
He learned the tribesmen's lan-
guage, walked them into the ground
on far-ranging forays, and married
one of their princesses. Following
one firefight, he carried one injured
Laotian on his back more than 30
miles-even though he was seriously
About those ears. It seems head-
quarters in Vientiane questioned
some of Upin's "body counts." So he
told his men to cut off ears of dead
enemy soldiers and put them in a
plastic bag he kept on his porch.
When the bags had enough ears in
them, Upin sent them to Vientiane.
"I used to staple them to the re-
ports," he recalled. Soon there were
"bushels of ears" at headquarters.
His CIA bosses were not amused.
As for the severed heads, Upin
acknowledged possessing and dis-
tributing at least two, but declined
to say exactly how many. Nor would
he address a rumor that he kept
pickled heads in jars in his bedroom.
One Viet Cong head was dropped
from a plane by Upin as a warning
to a Laotian tribal leader whose peo-
ple had shot up Upin's aircraft. The
Laotian got the plane's tail number,
and a U.S. ambassador. reportedly
wound up apologizing for the head-
dropping incident.
"If you do everything according to
the orders, you'd be in a straitjack-
et," Upin said without regret. "You
have to break the monotony some-
times."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130114-4