NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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46. In pacifying areas the French and Associated States intend employing the following general plan. Units already stationed in a selected area will initiate clean-up operations in that area. As they progress in their clean-up operations, commando battalions will move in behind the regular battalions, assuring the continued pacification of the area by countering guerrilla activities, screening occupants, and employing psychological warfare to assure the political allegiance of the inhabitants. As the area of operations expands, regular troops from adjacent areas will join in the operation and additional commando battalions will likewise be utilized in a single unified operation. Gradually, as the operation expands with regular troops operating on the perimeter and commando battalions within, certain regular units will become excess and will be transferred to the battle corps in Tonkin. In general, the French plan on utilizing two to three commando battalions to replace one regular battalion (see Annex "U" on Pacification).
47. Psychological Warfare: General Navarre, General Hinh, and President Tam are in favor of waging more aggressive psychological warfare and are hopeful of obtaining a political answer to the Viet Minh propaganda theme of immediate and complete independence for Vietnam. Psychological warfare is barely started in the Associated States. There is practically no combat psychological warfare, training is neither uniform nor effective, and enemy weaknesses are not being exploited. Behavior of French Union and Vietnamese forces in occupying villages is such that it negates much of the present psychological warfare effort. A further handicap is that President Tam and General Hinh are both French citizens who could be accused of biased feelings.
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