United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense/IV. A. 5. 2. Notes

by the Pentagon

1.	Hammer, op. cit., 26–35; Shaplen, op. cit., 128–132. Also, U.S. Department of State, Political Alignments of Vietnamese Nationalists (Office of Intelligence Research, Report No. 3708, October 1, 1949), passim.
2.	Chester A. Bain, Vietnam, The Roots of Conflict (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967), 69.
3.	Ibid., 93–95 . Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled (New York: Praeger, 1967, 2 vols.), I, 172–174.
4.	Ibid., 18–24 ,89; Hammer, op. cit., 118, 229, 284–287, 347–48, 360–62; Shaplen, 116–119. U.S. Department of the Army, Minority Groups in the Republic of Vietnam (DA Pamphlet 550–105, 1966), 808–824--N.B., maps in text of sect areas are drawn from this source.
5.	Warner, op. cit., 95—96; Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, 155–158; Bain, op. cit., 118; Report of the Saigon Military Mission, op. cit., 28.
6.	Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, 142–148; DA Pamphlet 550–105, op. cit., 826–860; NIS 43D, 32.
7.	Ibid; DA Pamphlet 550–105, op. cit., 1020–1048.
8.	U.S. Department of State, The Communist Subversive Threat in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (Office of Intelligence Research, 29 December 1955), 8–10.
9.	See map, Tab 1, p. 21.
10.	Ibid.; U.S. Dept. State, The Communist Subversive Threat in Vietnam, op. cit., 10.
11.	Ibid, 10–15; A. L. Nutt, Troika on Trial, op. cit., 250–253.
12.	Douglas Pike Viet Cong (Cambridge: MIT, 1966), 2–30; Rand Corporation Memoranda dealing with Viet Cong motivation and morale (Santa Monica dates shown): W. S. Davison and J. J. Zasloff, A Profile of Viet Cong Cadres, RM-4983-ISA/ARPA, June, 1966; Zasloff , RM-4703-ISA/ARPA, op. cit; L. Goure, A. J. Russo, and D. Scott, Some Findings of the Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study, RM-4911-ISA/ARPA.
13.	This lack of de facto independence has figured in recent controversy over Diem's responsibility to the Geneva Agreement signed by France, e.g., Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 56–57.
14.	Scigliano, op. cit., 62–68 . Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 93, 94.
15.	The summary account of Diem's life draws principally on Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 234 ff.; Warner, op. cit., 84 ff.; Shaplen, The Lost Revolution, 100 ff.; Scigliano, op. cit., 13 ff.
16.	E.g. Shaplen, op. cit., 101; or Wesley R. Fishel, "Vietnam's Democratic One-Man Rule," in Gettlemen, ed., op. cit., 197–198.
17.	Shaplen, loc. cit.; Scigliano, op. cit., 17.
18.	E.g. Robert Sheer, op. cit., 240–241.
19.	Diem's acquaintances in the U.S. included Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Senator John F. Kennedy, and Senator Mike Mansfield, as well as Cardinal Spellman.
20.	U.S. Dept. of State, Memorandum of Conversation among Senator Mansfield, Assistant Secretary W. S. Robertson, et al, 7 December 1954.
21.	U.S. Dept. of State, Memorandum from Ambassador Heath to Asst. Secy. Robertson, 17 December 1954.
22.	General J. Lawton Collins, Memorandum to the Secretary of State, dated 20 January 1955, "Report on Vietnam for the National Security Council," 9.
23.	U.S. Dept of State, telegram, Saigon 4399, April 7, 1955.
24.	U.S. Dept of State, telegram, Saigon 4663, April 19, 1955.
25.	U.S. Dept of State, Memo for Asst. SecState Robertson, 30 April 1955, "Report on Collins Visit and Viet-Nam Situation," which foresaw trouble on the Hill if Diem were forced out. U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, Vol. 101 (Washington: GPO, May 2, 1955), 5290.
26.	U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, dated 9 May 1955, subject: "Indochina (Vietnam)."
27.	U.S. Dept of State, telegram, SECTO 50 from Manila, 1 March 1955, reports that Secretary Dulles "told Diem that U.S. Government -- President and himself -- had great stake in him and in Vietnam… if there is failure here, U.S. prestige would be gravely affected"; also Resch. Memo 765, op. cit.
28.	Scigliano, op. cit., 101–105.
29.	Jean Lacouture and Philippe Devillers, La Fin d'Une Guerre (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1960), 306.
30.	Shaplen, 106. Diem considered himself a Catholic of the Spanish vice French tradition: fiercely militant, rather than intellectual and tolerant in the Gallic mode. Fall, Two Viet-Nams, 236–238. Cf., Warner, op. cit., 90.
31.	Ibid., 237.
32.	Scigliano, op. cit., 58. U.S. Dept of State, Memorandum for the Secretary of State, dated 23 April 1955, "Report on Vietnamese Political Situation," and Memorandum for Assistant Secretary of State Robertson, 30 April 1955, "Report on Collins Visit and Viet-Nam Situation."
33.	Scigliano, op. cit., 60; David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire (New York: Random House, 1964), 55; Fall, Two Viet-Nams, 252–253·
34.	Scigliano, op. cit., 56–57.
35.	Ibid., 58, 75–76, 110–111; Warner, op. cit., 32, 307–308; Fall, Two Viet-Nams, 246–252.
36.	Anthony Trawick Bouscaren, The Last of the Mandarins: Diem of Vietnam (Pittsburgh: Duquesne U. Press, 1965), 168.
37.	Ibid., 168, 169.
38.	Ibid., 79–82.
39.	Ibid., 165–171.
40.	Shaplen, op. cit., 131.
41.	Report of the Saigon Military Mission (SMM), op. cit.
42.	Warner, op. cit., 116–117, 214, 224; Fall, Two Viet-Nams, 250; Scigliano, op. cit., 75–80; Shaplen, op. cit., 128–132
43.	Scigliano, loc. cit.
44.	Ibid., 77.
45.	Report of the Saigon Military Mission, op. cit.; Scigliano, op. cit., 20–21.
46.	U.S. Dept of State, telegrams: to Saigon 4756 of 27 April 1955; to Saigon 4757 of 27 April 1955; to Saigon ---- of 28 April 1955 (draft); to Saigon 5600 of 1 May 1955. Memorandum from K. T. Young, Jr., to Asst Secy Robertson, 30 April 1955, "Report on Collins Visit and Viet-Nam Situation"; Shaplen, op. cit., 122–125; Report of the SMM, op. cit.
47.	Warner, op. cit., 105–106.
48.	U.S. Dept of State, telegrams: from Paris 4767 of 2 May 1955; from Saigon 5074 of 5 May 1955; also, Shaplen, op. cit., 121–125; Bain, op. cit., 118–119.
49.	Ibid., SECTO 8 of May 8, 1955.
50.	Ibid., TEDUL 2 of May 8, 1955.
51.	Ibid., TEDUL 9 of May 9, 1955.
52.	Shaplen, op. cit., 127; Warner, op. cit., 101.
53.	Ibid., 103.
54.	NSC 5809, 2 April 1958, and Progress Report of 28 May 1958.
55.	U.S. Congress, Senate, Situation in Vietnam, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on State Department Organization and Public Affairs (86th Congress, First Session, July 30–31, 1959), 171.
56.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 110–115; Tillman Durdin, "Red Activities Up in Vietnam ," New York Times (April 13, 1959), 5; U.S. Senate, Background Information…, op. cit., 5; CIA, NSC Briefing for 16 August 1958; U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, "Country Statement," narratives for 21 January 1957, 15 July 1957, 22 January 1958; CIA, Current Intelligence Weekly Review, 15 and 16 August 1958; U.S. Dept of State, Saigon 268 of 13 August 1958, and Saigon 278 of 14 August 1958; CIA, Saigon CS-3366824 of 14 August 1958.
57.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 111.
58.	Ibid., Warner , op. cit., 104–105; DA Pamphlet 550–105, 819, 845, 1036; Scigliano, op. cit., 89; Shaplen, op. cit., U.S. Dept of State "The Communist Subversive Threat to the Treaty Area" (Office of Intelligence Research, October 24, 1956), Annex , "Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos," 15.
59.	Report of the Saigon Military Mission, op. cit., 22–26; Shaplen, op. cit., 135–137.
60.	Ibid; Report of the SMM, op. cit., 43–44; CIA, NSC Briefing for 12 May 1955 on "South Vietnam."
61.	David Hotham , "South Vietnam--Shaky Bastion," New Republic (November 25, 1957), 15.
62.	Memorandum for the Record by Colonel Edward G. Lansdale, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Special Operations, dated 15 July 1958, subject: "Pacification in Vietnam"; also, Report of the SMM, op. cit., 24–25; Scigliano, op. cit., William A. Nighswonger, Rural Pacification in Vietnan (New York: Praeger, 1966), 35–37.
63.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 102.
64.	Scigliano, op. cit., 121; Shaplen, op. cit., 143.
65.	Ibid., 104–105, 121–124; GVN, 7 Years of the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration (Saigon: October 26, 1961), 319–368.
66.	Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 308, Shaplen, op. cit., 145.
67.	Ibid., Scigliano, loc. cit., Pike, op. cit. 62–63.
68.	Scigliano, op. cit., 177–178; Nighswonger, op. cit., 40.
69.	Bain, op. cit., 122, Scigliano, op. cit., 91–98; Shaplen, op. cit., 133–134.
70.	Ibid.
71.	Scigliano, op. cit., 64–77, 160–162, 167–172.
72.	Ibid., 168.
73.	Ibid., 170–171.
74.	Ibid.
75.	Kahan and Lewis, op. cit., 99–102.
76.	Ibid.; P.J. Honey, "The Problem of Democracy in Vietnam," The World Today (No . 16, February, 1960), 73.
77.	Scigliano, op. cit., 169.
78.	Ibid., 173–174; Nighswonger, op. cit., 40.
79.	Ibid., 45; Scigliano, op. cit., 169–172.
80.	Ibid., 114; Nighswonger, 45–46; John D. Montgomery, The Politics of Foreign Aid (New York: Praeger, 1966), 72–83.
81.	Pike, op. cit., 13–14; Scigliano, 181–182.
82.	Kahan and Lewis, op. cit., 107.
83.	Nighswonger, op. cit., 46; Scigliano, op. cit., 178–83.
84.	Ibid.
85.	Ibid., 179.
86.	Ibid., 180; Nighswonger, op. cit., 46.
87.	Ibid., 46ff; Scigliano, 180–183.
88.	Ibid., 163–164; Zasloff, RM-5163-ISA/ARPA, op. cit., 27; Nighswonger, op. cit., 43–45.
89.	Scigliano, op. cit., 33; Shaplen, op. cit., 133–134.
90.	Scigliano, op. cit., 167.
91.	Fall, Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 252–253; Scigliano, op. cit., 81, 187; Kahin and Lewis, 109–110, 113.
92.	NIS 43D, op. cit., 40; Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 109–110; Shaplen, 253–254.
93.	Ibid., Scigliano, op. cit., 82–85; Warner, op. cit., 107–124.
94.	Ibid., P. J . Honey, "Progress in the Republic of Vietnam," World Today (vol. 15, No.2, February 1959), 73–74 . The passage from Thoi Luan is quoted in Fall, Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 270–271.
95.	Warner, op. cit., 110–111.
96.	Text is from Fall, Two Viet-Nams, 432–438.
97.	Scigliano, op. cit., 177–178.
98.	Quoted in Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina, op. cit., 350–351.
99.	NIS 43D, op. cit., 39-40; CIA, Intelligence Memorandum, "Politically Significant Groups in South Vietnam" (No. 0811/66, 4 May 1966), and "The Vulnerability of Non Communist Groups in South Vietnam to Viet Cong Political Subversion" (No. 0829/66, 27 May 1966).
100.	Scigliano, op. cit., 207.
101.	Ibid., 203, 207; Report of the SMM, op. cit., 9–16.
102.	Ibid., 39–40, 44–45; Shaplen, 125–126; Warner, 102–106. U.S. Dept. of State, Telegram Paris to State 4743, 30 April 1955, and Paris to State 4746, 30 April 1955.
103.	Scigliano, op. cit., 165–166.
104.	Ibid.
105.	Ibid., 162–165; Montgomery, op. cit., 62–70.
106.	Scigliano, op. cit. 187–188, Shaplen, op. cit., 141–142.
107.	Scigliano, op. cit., 187–188.
108.	Scigliano, op. cit., 217–225; Shaplen, op. cit., 188–212.
109.	John Osborne, "The Tough Miracle Man of Vietnam," Life, May 13, 1957; Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 99–101; Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, op. cit., 235.
110.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 101–102.
111.	Report of L. B . Woodbury, Jr., Col, GS, US Army Attache, Saigon, for July, 1956.
112.	William Henderson, "South Viet Nam Finds Itself," Foreign Affairs (Vol. 35, No. 2, January, 1957), 285, 288; quoted in Kahin and Lewis, op . cit., 100.
113.	Quoted in Fall, Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 324.
114.	P. J. Honey, "Progress in the Republic of Vietnam, World Today (Vol. 15, No. 2, Feb., 1959), 75.
115.	P. J. Honey, "The Problem of Democracy in Vietnam," op. cit., 72–73.
116.	Lt. Gen. John W. O'Daniel, USA (Ret), America's Stake in Vietnam, op. cit., 6.
117.	Diem, Ibid., 101–102.
118.	Quoted in Warner, op. cit., 91–93.
119.	Ibid., 92.
120.	This same misapprehension appears in U.S. "counterinsurgency" literature; e.g. W. W. Rostow: "Moreover, the guerrilla force has this advantage: its task is merely to destroy, while the government must build and protect what it is building." W. W . Rostow, "Guerrilla Warfare in the Under-developed Areas," Speech at the U.S.A. Special Warfare School, June , 1961, in Raskin and Fall, eds., op. cit., 113.
121.	Diem, quoted in Ibid., 127–128.
122.	Hoang Van Chi, op. cit., 59.
123.	Pike, op. cit., facing 1.
124.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 121; quoting a GVN pamphlet and Ellen J. Hammer. Cf. references to Viet Cong forces in North Vietnam in US MAAG Vietnam, "Narrative Study (U)," August 1958 and other dates.
125.	Zasloff, RM-4140-PR, op. cit., 31; and RM-5163-ISA/ARPA, op. cit., passim; Estimates of Viet Minh strength are based on French data in Croizat, trans., RM-5271-PR, op. cit.
126.	Zasloff, RM-5163-ISA/ARPA, op. cit., passim.
127.	The document is known in intelligence circles as "the CRIMP Document," having been captured by elements of the US 1st Infantry Division in the Iron Triangle area of Binh Duong Province on Operation CRIMP, 6-14 January 1966. Its accuracy and authenticity have been verified by US authorities.
128.	USMACV, Report of Interrogation of Nguyen Van Tron, captured by ARVN 19 November 1964 in Han Nghia Province.
129.	Pike, op. cit., 76–77.
130.	Ibid.
131.	Thoi Luan, 15 December 1957, quoted in Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, op. cit., 185.
132.	Ibid., 185–186.
133.	Ibid., 160; CIA, NSC Briefing for 23 October 1957.
134.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 110.
135.	CIA, NSC Briefing of 30 November 1957.
136.	DIA, "North Vietnamese Role in the Origins…," op. cit.
137.	Shaplen, op. cit., 138.
138.	U.S. Senate, Background Information…, op. cit., 5; Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, op. cit., 160.
139.	Quoted in ibid.
140.	Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 317, 324.
141.	George A. Carver, "The Faceless Viet Cong," Foreign Affairs (Vol 44, No. 3, April, 1966), 359.
142.	Warner, 154; GVN White Paper, Violations of the Geneva Agreements by the Viet-Minh Communists, op. cit., 107.
143.	Dept. of State, Saigon Desptach 278 to State, 7 March 1960, and CIA, SNIE 63.1-60, Short Term Trends in South Vietnam (23 August 1960). Cf. U.S. Congress, House, Current Situation in the Far East, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 86th Congress, 1st Session, Aug. 14, 1959, p. 323.
144.	Pike, op. cit., 102.
145.	Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, 239; 360–361.
146.	New York Times (May 5, 1961), 10.
147.	Time, 7 November 1960.
148.	U.S. Department of State, A Threat to the Peace: North Vietnam's Effort to Conquer South Vietnam (Far Eastern Series 110, Washington, December 1961), Part I, 13.
149.	Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, op. cit., 172, 184–185; and Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 317 ff.
150.	CIA, Current Intelligence Weekly Review, 16 August 1958; CIA Saigon CS-33b6824, 14 Aug 1958; and U.S. Dept. of State, telegrams Saigon to State 268 and 278 of 13 and 14 August, 1958.
151.	Gerald Hickey, Village in Vietnam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 10.
152.	Quoted in Scigliano, op. cit., 138.
153.	Pike, op. cit., 85.
154.	Ibid., 78.
155.	Scigliano, op. cit., 138.
156.	Warner, op. cit., 159; Saigon to State Despatch 278, op. cit.
157.	U.S. Dept. of State, telegrams, Saigon to State 2288 of 1 Feb 1960, and 2301 of 2 Feb 1960; Warner, op. cit., 160; Fall, Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 435; Raskin and Fall, eds., op. cit., 120.
158.	Saigon to State 2301 of 2 Feb 1960.
159.	Scigliano, op. cit., 140; DIAAP4, North Vietnamese Role…, op. cit., 31.
160.	Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, op. cit., 282.
161.	U.S . Dept. of State, Despatch 278 from Saigon, 7 March 1960, p. 8 of Encl 1; Cf. Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 111.
162.	Ibid.
163.	Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 101–102; Gettleman, ed., op. cit., 256–260; Jean Lacouture, Vietnam: Between Two Truces (New-York: Random House, 1966), 29–30; Fall, The Two Viet-Nams, op. cit., 272.
164	U.S. Department of State, Despatch 278, op. cit, Encl 1, p. 11.
165.	Pike, op. cit., 82, quoting a Radio Hanoi broadcast of June 5, 1964. A CIA agent in 1956 reported that Southern Party organizations had been directed to merge with the Fatherland Front, CIA, Singapore, CS-82270, 16 January 1956.
166.	Cf., Kahin and Lewis, op. cit., 113–116. Also: "New National Front Formed in S. Vietnam," Foreign Broadcast Information Service Bulletin, 31 January 1961, pp. EEE 13–17. On 2 February 1961 (ibid., 2 Feb, EE 5), Radio Hanoi, elaborated: "The French language paper LA DEPECHE DU CAMBODGE [Of Phnom Penh, Cambodia] … on 24 December announced that it had received the manifesto of the front which said that it had come into existence to meet the aspiration of the South Vietnamese people, and that it undertook to liberate them from My-Diem slavery." [The same paper quoted REUTERS, report dated 24 December] "the front may have intensified its political activities in the countryside and among the South Vietnamese armed forces …" The U.S. Department of State, however, has taken the view that the NLF was formed in Hanoi; cf., the "White Papers" of 1961 and 1965, op. cit., and Letter, Under Secretary Katzenbach to Congressman Evans, 5 March 1968.
167.	Carver, op. cit., 361.
168.	For the "official" (February 11, 1961) text of the NLF Manifesto, see Pike, op. cit., 82, 344–347; and CIA, Intelligence Memorandum, "The Organization, Activities, and Objectives of the Communist Front in South Vietnam" (1603/66) 26 September 1966), Annex II.
169.	Pike, op. cit., 347–348.
170.	Ibid., 351.
171.	Ibid., 350–351.
172.	Ibid., 356; "zone" refers to the two "regrouping zones" established by the Armistice Agreement of 1954.
173.	Ibid., 358–369.
174.	CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 1603/66, op. cit., 5–6.
175.	Biographical lnformation on 73 of the leaders and key cadre of the NLF and affiliated organizations indicates that 66% (48) of this group were born in South Vietnam, and that an additional 8 are probably Southerners. Only 2 of the 73 were certainly born in the North, while an additional 2 may have been born there. (The birthplace of 13 of the 73 is unknown.) It can also be ascertained from the biographical data that at least 60 of the 73 are highly educated, particularly so by Asian standards. Ibid.
176.	Ibid., I-44 to I-46.
177.	Ibid., 426–427.
178.	Ibid., 115.
179.	Quoted in Peter Paret, French Revolutionary Warfare from Indochina to Algeria (New York: Praeger, 1964), 12–13.
180.	I. Milton Sacks, in Frank N. Trager, ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia (Standord, Cal.: Stanford University Press , 1959), 166.
181.	Pike, op. cit., 137.
182.	Ibid., 138.
183.	Loc. cit.
184.	Ibid., 137.
185.	Cf. U.S. Department of State "White Papers" of 1961 and 1965, and Carver, op. cit., 362–363. Douglas Pike's
186.	Pike, op. cit., 75–76.