Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
Enclosure No. 1
Despauch No. 205
From Saigon
BRITISH ADVISORY MISSION,
196, Cong Ly,
Saigon
November 11, 1961
Your Excellency,
As promised at my interview with Your Excellency last Wednesday, I now enclose a memorandum briefly outlining plan and the measures required for the clearance of the communists from the Delta area.
As I explained to Your Excellency it will be much easier to make a start on these lines in one area and for this purpose the whole Delta area, south and west of Saigon, comprising the present 32nd and 33rd tactical zones, would appear to be the most promising starting point as compared with the area north of Saigon and the Highlands which require, at the present time, more specifically military measures. Arrangements have now just been made for my mission to visit the Highlands area and Central Vietnam and we are leaving on Monday morning (November 13) and returning on Friday evening (November 17). This will enable us to get a clearer picture of the problems throughout the country as a whole.
I also attach a short note by Mr. Palmer on intelligence, which is related to the organization mentioned in paragraphs 27 and 28 of the memorandum. Mr. Palmer has attempted to provide Your Excellency with a number of examples showing how life can be breathed into the organization. He would, of course, be ready to discuss this further at any time convenient to Your Excellency.
Your Excellency will also understnad from the outline plan in the attached memorandum that it should lend by stages to a reorganization of the Government machine for directing and co-ordinating all action against the communists and to the production of an overall strategic operational plan for the country as a whole defining responsibilities, tasks and priorities. At the same time it will lead to the establishment of a static security framework which can
His Excellency
The President of the Republic of Vietnam
