Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
Enclosure No.2
Despatch No. 205
From Saigon
for the payment of rewards to members of the Self-Defence Corps and any other person (not a member of the security forces) for information leading to the killing of communists and the capture of weapons. It is desirable to produce a set scale which should be uniform throughout the country. Subsidies may also be necessary in cases where houses are regrouped into defended hamlets. A sum of about Piastres 2,500 for each house which has to be moved would not be unreasonable particularly if roofing material was also supplied free.
Summary of Material and Equipment Requirements
33. (a) Coastal and river patrol craft;
- (b) Wireless communications;
- (c) Better equipment for the self-Defence Corps including carbines, grenade dischargers, uniforms, flare pistols (or rockets);
- (d) Helicopters;
- (e) Large quantities of barbed wire; (It is understood that Chefs de Province are having to buy barbed wire for this purpose from provincial funds in the open market. This should be a central Government commitment).
- (f) Mobile information units and small receiving sets;
- (g) Suitably packed medical supplies for defended and strategic hamlets;
- (h) Roofing material - either corrugated iron, aluminum or asbestos (if regrouping is carried out on any scale this is bound to be a bottle neck and even supplies of nipah palm may not be available in the right places in sufficient quantity);
- (i) Pyres for present Civil Guard scout cars and their eventual replacement either b ferrets or armour plated jeeps or land revers; and
- (j) Small generating sets and perimeter lighting for defended hamlets.
Results
34. The main results of establishing a framework as proposed should be
- (a) protection for the population;
- (b) increased mobility for the security forces particularly the Army;
- (c) greater flexibility in the use of forces where required at any given time in the whole area;
- (d) with mobility and flexibility and improved communications there should also be greater economy of force;
- (e) all this will instill greater confidence both in the population and in the security forces;
/(f) this
