Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
discontent in the army are sources of political weakness. This dissatisfaction is caused primarily by the authoritarian and pervasive political controls of the Ngo family and its associates.
Status of U.S. Actions: The desirability of liberalizing political and administrative controls is brought to the attention of the Vietnamese Government, when considered appropriately by the U.S. Ambassador. Possible lines of U.S . action are greatly limited due to the extreme sensitivity of Vietnamese leaders on this subject.
"34. Internal Security. It has become increasingly clear that the communists, no longer expectant that Free Viet-Nam will fall to their control through peaceful methods, are executing a carefully planned campaign of violence aimed at undermining the stability of the Diem Government. Their concentration of activities in rural areas where communications and terrain make it difficult for the government to cope with them recalls the tactics used against the French during the Indochina War. Assassinations, particularly of officials in rural areas, continue at an alarming rate of about fifteen to thirty-five a month. Attacks on rubber plantations and reported communist plans to break up the land development, land reform and agricultural credit programs indicate deliberate efforts to interfere with Viet-Nam's economic programs."
The subsequent OCB Progress Report of August, 1959--by which time the insurgency was spreading rapidly--illustrates well the policy difficulties of the United States in responding to the situation within the constraints of the Geneva Settlement. The report noted that the GVN:
"…Has undertaken or planned such countermeasures as the use of armed force, special military courts for the prompt trial of terrorists, the removal of peasants from isolated spots to larger villages, and the publicizing of internal security incidents to counteract the 'peaceful' propaganda of the North Vietnamese communist regime. Vietnamese military forces have improved under the MAAG training program, but the continuance of training at present levels would be inhibited by any action of the International Control Commission arising from its opposition to the indefinite retention in Viet-Nam of certain United States military personnel originally sent out for equipment salvage work and now largely used to supplement MAAG personnel in training duties. This necessitates efforts to work out with the Canadian, British and Indian Governments an acceptable basis in consonance with the Geneva Accords for an increase in MAAG personnel adequate
