0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
after the overthrow of Diem, ac.tua~ly improved under the young "tuo'k"
generals--Thieu and Ky. Except lr the interl'de of the Buddhist "struggle
movemerT' in 1966, when Genera] Nguyen Chan Tni defied the Thieu-Ky leadership
and another civil war was in the offing, thE GVN's political problems
ceased to De a central problem.63/ Pfter the General Thi and Buddhist
* problems were resolved, Ambassadur Lodye, as quoted by General Westmoreland,
likened "Vietnam to a man cri-cically i 11, yet so irrascible that he
throws p1T.chers -.f water at his doctor. That at least shows," Lodge continuei,
"..hat he is gettirn better."64/
Leverage issues continued to come ,p late in 1966, especially
as related to ccrruption within the GVN and RVNAF. Variants of the
old paradox remained--the US country team representatives could not twist
the arm.s of the South Vietnamese too nard because that would cause them to
look ike US puppets, a situation which wouid run counter to ad detract
from Lh0
same potitical development ends that the leverage was originally
wants ig to achieve. Furthermore, as the war was Americanized, fewer opportunities
to apply leverage manife-,ted themselves. The US adviser's role
dimi~iishpd in relative importance as the opportunitN, to gain command positiors
with American .:ombat units began to take priority with careeroriented
officers. Proposals for the encadrement of US and RVNAF personnel
wert rejected and the idea foy establishing a combired US-RVNAF command ana
joint coordinating staff (which was being pushed by DoD)
failed to materialize
because of Vietnamese resistance.65/ Pacification was the only area
where some leverage was applied with any degree of success, and that hap-
Dened after Mr. Komer organized CORDS in 1967.66/
In ofticial Washington three schools of thought began forming;
they were:
(1) continue to peisevere in Vietnam
(2) seei" a way out of V;etnam by uegotiations
(3) cut our losses and get out of Vietnam
-eanwhile in Saigon, the US Mission was trying to ýalance' the military need
for more US
troops against the constraints posed by the severe economic
inflation caused in ',VN by the introduction of US troops,
Of the two, the
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