0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
When Komer arrived in Vietnam a year later to become the first
Deputy for Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS),
the following official aefinition for pacification had evolved-
The military process of establishing sustained
local security in the cuuntryside, the political process
of establishing and re-establishing local government
responsive to and involving the people and the
economic and social process of meeting rural people's
needs. 8/
In the eyes of official Washington, pacification
1.d become the "umbrella" under wMi-2 1 , all programs for
winniog the "other war" could be placed. It encompassed
the full spectrum of military, political and
civil efforts in Vietnam. 9/
C. EA1LY PACIFICATION EFFORTS: THE NGO EXPERIMENTS (1954-1963)
Tne communists began to build up their clandestine political and military
organizational base in South Vietnam in lq56 after it became clear
that the governments in Washington and Saigon would not proceed with a
plebiscite or reunification. Initially, their activities were primarily
covert and directed toward the pelitical struggle. It is clear in retrospect
that as their infrastructure grew the communists were preparing for a
military struggle.
Beginning in 1957 that military struggle was intensified
and featured increased terrorism against officials, government installations
and private individuals. 10/
The US contribution during those early years haa little relevance to
the problem of countering a low-level insurgency.,
The MAAG Chief and most other American authorities considered the
major threat to be an overt, mass attack by North ,ietnamese troops across
the 17th parallel,. A conventionally trained and deployed South Viet.amese
army was the result --
at the expense of a buildup of the more relevant
militia and police-type forces -- until early 1960, when the true nature of
I.
the then-existing threat to the RVN -- internal subversion -- was .,ecrgn
ized. 11/
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