0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
preliminaries to large-scale operations by the ARVN supported by US helicopters;
inevitably they alerted the enemy, who usually slipped away in
ample time.
Furthermore, the bombing and the increased artillery barrages
resulted in tile destruction of property and the death ard injury of the
very civilian population whose loyalty was being souqht as a key to victory.,79/
Among the results from this lack of unified US direction was the
loss of capability to correct the disarray on the GVN's
side where the
burdens were heavier and the negative effects more serious. Although
Counselor Nhu demonstrated substantial control over the gove'nmental apparatus
in the countryside, he was not able to exert extensive infl,,ence over
the military commanders in the fieid. In fact, Palace influence on the
military command structure was all in the direction of caution to avoid the
political costs of taking heavy casualties or of establishing escentially
meaningless military outposts. But Nhu apparently believed Lhat the Strategic
Hamlet Program was adequate to cefeat the VC insurgency with little
effective support from the RVNAF.80/
Several observers 81/ agreed that the Strategic Hamlet Program
was beginning to show favorable results in 1962, and the improved outlook
on the military ilde resulted in the JCS developing a plan to reduce the
American nilitary presence starting in 1963.82/ Official optimism was
rewarded witn public controversy c,;er the performance of the ARVN,
notably
after tfze battle of Ap Bac in early 1963, when heavily armed ARVN units
cornered a large VC force only to nave them escape after failing to ..iove in
aggressively and suffering heavy casualties in the process. American
reporters covering the war from Vietnam began to direct strong criticism at
Diem's regime, his "ruthless" brother and his beguiling sister-in-law,
Madzme Nhu. Despite official claims of confidence in the continued progress
of the GVN and its Strategic Hamlet Program, divisions in opinion
began to spring up within the US mission in Vietnam, The head of the
USOM's Rural Affairs Division made a personal report to President Kennedy
in September 1963, stating that "the Deltd was ',"ling under Viet Cong
control in areas where pacification was supposedly compiete."83/
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