0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
Tin Sino) (see Figure 5-9.)Forced resettlement was prohibited.85/ There
were not enough resourcef to commit to the program, and the new cadre were
reluctant to implement it forcefully for fear of being identified with the
old regime.
Furthermore, the leadership gave it no clear-cut direction and
the organizations that were to operate the program were plagued by ineffective
and incompetent administrators. ?rovince chiefs were changed with
such frequency that few knew exaccly what to do or how to do it.86/ A
senior US province adviser was quoted as saying:
1WSOM experts stood helplessly by as urgently
needed programs awaited approval and implementation by
the stymiea Vietnamese officials. Thousands of tons of
barbed wire and pickets, commodities and building
materials were sent to the province, but awaited approvals
for distribution.87/
Although pacificaticn received low emohasis by the GVN following
the Diem overthrow, it was taking on greater significance with the key
members of the US Country Team in Vietnam. Proponents were often in disagreement
on what pacification meant and how to go about achieving it. They
often quarrelled amongst thems'e!ves (often publicly) and sometimes overiooked
their common interests.88/
There was one notable exception to the pacification lull during
the troubled 1964-1965 timeframe: the Hop Tac (Cooperation) Program (see
Figure 5-10). An outgrowth of alarming progress being made by the VC
arounc tne capital, it was designed to put "whatever resources are
required" into the area surrounding Saigon to pacify it. The concept had
been suggested by Ambassador Lodge at a high level strategy session in
Honolulu in July of 1964, as he was on his way hon.. after his first assignment
as ambassador.89/ Gener3l Westmoreland and the new Ambassador, Maxwell
Taylor, proceeded with its planning and implementation on a priority
basis.
The US-inspired program was b4sed on "clear aod hold" military
operations 90/ followed by civilian pacification efforts; a giant security
"oil spot" was to spread out from Saigon toward the Cambodian bcrder and
the South China Sea.9'i
5-34