0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
strategic th;nking in Washington and Saigon; and, they laid bare the flaws
in the structure of the US
government.
Mission to those same senior officials of the
F
One month after the meetings in Honolulu, LB, 1 appoi.iter 1 Rebert
SWashington.
Komer his Special Assistant for Vietnam Pacification Coordination in
Agencies supporting pacification now came under the direct
scrutiny of the White House and the long drive to integrate US field irograms
became a reality. '22 The basis for a pacification breakthrough wa:
being forged and the "New Model Program" was being launched.
S6. Proaram Results and Impact on the War Effort
By autumn of 1966, US forces had taken over most of the main
combat effort in the war.
Pacification had bogged down as la'ge military
actions generat&. more than half a million new refugees. And, although the
GVN had declared earlier that it would give top priority to land reform,
the matter received little more than lip service from Ky and Thieu. The
GVP had sought to revitalize its "Chieu Hoi" (open arms) defector amnesty
program, however, that too met with little success since RVNAF commanders
gave it low priorityll3/
Furthermore, the GVN was encountering difficulty in dealing with
the VC's poiiti:al infrastructure -- those hardcore cadre memberc who
formed the control apparats in the villages through which the DRV articulated
their revolution in the South. As a countermeasure the CIA sought to
close the cadre gap between GVN
and the, communists through training programs
pAtterned after their earlier cadre efforts in Quang Ngai province,
where former disciples of Diem were formed into cadre elements, integrated
unde- CIA supervision and renamed "People's Action Teams" (PAT). Early in
1965 there were over 14,000 men in these PAT teams, Soon thereafter, 'hey
were +u'rned over to the GVN
and renamed "Revolutioiiary Development" (RD)
cadre.l,."! RD training fell under the administration of Nguyen Be, a
former Viet Minh officer, who had develcped a successful cadrE program
earlier in Binh Dinh province. The RD cidre ranks increased to over 20,000
men (cr about 400 RD teams) in 1966.115/ This collateral effort showed a
modeet degree of success as it began tj resurrect the status of the village
and i nvotve more of the local people in the pacification process.116/
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