Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C05303949
A HOLDING OPERATIOND
at his post; it seemed that
Yang Pao Goes to WashingtonD
In the patronizing language that tended to obscure his genuine regard for
Vang Pao, Ambassador Sullivan announced on 19 September 1968 that "our
little guerrilla general" would be visiting Washington on the way back from
his son's graduation from a lycee in France. Sullivan wanted "the best fighter
... in Southeast Asia" to get the Legion of Merit, and he recommended a
lunch for the general to be attended by senior Pentagon including General
Westmoreland and JeS chairman General Wheeler.F
lassl
Vang Pao saw not only Wheeler but also White House adviser Walt Rostow,
and during these visits he pressed his hawkish views on bombing North Vietnam
and on the Hmong resistance activity there that he had consistently championed.
He got a muted response to these ideas, both at the Pentagon and at
State, but Senator Karl Mundt (R-SD) made no secret of his enthusiasm for
resistance and his opposition to a bombing moratorium. Vang Pao's Agency
escorts had already billed Mundt as a "powerful figure" on several committees
responsible for Agency appropriations, and they now had the ticklish job of
reasserting the executive branch position on these issues without antagonizing
Mundt or disheartening Vang Pao. D 33
Stuart Methven, Vang Pao's first CIA acquaintance and one ofhis Washington
escorts, told the station he thought the visit had "in some measure reassured"
the general about the US will to stay the course in Indochina. But Vang
Pao's positions on Hmong resistance in North Vietnam and on bombing still
clearly differed from those of his Washington hosts. Indeed, it is not clear that
Methven succeeded in persuading him that objectives and forces would both
have to be scaled down if a peace agreement came within reach, for the general
continued to argue for a campaign to retake the Plain of Jars. J4 D
Only days after the general's return to Laos, President Johnson made his
31 October announcement of an unconditional suspension of bombing
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