Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C05303949
Chapter Nineteen
Tovar returned to Long Tieng, where the menace of the 130mm field guns
was wearing down morale, and not only that of the Hmong. L--
_
With the survival of Long Tieng and the irregular army far from assured,
the Agency was smarting under criticism from an American military establishment
much of which had always questioned its competence to run a war.
The Laos desk chief warned Bill Nelson about "an increasingly vocal undercurrent
of US military ... skepticism" about CIA's ability to "read enemy
intentions; evaluate the performance of irregular forces, and make the kind of
adjustments . . . needed to cope with an increasingly' bold and effective
enemy·"D '
The imperturbable Nelson saw it as a case of chickens coming home to
roost. For years, the Agency had been telling the military that the Agency's
conduct of the war in Laos
was really the way to run a counterinsurgency effort in contrast to
what DoD did in Vietnam. Now that some of the shine has worn off
our wagon ... we can be certain that there will be all sorts of smarting
egos crawling out of the woodwork and pelting us with almost
any kind of droppings that happen to be lying around.
The only way to respond was to
be scrupulously honest [in] our reporting, answer questions as best
we can, and accept criticism where it is warranted in good grace. I
do think we can gently remind our critics that with neither the Meo,
Lao I Iforces are we working with troops who have had the
kind of massive on-the-ground hand holding that has occurred in
Vietnam, that we are in this effort because the Administration has
continually asked us to stay in it, and, that although we do not pretend
a capability that is beyond our reach, we think that ... both the
intelligence collection and paramiiitaj effort!s.l for the resources
invested, [have] been a good show.
A week later, Defense Secretary Laird fulfilled Nelson's anticipation of
more second-guessing in a memorandum promptly attacked by the Del's spe-
~2 Tovar, interview;I
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