spartans_in_darkness

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1.4. (c)
1.4. (d)
Danang. NSA, on occasion, questioned whether
or not the VHF intercept was worth it: even the
then deputy director, Dr. Louis Tordella, regarded
the Monkey Mountain experiment a "complete
bust." 91 This opinion was sur risin , especially
when considering
the-mission,
as well as the productive HF manual morse
and satisfactory HF radiotelephone collectiorr."
Monkey Mountain began to bear fruit by June
1963, when it established consistent VHF intercept
I
(TS//SI) However, even with its initial intercept
successes, Monkey Mountain's status
remained "temporary" for the rest of the year. For
NSA,the problem with the site was that it did not
fit into the overall plan for expansion in Southeast
Asia. Phu Bai was seen as the maior U.S. SIGINT
complex in South Vietnam!
IThe director, NSA,
General Gordon Blake, seemed uncertain about
the status of the site. In August, after a high-level
....._--:--"""":"----:~-----'
conference in the Pacific, he conceded that
Danang could stay. Then in early October, NSA
pushed for Monkey Mountain either to become
an ASA site or to be resubordinated to the army.
The army would resist this plan, claiming a shortageoffuhds~94EO1.
4. (c)
(TS//SI) The/solution, which was arrived at
more outof weariness with the bureaucratic armwrestling
than anything else, was to have the
USAFSS go with an "austere" site at Danang that
could gear up an expanded direct support mission
when events warranted them." Some of the
site's funding was cut and about eighteen personnel
were transferred out. The year 1963 would
come to a close I
Istill
uncertain as to what was Danang's future role in
South Vietnam.
(TS//SI) Surprisingly, civilian cryptologists
arrived in South Vietnam almost on the heels of
the ASA contingent, albeit in far fewer numbers.
The use of civilians was dictated primarily by the
operational need for technical support to military
analystsat.both ASA sites in the Philippines and
in Saigon. The original arrangement called for the
ASA detachment in-Saigon to perform intercept
and some analysis. Meanwhile.the analysts in the
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1.4. (c)
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