spartans_in_darkness

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the ASA site at Phu Bai. Was effectively closed
down in November of 1972, butofficially departed
in February of 1973.
(TS//SB- As can be easily seen, after the Paris
Peace Agreement was signed inJanuary 1973,
there was little in the way of an Allied cryptologic
presence in South Vietnam. Except for the South
Vietnamese organization, the only other SIGINT
missions belon ed to
the enlarged training and technical advisory
staff under the NSA Pacific Representative,
Vietnam, which was beefed up to around 160 personnel.
Both organizations would remain in
South Vietnam until the very end:
L- ----Iwhile the
last American cryptologists, two civilian NSA
communicators and the chief of the liaison mission,
would be evacuated barely a day before
Saigon was captured.
(S//SI) Last Chance To Make Good:
South Vietnamese SIGINTand the
VIMP, 1970-1973
(TS//SI) In the midst of the withdrawal, u.S.
cryptologic priorities in the region concurrently
and completely changed, especiallv in terms of
the priority of the SIGINT target sed
---' IThis followed the new
aims of u.S. strategic thinking that were driven by
the Nixon-Kissinger plan for detente with the
major communist powers of the Soviet Union and
the People's Republic of China. Seen against the
larger game of strategic relations, the conflict in
Vietnam was construed as a continuing impediment
to better relations between Washington and
the two communist regimes in Beijing and
Moscow. Washington now considered Vietnam
as part of the Western Pacific region and was
determined to avoid any more similar conflicts of
attrition. 13(J
L...-
(TS//SI) South Vietnam, along with the other
countries of the region, was placed in Category II.
Saigon's situation was submerged in the general
concern for stability in all of Southeast Asia. The
continuing insurgency problems in Laos and
Cambodia
....as well as the ongoing war in South
Vietnam, still were considered a threat to U.S.
interests. However, American cryptologists
viewed the reporting of this problem less significant
for u.S. policy after fiscal year 1974. 137
L...-
('f8//8I) Due to the protocols of the peace
accords, the cryptologic support that the United
States could offer Saigon was to remain ve 'limited.
(V) 509th ASA Group receiving bqttle pennants qt a
ceremony in 1971
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