185. Telegram From the Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam (Lodge and Porter) to Director of Central Intelligence Helms and the Presidentʼs Special Assistant (Komer)1
We have carefully reviewed the over-all revolutionary development program with a view to determining the most appropriate role for CAS. As you know, we consider this over-all program an absolutely vital part of our total war effort here. Our military is involved in it both directly and through advisory influence on ARVN, arranging properly coordinated military actions to extend areas of pacification. USAID is heavily engaged in providing economic assistance and improving government programs and administration under a coordinated plan of strengthening of revolutionary development areas. USIA, through JUSPAO, is providing psychological support. CAS, of course, is providing intelligence support and has been heavily engaged in the cadre program. We believe that CAS should, at least for the time being, remain responsible for the cadre program. All of these activities, of course, are conducted as an integrated program under the direct command of Ambassador Porter.
The present cadre program, of course, is a result of the work of CAS officers here who saw the need and went ahead and developed this tool. The cadre probably would not have been developed were it not for several of the unique attributes of your agency. Of great importance was the flexibility of your funding and logistics, but even more critical was your Agencyʼs ability to decentralize your operations to the Province Chiefs and to inject into the cadre a high degree of patriotic consciousness and motivation. While your Agency originally conducted these operations under an informal clearance from the GVN, the success of the approach has resulted in the GVN establishing a formal structure in the Ministry of Revolutionary Development to carry on this program as a fundamental element of its over-all prosecution of the war.
The establishment of this formal GVN structure, and the scale the cadre program has assumed, caused us to review whether it should properly be continued by CAS, or whether it should be turned over to more normal mechanisms for our governmentʼs support of the GVNʼs efforts. We know that there are reservations on this point in various elements of the executive and legislative branches in Washington, who have doubts that a secret agency should be engaged in such a massive and overt program, with the difficulties this can cause in the procurement of [Page 516] the necessary funds, the exposure of the CAS apparatus, and adverse political publicity. We have also had rumbles of concern from some Vietnamese that CAS sponsorship may reflect some more menacing U.S. intentions with respect to this cadre program. Giving these factors full weight, we nonetheless conclude that, if this program is to fill its vital role in the war effort here, CAS must retain over-all responsibility and authority for it until a better alternative is discovered. We have directed that a review of the program and its future sponsorship be made by 21 October 1966, as outlined in Ambassador Porterʼs Memorandum of 24 March 1966, copy attached.2 Further, we will carefully review the specific elements of the program to see whether portions of it could appropriately be performed by other agencies, even prior to a turnover of overall direction, so that the CAS role can be reduced to the minimum essential.
In specific terms, therefore, we recommend that your Agency continue to pay the cadre, which should be increased in numbers as rapidly as feasible, commensurate with maintaining quality; provide the logistics channels and advisory personnel to support the cadre program throughout the country; and retain for the time being the over-all responsibility for support to the revolutionary development cadre training program, including the construction of new facilities as they are shown to be necessary.
We have reviewed the over-all cadre program and recommend that it be supported in the sum of VN$2,376,814,000 and US$28,510,000. A recommended budget is attached3 and has our full approval and strong recommendation for adoption.
With respect to the proposal of a new training camp at Long Hai to supplement, but not to replace, the facilities at Vung Tau, we are reviewing the need for such a project. If, as, and when built, this will be accomplished in segments, reflecting the arrangements made to obtain additional manpower for the cadre program, and at the same time insisting that quality supersede quantity in future cadres. If built at Long Hai or elsewhere, we believe that the construction of new camp facilities should be the responsibility of your Agency in order to maintain the integrity of your authority over U.S. support to the revolutionary development cadre program. At the same time, we will direct that other agencies provide specific in-country assistance to this job as possible and appropriate.
We recommend that the President charge CAS with this responsibility, and we are prepared to assist CAS as may be necessary in its requests to the appropriate sub-committees of Congress for the financial resources necessary to carry out this program.