Office of the Historian

234. Memorandum From the Ambassador at Largeʼs Special Assistant (Cooper) to the Ambassador at Large (Harriman)1

Washington, September 16, 1966.

I met today with Bill Colby and Mr. Stone from the Agency. Stone is in charge of the “Intelligence Division” of CIAʼs station in Saigon. He has been here for several days and was returning to Saigon this evening.

All the activities in connection with the Viet Cong are handled by Stone. (The other major division of the Agency in Saigon deals with the [Page 638] pacification cadres.)2 Stone discussed in some detail their plans and their progress in the area of Viet Cong defections. He indicated that the Agency has made some inroads into the Front and Viet Cong apparat. Eight Province Committees have thus far been penetrated. Other things being equal, the Agency prefers to keep a defector “in place”, i.e. to have him ostensibly remain in the Viet Cong and meanwhile report valuable intelligence. They anticipate, however, as their program moves forward they will get an increasing number of Front officials who will prefer for many reasons, including their own safety, to “come over”. Stone was quite confident that they would have at least a few of these chaps in hand before very long.

I told Colby and Stone of our hopes and plans for a large-scale amnesty program and our desire to have this go hand in hand with a stepped-up effort at defections. They welcomed this and indicated that it might be possible to line up some significant defections that would be timed to take place at the most dramatic moment following Kyʼs appeal.

I cautioned Stone to do some quiet thinking and planning but to keep our conversation to himself until Lodge was informed directly from Washington of what we had in mind.

I gave a copy of our amnesty memorandum3 to Colby who later in the day called me back and said that he was in perfect agreement with it.

Chester L. Cooper4
  1. Source: Department of State, Bundy Files: Lot 85 D 240, TS/Nodis, vol. III. Secret. A copy was sent to Unger.↩
  2. In an undated report on CIA operations in East Asia through 1966, the Department of Stateʼs Bureau of Intelligence and Research stated the following regarding programs in Vietnam: “CIA has remained responsible for several political and social projects which originally had some intelligence potential. The Revolutionary Development program (which is to be funded in part by AID), the Chieu Hoi program, and Census/Grievance teams are run by CIA. In addition the Agency supports and trains various police and intelligence organizations. Veterans, labor, youth, and student organizations in Vietnam are being given guidance and support.” The report noted that “the cost of the Vietnam program is approximately $30,000,000 per year, not including any funds which will be supplied by AID.” (Ibid., INR/IL Historical Files, EAP General, EA Reviews, 1964–66)↩
  3. Reference is to Cooperʼs draft paper, “A Program of National Reconciliation and Reconstruction,” which was discussed at length at a meeting of Harrimanʼs Negotiations Committee on September 15. Harrimanʼs record of the discussion is ibid., S/S-Vietnam Briefing Books: Lot 70 D 207, Vietnam Negotiations, 1968. A September 29 draft of Cooperʼs paper is ibid., Bundy Files: Lot 85 D 240, TS/Nodis, vol. III.↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩