Office of the Historian

233. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in South Vietnam1

Washington, December 28, 1972, 2043Z.

233067. CINCUSARPAC please pass to 7th PSYOP Gp. Subj: Additional Thematic Guidance to Exploit Air Operations Against NVN (PPOG Message).

1.
Ref State 230726/220158Z Dec 72.2
2.
Reftel provided guidance on psychological treatment of impasse in Indochina negotiations and resumption of US military measures north of 20 degrees north latitude.
3.

Continuing analysis of the effects of air operations against NVN indicates that radio and leaflet propaganda encouraging specific individual actions may disrupt Hanoi’s control of the populace and thus increase the pressure on the Lao Dong Party Politburo to return to serious negotiations. The themes listed below should be used to capitalize on some specific target locations, to increase credibility and interest, to discredit the NVN leadership, to encourage target audience to take individual actions for their personal safety, and to emphasize NVN’s inability to stop air strikes.

[Page 857]

A. By its unreasonable, war-mongering behavior, the Lao Dong Party Politburo brings death and destruction to Vietnamese workers in both the North and the South. As long as the blind Politburo shows no care for the safety of the people of the DRV, the people must provide for their own protection and welfare by doing the following:

(1)
Accelerate their evacuation from important military target areas such as the military command and control facility of Bac Mai airfield. This has been struck, and will probably be struck again.
(2)
Move away from the port facilities and railroad yards in Hanoi and Haiphong. As long as these are used to supply the Politburo’s hopeless war adventure in the South, they must be bombed again and again. The people know that the Politburo cannot stop bombing except by stopping the reckless war against the Vietnamese people in the South.
(3)
Move away from radar and SAM sites which must be struck.
(4)
Do not allow areas nearby to be used for military traffic, truck parks, or supply points. Officials who permit these near the villages are inviting destruction from the skies. Government officials and cadre must be held accountable for whatever happens.
(5)
Those who live in safe areas should immediately offer to share their homes and unfortunately scarce food with relatives or friends whose homes have been made into military target areas by the war policies of the Party Politburo.
(6)
The US will continue to exercise restraint by planning attacks on military targets only, even though NVA/VC in RVN wantonly and maliciously continue to attack population centers and homeless refugees.

Johnson
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 27 VIET S. Secret;Exdis. Drafted by Colonel Doyle (JCS); cleared in draft in CIA and cleared in NSC, USIA, S/S–O, DOD/ISA, and EA/VN; and approved by Sullivan. Repeated to Vientiane, Phnom Penh, the U.S. Delegation in Paris, CINCPAC, CINCUSARPAC, and COMUSMACV.↩
  2. Not printed. (Ibid., Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 162, Vietnam Country Files, Vietnam, Dec 1972)↩