WHERE PATS ARE BLOWS TO REDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: February 12, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

CHICAGO, ILL.
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FEB 121966
BY KEY E S BEECH
Daily News Foreign Service
SAIGON-As freedom fighters, their appearance leaves
much to be desired. They range in age from 15 to 50. Few
are outstanding physical specimens. Some have only one eye,
To the disgust of the military, they don't salute. They
would never win any prizes at close-order drill. Their most
prized uniform is black pajamas, the sackcloth of the Viet-
narnese peasant. They wear no insignia of rank.
A bright young American captain who was sent out to
look them over came back to Saigon totally unimpressed.
Some soldiers, he reported. All they do is stand around and
yak and sweep floors and yak and repair, bridges and yak
and bathe babies and yak and work in the rice paddies and
of them are women.
others are missing their trigger fingers. Twenty per cent
To those who know them best they are the PATs. They
are the core of the massive pacification, program that was
a primary topic of conversation during President Johnson's
talks with South Vietnamese leaders in Honolulu this week.
who double as destroyers and builders, killers,and do-gooders. ,. This worries the Americans not at all.
highly motivated, heavily armed, anti-Communist fighters against the very men who perfected it.
Yet this ragged army of undersized civilians is one of the
chief hopes of winning the Vietnamese war and building a
nation where none existed before:
They are a terror to the Viet Cong, a pillar of strength
to the much-abused Vietnamese peasant and the pride of the
Americans who helped create the force. '
Until something better comes along, they are the answer
to Communist-run "wars of national liberation," Their'poten
tial extends far beyond the borders of Viet Nam. For, if
they succeed here-and they have-there is no good reason
why they shouldn't succeed in other underdeveloped countries
where Communist insurgency rears its head.
They are the People's Action Teams, 40-man bands of
yak.
to Americans backing the program that the United States
may expect too much too soon.
IN A COUNTRY that is littered 'with discarded plans
for winning the war, the PATs are unique. They are a
success, perhaps the only success the Americans can claim
in a war better known for its failures.
Perhaps the best testimonial to the success of the PAT
program is the elbowing and jostling that goes on at team
meetings in Saigon as various U.S. agencies try to take
'credit for it.
Each agency-the embassy, the U.S. military command,
the U.S. Agency for International Development mission, the
U.S. Information Service-has had a hand in the pie. But
it is the Central Intelligence A; ency that inspired and backed
the program from the start and, equally important, put up
the money for it.
CIA is curiously demure about its role in the PAT pro-
gr lii?'Wits passion for anonymity struggles with a desire for
recognition for a job well done. There is also the fear that
if the CIA role is known, similar counterinsurgency cam-
paigns that might be undertaken in other countries would
be viewed as something sinister because of the CIA label.
The fact is that everyone who knows anything about the
PAT program knows that CIA is behind it.
"FOR YEARS WE HAVE been looking for the handle,
the .gimmick or whatever you want to call it, to Commu,,nist
insurgency," said a CIA man. "It was there all along but we
failed to recognize. it." He was, referring to the fact that the PAT program is a
shameless steal from Communist guerrilla warfare, turned
a bright and brash 27-year-old :f1pn3, ~o
played a key role inmaking the PATS what they are today:
"After :all, the Communists stole the atomic bomb from
us. t 1'hy should we be squeamish about stealing people's
Today there are nearly 20,000 PAT members in South .wan;,tre f oan them:"
Viet Nam. By the end of, the war, there will be 30,000. T no PATs are taught to kill-but with love rather than
They are being turned out of the training camps at, a rate hate. It is immoral to kill with hate, they are told.
of 4,000 every 10 weeks. The eight principles Mao Tze-tung enunciated for the
Their primary function is to move into "gray" areas after Chinese Communists' celebrated long march have been lifted
allied military forces have driven main-force Viet Cong units bodily. They are.
out and then to reclaim the area for the Saigon government. o Speak politely and truthfully.
It is a slow and tedious process and it is a, source of concern a Pay a fair price for what you buy.
roved For a er7_29170 /29 :391A-F JP67B00446Ra80400120012-2
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Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2
 Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2
A typical member of the Vietnamese People's Action Team
Taught to kill with love rather than hats
o Return everything you borrow.
o Pay for anything you damage. .
? Don't mistreat the people.
o Don't damage crops.
o 'Don't rape the women.
o Treat captives kindly.
"If there was a copyright on this sort of thing we could
get-sued," says Scotton.
MR 1 2 1966
Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2
 Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2
Approved For Release 2005/06/29 : CIA-RDP67B00446R000400120012-2