INTERNATIONAL NOTES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430013-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: March 9, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP
CPYRGHT
9 March 1966
CPYRGHT
i"I TE 'NA'" 7D0NA OT
The "Quiet American"
Is Fired
Major-General Edward Lansdale,
no of the leading American intel-
igence specialists in combating na-
ional-liberation movements, was
?ccallcd from Saigon at the end of
cbruary. Known as the prototype
f Aldin Pyle, Graham Greene's
'Quiet American," he, helped install
'go Dinh Diem in power in 1954.
or this he was decorated, promoted
nd transferred to Washington. Half
year ago, however, he was again
ent to South Vietnam:, this time,
merican papers said, his assign-
cnt was to drive a wedge between
he South Vietnamese guerillas and
_3
peasants and thus help tip the scales Hence his recall, - dismissal, and
of war in Washington's favour. \~vi'rtual official admission of the
On his return to Saigon, the Gene- Basco of his "sweet't schema
ral rolled up his sleeves and went to
work. It was at his insistence that
American planes began to drop not
only bombs and napalm on the
rural areas occupied by the patriots
but bags with sweets-a present from
Uncle Sam. It was his idea too to
make "special task" puppet troops
disguised as Liberation Army fight-
ers raid peaceful villages and kill
and rob peasants.
But all this did not bring the
desired results. Lansdale, the Wash-
ington Post wrote the other day,
was expected to. win the confidence
f the Vietnamese and help set up
a stable representative government.
He and his group failed in both.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000300430013-4