RESPONSE TO QUERIES FROM SENATOR MUNDT RE COMMUNIST AID TO NORTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78T02095R000600430001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2006
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 27, 1968
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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Response to Queries from Senator Mundt
re Communist Aid to North Vietnam
27 Sep 68
27 Sep 68 Walsh to Ass/LC memo re Response to Query from Senator
Mundt
Attachments: Typescript IM, Communist Aid to North
Vietnam, 26 Sep 68 (S-2833)
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
26 September 1968
Communist Aid to North Vietnam
1. From 1954 through June 1968, North Vietnam
has received more than $3.7 billion in military
and economic assistance from its Communist allies.
Total assistance in 1967 exceeded $1 billion, of
which about two-thirds was military assistance.
Total aid deliveries probably will be at about
the same level in 1968, although the share of
military assistance may decline somewhat. The
USSR has provided an estimated $2.3 billion, or
61 percent, of the cumulative aid to North Vietnam.
Communist China has supplied $1.1 billion, and the
Eastern European Communist countries have provided
about $350 million. Aid from the Eastern European
countries is overwhelmingly for economic assistance
programs.
2. During the first half of 1968, economic
aid continued the upward trend which started at
the initiation of the US bombing program in 1965.
The value of identified military aid in the first
half of 1968, however, has been lower than during
the last half of 1967 because of the reduced need
for air defense materiel following the bombing
restrictions imposed on 31 March. Estimates of
military aid are preliminary and may be higher
after more information becomes available.
3. The trade imbalance with Communist coun-
tries that has been growing since 1964 increased
in the first eight months of 1968, indicating that
economic aid has been at levels above those of
1.967.
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4. Le Thanh Nghi, North Vietnam's chief aid
negotiator, returned in late July from an aid-
seeking mission which resulted in agreements being
signed with the Soviet Union, Communist China,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Rumania, and North Korea. The fact that
some of these agreements provide for supplementary
aid for 1968, together with the fact that they
were negotiated about four months earlier than in
the past two years, suggests that aid deliveries
in 1968 will continue at a high level.
5. Military aid imports during the first eight
months of 1968 are believed to have been reduced
somewhat from the levels of last year. We believe
that imports of antiaircraft artillery ammunition
and surface-to-air missiles continued apace during
at least the first four months of the year but
that, with the continuation of the bombing stand-
down in the north, deliveries of these items were
reduced. The number of field artillery and anti-
aircraft artillery weapons imported during the
first half of 1968 was considerably below the
number imported in 1967 for the buildup of air
and ground defenses. These decreases have been
partly offset by increases in North Vietnam's in-
ventories of MIG aircraft, surface-to-air missile
battalions, and radar. Our estimates are pre-
liminary and at this stage may be low.
6. Military aid in 1968 has apparently in-
cluded infantry weapons from the European Com-
munist countries and a wide range of modern weapons
from the USSR and China. Captured enemy materiel
in South Vietnam has included copies of Soviet-
designed infantry weapons that were recently
manufactured in Bulgaria, Poland, and Rumania.
The North Vietnamese press has indicated that
most of the Eastern European aid agreements for
1968 included military aid, and it is probable
that some of the materiel being supplied is being
used in South Vietnam as well as in North Vietnam.
We have made a preliminary estimate of $5 million
for the value of East European military aid to
North Vietnam during the first
six
months of
1968.
There is little information on
the
specifics
of
military aid deliveries from Eastern Europe.
Czechoslovakia and Poland are known to be the
major contributors. For the most part, Czecho-
slovakia provides small arms and ammunition, old
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antiaircraft equipment, trucks, and personnel car-
riers. Poland provides small arms, trucks, and
communications equipment.
7. Communist China delivered a hydrofoil tor-
pedo boat to North Vietnam early in 1968 either to
replace or to augment the older force of P-4 and
P-6 torpedo boats. China also is believed to be
sending radar equipment to North Vietnam. The
Soviets have continued to improve the North Viet-
namese all-weather jet fighter capability by
providing advanced versions of the MIG-21. Com-
munist China has supplied additional MIG-l5/17's.
North Vietnam's air defense capability has been
augmented by the addition of about ten SAM firing
battalions so far in 1968.
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Table 1
Communist Aid to North Vietnam
1954 - Mid-1968
Million US
First
Half
194-64
1965
1966
1967
1968 a/
Total
Military c/
Soviet Union
70
210
360
515
200
1,355
Communist China
70
60
95
145
50
420
East Europe
Negl.
Negl.
Negl.
Negl.
5
5
Total
140
270
455
660
255
1,780
Economic
Soviet Union
365
85
150
200
120
920
Communist China
455
59
75
80
50
710
East Europe
130
15
50
90
60
345
Total
250
150
275
370
230
1,975
Total economic
and military
aid 100 420 730 1030 485
av~
a. Preliminary.
b. Because of rounding, components may not add to the totals shown.
c. Data show the value at Soviet foreign trade prices of weapons,
other military equipment, and ammunition. They exclude aid for the
construction of military installations and defense-related facili-
ties.
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