THE SITUATION IN VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A001500010022-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 29, 2005
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: December 12, 1966
• Content Type: MEMO

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MEMORANDUM
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
The Situation in Vietnam
NSA review completed
Top Secret
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 Approve
Information as of 1600
12 December 1966
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HIGHLIGHTS
There is nothing available in photography or
communications intercepts to confirm recent press
reports that the North Vietnamese air order--of-
battle has been radically increased.
I. The Military Situation in South Vietnam:
Heavy fighting between ARVN and Viet Cong troops
was reported on 11 December in Dinh Tuong Prov-
ince (Para. 1). Operation TRINIDAD II ended in
Quang Nam Province with 33 Communist soldiers
killed (Para. 2). Operation SIERRA began in
Quang Ngai Province in the same area where three
Viet Cong battalions with a strength of 950 men
are reported to be operating (Para. 3). A Commu-
nist weapons cache was located in Kontum Province
by US Army soldiers participating in Operation
PICKETT (Para. 4).
III. Military Developments in North Vietnam:
There is:noth ng available in photography or commu-
nications intercepts to confirm.recent press reports
that the North Vietnamese air order-of--battle has
been radically increased (Paras. 1-2).
IV. Other Communist Military Developments:
There is nothing of significance to report.
V. Communist Political Developments: Both
North Vietnam and the Li eration Front have hailed
the opening of a Front office in Hanoi (Paras. 1-2).
Approv
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SOUTH VIETNAM
50 75 100 M Ies
75 1 0 H,lor ters
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Vxos'ru
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1. Heavy fighting between South Vietnamese
Army (ARVN) troops and Viet Cong forces in the Mekong
Delta province of Dinh Tuong was reported on 11 Decem-
ber. An estimated Viet Cong battalion harassed an
ARVN base camp about 15 miles northwest of My Tho.
Air strikes and artillery supported the ARVN defense
efforts. Friendly casualties were three killed and
12 wounded compared to 15 Viet Cong killed. Nine en-
emy weapons were captured. Three ARVN battalions
have been committed as a reaction force, but no con-
tact with the Communist force has yet been reported.
2. Three-day-old Operation TRINIDAD II, a search-
and-destroy operation conducted in an area about 12
miles south of Da Nang in Quang Nam Province by one
battalion of US marines, ended on 11 December. Ameri-
can casualties were one killed and 20 wounded. Commu-
nist losses included 33 killed, 27 captured, and six
suspects detained.
3. Operation SIERRA, a one-battalion US marine
search-and-destroy operation, began on 11 December
about eight miles south of Quang Ngai city in coastal
Quang Ngai Province. Three Viet Cong battalions--the
19th, 38th, and 48th--are reported operating in the
area with an estimated strength of 950 men. No con-
tact with the enemy has been reported.
4. A company of the US 101st Airborne Division
participating in the three-battalion search-and-destroy
Operation PICKETT in Kontum Province located a cache
of 59 individual weapons on 11 December. The opera-
tion, which began on 8 December, is sweeping the
Cambodia - Kontum Province border area in search of
elements of the 1st North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Divi-
sion (formerly the 630th NVA Division).
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III. MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH VIETNAI'_
1. There is nothing available in photography
or communications intercepts to confirm recent press
reports that the North Vietnamese air order-of-
battle (AOB) has been radically increased. North
Vietnam is believed to possess 96 MIG-15/17 and
15 MIG-?21 interceptors. Fifty-four of the MIG-15/17s
and all'of the MIG-21s are operating from three of
the DRV?s five principal airfields. The remaining
42'MIG-?15/17s are in a reserve status
2. Since 1 September 1966, North Vietnam is
believed to have lost as many as nine fighter air-
craft, three of which were MIG-21s. During the
same period, more than 30 additional Vietnamese
and at least 21 Korean pilots may have become avail-
able for use by the DRV Air Force. The loss of air-
craft, the increase in combat-ready pilots, and the
continuing US strike activity combine to suggest
that anlincrease in the DRV interceptor inventory
would be desirable from Hanoi?s viewpoint. There
i,8, however,' nothing at this time to indicate that
such a buildup, has taken place.
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App
Iv.
OTHER COMMUNIST MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS
1. There is nothing of significance to report.
12 December 1966
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COMMUNIST POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
1.. The establishment of a Liberation Front
office in Hanoi has been heralded by Communists on
both sides of the 17th Parallel as a symbol of the
national unity of Vietnam. The Liberation Front
broadcast a long editorial using effusive language
to describe the new office as another manifestation
of the North's continuing support of the revolution
in the South. President Ho Chi Minh was described
as the leader of all Vietnam and the goal of reuni-
fication was given special emphasis. The new repre-
sentative, Nguyen Van Tien, is a prominent Front
central committeeman who has served primarily as a
delegate to a series of international conferences.
2. Hanoi's reception of the new delegation
was equally effusive, according to a VNA broadcast
of 12 December. Tien was greeted by the DRV Foreign
Minister,Ngu'en Duy Trinh, an impressive gathering
of representatives of mass organizations, and much
of the foreign diplomatic corps. In the broadcast,
however, Nguyen Duy Trinh was not described as
the DRV foreign minister (only as a politburo mem-
ber and vice premier), suggesting that the new
Front representative is not to be given full diplo-
matic status but is to have the same semiofficial.
capacity as Front representatives in other Commu-
nist capitals.
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