MEETING WITH DD/R&E REPRESENTATIVES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R003400010040-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 31, 2002
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: April 10, 1970
• Content Type: MFR

STATINTL Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-0078OR003400010040-2
Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-0078OR003400010040-2
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FILE.
DD/S 70-1496
10 April 1970
SUBJECT: Meeting with DD/R&E Representatives
1. At the request of DD/S &T/ORD, I
met with Mr. Richard U. Scott and Mr. Leonard Sullivan of the Department
of Defense, DRE, at the Pentagon today. These gentlemen are concerned
with Southeast Asia matters. It is not clear why DD/R&E is involved in the
Vietnamization program, but they apparently have a charter to look at any
aspects of the Department of Defense policy in Vietnam that they choose to.
2. Mr. Sullivan explained that it was certain that the U.S. will be
subsidizing Vietnam for many years to come and that to the extent that the
subsidy could be used to develop meaningful industry, the length and the
amount of the subsidy will be shorter. He believes that there is a transition
period from the military doing everything and taking the position that only
they can do it to a period when commercial enterprise will be predominent.
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3. He asked if it were not true that Air America's presence in Vietnam,
while essential to the U.S. Government customers, is a deterrent to Vietnamiza-
tion. He felt that efforts should be made now to put the Vietnamese in a position
some time in the future to take over all of the necessary airlift, both contract
and charter. He did not have any ideas on how this might be done, but he did
feel that the Vietnamese would have to be trained. He quarreled with the military
way of doing this which is to take a Vietnamese boy, teach him English, and then
teach him to be a mechanic. He felt that this was too expensive and too slow.
He asked about Air America's training policy for indigenous personnel.
4. It seemed from the discussion that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Scott were
thinking of developing an aid program outside of USAID. It was not clear why
this was considered desirable by them. At one point, Mr. Sullivan did say that
AID would do it the "cheap" way. They believed the military way was too elaborate
to be practical. I gathered that they would like to see Air America or some
similar company enter into a relationship with a Vietnamese company, not Air
Vietnam, to establish a domestic contract and charter flying service and a
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maintenance operation capable of doing company maintenance and also contract
maintenance for the Air Force and any other customers.
5. I expect that nothing will come of this conversation since DD/R&E
is having difficulty in justifying its interest in the subject. On the other hand,
it is possible that the Agency might be asked by Defense if Air America could
undertake a technical assistance program in Vietnam. I attempted to forestall
this by giving the Ambassador's thinking that Air America would be unacceptable
in Vietnam as anything other than a contractor to the U.S. Government.
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Special Assistant to the
Deputy Director for Support
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cc: DD/S-HB
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