PRESIDENT MAKES THREE MISSTATEMENTS ON VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410075-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: February 19, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410075-6
A??E BRED
THE WASHINGTON POST
19 February 1982
xv ~ J.r. ~ . _ 1?. .. Its .. : 1 J
resident-: Makes* Three
~,. -By Lee Lescaie
~i > Wu6hingWAPrnt5Wt(WrU r ,
-.- President; Reagan rewrote the-history. of..early.
U.S. involvement in Vietnam yesterday, while de-
fending- -himself against - press charges. that he,:
made numerous mistakes at. his Jan.-19 news con-
ference. ~i,,r n:nvA
Reagan -made three major misstatements ^on
Vietnam at his news conference,. yesterday:'.:.
-He said that-North 'and ..South'Vietria i were
two separate-countries prior W the colonization of-
Vietnam. by- France-in the-19th-century: In fact,-
-when-,the : French- -arrived, :the : area was. already
divided into three party: from south: to north they'
)were CoehinChina; Annarn and.Tonkin
_The- president also said that:PPresident Ho Chi
Minh. of.North Vietnam refused to-partictpate-irr .
the election scheduled for 1956. lby'the agreements
that ended French control over-Vietnam `
,),.The- Pentagon-.Papers. and,.other histaries of.
that time make-clear: that it-was-South, Vietnam's
President -Ngo.Dinh..Diem who- refuseduto .take
part in electionsr The Pentagon'hist concludes
that the Unitedr States did; not' "connive ;with
Diem to ignore the elections..."; However,. it says:
that President Eisenhower and Secretary:of State,
John Foster Dulles favored "postponing:election :
for as long as possible. It quotes a:- Dulles cable.
arguing that delay is_important because it-is "un-
doubtedly true., that elections';might 'eventually
mean unification [of] Vietnam' ~under.-Ho.Chi
Minh Reagan also said that-"the first-move-toward
[U.S.] combat troops in Vietnam" was when Pres=
ident Kennedy "authorized the sending in of a di.-
vision of'Marines."--_-
On Feb. 7,1965, President Johnson ordered the
first 550. Marines', accompanying Hawk missiles,
to Vietnam.-.In.. March. he sent.. ,500:.:more. Ma: ,
rines. In April, he dispatches 1,400- more Accord
ing to a- Marine spokeswoman, the. only :Marines
in Vietnam before that were advisers, who helped
establish the. South' Vietnamese Marine_ Corps.
This small group arrived in 1954.and left in 1956.
Although Reagan's history was wrong, the ques=
"tion to which he was replying was'based_on a-false
premise and the president was-correct.. in denying;,
that remise , " ..i , o :`??t~ R?c: ~ a i0:w ri
' :'"In the 1960x, the CIA came up with-a secret
plan to get us involved, in Vietnam. in.a surrepti-
tiou`s; covert manner," the questioner said, asking
`whether such means might be employed to ;et the
United- States more deeply into Latin America:
;.,_.'.The United States did not become involved in
:Vietnam covertly in the 1960s. As advisers were
'sent-to South Vietnam, their, numbers were,an-
nounced. In 1954, Col: Edward Lansdale had com-'
manded covert sabotage operations in North Viet-
nam as. the French pulled out.
Reagan correctly said he did not see any par-_
allel relating to covert activities-
,Reagan opened his news conference with a joke
-,'about. press. reports' of his. misstatements and he
ended with a claim that his :Jan.19 news confer-
ence had not been studded' with 'errors. Reagan
;said "the score was five to one in my. favor.", His
l
count; however, refers to a ..White -House' refuta=
tion of 3 wire-service story on misstatements;; not
to the errors Reagan made at his '?Jan..19 news
conference, where every, unemployment statistic
-he used was incorrect
"'.Washington Post researchers Valarie:Thomas.
and Maralee Schwartz contributed-to this-article.
tsstule enIs
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505410075-6