INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION IN SOUTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420023-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 15, 2014
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: November 2, 1965
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/15: CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420023-3
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MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR
2 November 1965
SUBJECT: Intelligence Collection in South Vietnam
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With regard to your meeting with Mr. Clifford today, herewith a
brief summary of the intelligence collection programs and techniques
we are employing in South Vietnam.
I. The classic and well-recognized patterns of liaison
with and support of Vietnamese police and intelligence or-
ganizations are of course being followed and greatly ex-
panded, in terms of both personnel involved and funds being
expended.
The
result of this work is an extensive product 'Considered by
our military authorities in SVN as being essential to their
effort.
2. Beyond this normal and well-understood method of
intelligence collection, other more refined and complicated
techniques have had to be developed. Particularly has this
been true, in SVN, in trying to get at the information known
by members of the rural population, concerning VC activities
and identities which they are afraid to divulge. We have
developed three specific programs which use different
techniques in approaching the same goal, but which all have
in common one tactic or device: the winning of local popular
confidence and trust through good works and service. This
doctrine, when practiced with care and thoroughness, has
proved successful in allaying peasant fear and distrust, and
in starting up the flow of voluntary intelligence from a
popular base. This of course has been a most significant
advance. It has greatly increased the flow of significant
CER:2e12.7 FILE
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/15: CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420023-3
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/15: CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420023-3
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political and military intelligence, but of greater impottance
has blazed the way for the kind of popular support to local
authorities that will be necessary for the long-term control
and suppression of subversion and terror. This more unusual
means of gathering intelligence employs civic action and some
'arnied action, but only as necessary levers to get the intelli-
gence traffic moving.
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other hand, the above summary does honestly reflect new and original approaches
to the intelligence collection problem that the Agency hat devised and is em-
ploying with widely recognized success.
/y a"
Peer de Silva '
Special Assistant for
Vietnamese Affairs
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/15: CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420023-3