SOUTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79R00890A001200090034-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 31, 2003
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: September 20, 1960
• Content Type: BRIEF

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NSC BRIEFING 20 September 1960
State Department review completed
I. The Diem government in South Vietnam faces growing dangers.
A. There has been sharp increase in Communist guerrilla activities
during the past nine months.
II. The Communists, with an estimated 5,000 guerrillas, apparently hope
ventually to topple the government by extending their operations
the delta provinces in the southwest where they are now most
ctive.
A. Recently they have also been more active northeast of Saigon,
nd main routes near the capital city are insecure.
B. The Vietnamese security service is taking seriously reports
that terrorism and Sabotage--with Americans included as tar-
gets--may be planned in Saigon itself in connection with the
23 September anniversary of the start of the Indochinese war
against France.
III. Diem has relied mainly on military measures to meet the Communist
threat, increasing anti-guerrilla training in the army and maintain-
ing aggressive patrols.
A. Local militia forces, however, remain weak.
IV. Diem is more vulnerable to this Communist upsurge because he is faced
ith widespread rural dissatisfaction and increasingly articulate
criticism from Saigon's intellectual, labor and refugee circles
of his authoritarian rule.
A. He realizes that peasant support is essential to combatting
the Communist campaign and has taken some measures to meet rural
grievances and identify the government more closely with rural
welfare.
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B. Diem has remained reluctant, however, to deal with the related
problem of complaints in both government and opposition circles
that his tight rule through a family clique fosters corruption
and facilitates Communist subversion.
C. The US embassy in Saigon believes it is possible that Diem's non-
Communist opponents, especially the trade unions, might stage
public demonstrations to back their demands for reform and that
Communist infiltrators could maneuver such protests into serious
anti-Diem incidents.
V. The uneasy South Vietnamese situation has drawn increased propaganda
ttention from the Communist regime in North Vietnam, where the
recent Lao Dong.(Communist) party congress indicated it would give
support to all opponents--including non-Communists--of the "US-Diem
clique" in an effort to get a coalition government with Communist
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participation.
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 Approved For Release 2004/02/02 : CIA-RDP79R0089OA001200090034-8
Approved For Release 2004/02/02 : CIA-RDP79R0089OA001200090034-8