Covert Involvements of the U.S. in Vietnam
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In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy expanded U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The expansion included a top-secret organization of a secret war against Vietnam. The main instrument for conducting secret warfare was the Central Intelligence Agency. We also utilized our new Cold-War shock troops, the Green Berets. Around 400 Special Forces advisors were sent to Vietnam to train the newly formed Vietnamese Special Forces as well, which would soon include a highly classified clandestine arm known as “Special Branch”.
President Kennedy would also have the CIA train ARVNs 1st Observation Group to expand from 340 to over 800 members with training from US Special Forces. The mission of these South Vietnamese agents was to form resistance networks, establish bases in NV and conduct light harassment. The 1st Observation Group was augmented by a Vietnamese Air Force Transport Squadron, commanded my ace pilot Nguyen Cao Ky, flying C-47s, dropping agents by parachute into NV in an operation code-named HAYLIFT.
The secret American-trained guerrilla armies were formed to stop North Vietnamese infiltration via Laos. NVA involvement was discovered and reported early by CIA-backed Meo guerrillas, when they found evidence of dog meat in vacated Pathet Lao camps proving that the Vietnamese were there because no self respecting Lao ate dog meat but the Vietnamese did. The native guerrilla units also tracked and harassed North Vietnamese Army infiltration lines in Laos. But veteran guerrilla warriors realized that the only way to save South Vietnam was by a committed effort to close down the infiltration line in Laos. Since Kennedy had closed off the conventional military option, many believed an unconventional effort could stop the infiltrations, more quietly and at much lower cost.
The US Army Studies and Observation Group (SOG) oversaw one of the longest-running covert paramilitary operations in US history. And in an operation codenamed Plan 34-Alpha, CIA-trained Vietnamese conducted cross-border missions to interrupt enemy activities, rescue downed U.S. pilots, train agents and conduct psychological operations designed to undermine morale in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. Almost all of these missions were unsuccessful and nearly all the Vietnamese commandos sent into North Vietnam were killed or captured.
In 1967 the CIAs Far East Division of Clandestine Services developed a program supported by MACV(Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) through Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support [CORDS]. The newly initiated CIA program Phung Hoang (All Seeing Bird) or “Phoenix”, aimed at the elimination of high-ranking VC cadre. It was later criticized as an assassination campaign, the stated purpose of the Phung Hoang was “to enlist and coordinate the efforts of local leaders police and paramilitary groups to identify and dismantle the subversive apparatus.” The program entailed