Documents / FOIA release
This is a December 1979 Central Intelligence Agency study published by the Directorate of Operations Counterintelligence Staff. It describes the Enemy Proselytizing Department (Cuc Dich Van) of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ministry of National Defense. The study traces the department's origins from 1941 through the French and Vietnam wars. It covers psychological warfare, fifth column penetration of ARVN and allied forces, the handling of US and allied prisoners of war, and the postwar reeducation of former ARVN personnel. It contains no material on UFOs.
“Headquarters”33 pages
VNLA >erson- ‘s. Do ut the P.-\\'.\l \’NL.~\ lias Ba I Tran I Thai, \-’Y\'LA .ere he zse. In .mittee n 1970 \\'itl’1 -ieeting rdinate -asefire nmand ram on ;erman at least ions of iember, rtment, of the re and 1 Long, 1 » Public 'N was COSVN S'E€R'E“|'-' Military Proselytizing Section under Major General Tran Luong. Duwas its acting chief until 1972, when he officially became its head and a member of the COSVN Current Affairs Committee. Du, a colonel, speaks French and Khmer, and a little English. He is an expert administrator. Between early 1964 and 1975, he personally directed a recruitment operation against Duong Van (“Big”) Minh who resided in Saigon and in Bangkok (1969-1971). Minh had been the RVN Chief of State for a short period in early 196-"1, and later was a prominent political opponent of RVN President Nguyen Van Thieu. At the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, Minh ordered the surrender of all ARVNforces to PAVN, which had seized power in South Vietnam. Pham Minh Duc alias Tu Anh, agent handler/chief, Nam Bo/COSVN MPS Officer Penetration Subsection, 1958 to June 1968. Born in 1924 in Cia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, Duc joined the Viet Minh Vanguard Youth in 1945, and operated in the Saigon Capital area through 1948. In December 1948, he was sent to North Vietnam where he attended a six-month course conducted by the PAVN General Staff’s Military Intelligence Department (Cue Quan Bao/COB). In 1950, he returned to South Vietnam, and was assigned to the Eastern Nam Bo Region Military Intelligence Section’s Battlefield Research Subsection under the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN). Following the July 1954 Geneva Accords on Indochina, Duc remained in Saigon as a COB staybehind asset. In 1958, he was reactivated by the Nam Bo/COSVN Public Security Office's Military Proselytizing Section, and operated under its penetration subsection in Saigon until 1961. Between 1961 and February 1967, he was assigned to the COSVN MPS Penetration Subsection headquarters where he monitored COSVN MPS penetra- tion operations in the Saigon Capital area. During this period, Duc was responsible for the recruitment and handling of at least six ARVN officers who defected to the NLFSVN. Four of these recruitments were ARVN officers who had taken part in the abortive November I960 coup against RVN President Ngo Dinh Diem. They were ARVNlst Lieutenants Nguyen Cong Minh, Thai Tran Trong Nghia, Vinh Cuu, and ARVN Captain Phan Lac Tuyen. All four had been recruited in Phnom Penh and were brought to the COSVN MPS headquarters in September 1963 where they were assigned to the COSVN MPS Propaganda Subsection. Duc was also responsible for the 1965 recruitment, defection, and assignment of ARVN Second Lieutenant Le Van Tinh, who was also assigned to the COSVN MPS Propaganda Subsection. In February 1967, Duc became the chief of the COSVN MPS Officer's Penetration Subsection and was dispatched to Saigon, where he assumed direct personal charge over ARVN officer penetrations in the Saigon Capital area. During the 1968 Tet (New Year) General Offensive, he had under his command two 15- man armed propaganda teams, which guided PAVN/SVNLA troops into Saigon, made loudspeaker appeals to ARVN personnel to defect and mutiny, and distributed psychological warfare propaganda a1 §-ssens.r_ mm 099.011 ----- '7/7 9 -
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 120 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.