Intelligence and Security Operations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ministry of National Defense

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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
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