Documents / FOIA release

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

Central Intelligence Agency · 1979-12-01 · 120 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 74 …personnel; and the Thanh Ong Nam (Hoc Mon District) Camp had over 5,000 officers interned…
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cover designation used by the Saigon—Cholon-Gia Dinh Special
Region Party Committee’s MPS. In February 1967, he was reassigned
to an unknown position in the COSVN MPS, and later resumed his
position as the chief of the Saigon-Cholon—Gia Dinh Special Region
MPS."Following the ill-conceived Tet 1968 General Offensive, he was
criticized for ineffectiveness and became a staff cadre of the
reorganized Saigon City Party Committee's MPS. Vu headed two 15-
man MPS Armed Propaganda Teams during the second phase of the
May 1968 offensive. In August 1968, he was reassigned to the CQSVN
MPS due to his acts of_insubordination to his chief, Major Le Mai alias
Tu Kien. Between August 1968 and 1973, he headed the COSVN
MPS Enemy Situation Research Subsection and was concurrently a
deputy director of the COSVN MPS Training School and a member
of the COSVN MP5 Command Group. While assigned to the Saigon
area, he had 10 ARVN agent assets in the capital area.
Song Hao, Director, MND General Political Department, February
1961 to date. Born in 1922 in Nam Dinh Province, North Vietnam,
Hao joined V0 Nguyen Giap’s Armed Propaganda Brigade for the
Liberation of Vietnam on 22 December 1944, attending its Bac Son
Military School as one of its first 34 graduates. In April 1945, the
Armed Propaganda Brigade became known as the Vietnamese
Liberation Army and Hao was assigned to its political staff, which was
headed by Van Tien Dung. Between 1948 and 1951, Hao was the
political officer of PAVN Military Region 2, "also known as PAVN
Northwest Military Region IO. In 1951, he became concurrently the
political officer of the PAVN 316th Division, which 0Derated in
northern Laos. Between 1952 and 1953, he was the political officer of
the PAVN 808th Division, which operated near Hanoi. As of June
1954, he held the rank of colonel and was the deputy chief of a PAVN
delegation which met with the French Expeditionary Corps High
Command to discuss the implementation of the July 1954 Geneva
Accords on Indochina. He was later the deputy chief of the Joint
Ceasefire Commission. By 1956, he had become a deputy director of
the MND General Political Department with the rank of senior
colonel. On 2 September 1959, he was promoted to the rank of major
general. In September 1960, he became a full Lao Dong Party Central
Committee member. On 14 February 1961, the DRV Council of
Ministers made the decision to appoint Hao to several concurrent
positions. He was named a Vice Minister of National Defense,
director of the MND General Political Department, a member of the
National Security Council, deputy secretary of the MND Central
Military Party Committee, and was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant general. I-1o Chi Minh announced Hao's promotion and
appointment to these positions on 3 March 1961. I-Iao was also
appointed a member of the DRV State Committee for Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries. He has been a National Assembly-
man since April 1964, and a member of the Lao Dong Party Central
Committee's Central Military Party Committee. In December 1964,
83
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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.