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.

'SE‘C'R'FF_
South Vietnam, Long was a regroupee who held the rank of CDV
senior captain. He \vas responsible for contacts between the Policy
Section and its subordinate POW Inter-Unit A for US/foreign civilian
and military POWs.
Tran Van Luc alias Nam Luc, Chief, SVNLA Enemy Proselytizing
Office Policy Section, 1966 to 1974. Born in 1927 in Bien Hoa City,
South Vietnam, Luc came from a rich South Vietnamese family
which held French citizenship. Luc graduated from the Petrus Ky
High School in Saigon with French Baccalaureate Parts I and II. In
September 1945, he joined the Binh Xuyen Sect Army against the
French. He was later arrested by the Binh Xuyen for pro-Viet Minh
activities and was sentenced to death. Before _his scheduled execution,
he was freed by the PAVN Dong Nai Regiment. He and other former
Binh Xuyen members formed a PAVN company in which Luc served
as political officer. In 1950, he was transferred to PAVN Battalion 302
which was targeted against French rubber plantation workers north of
Bien Hoa. Luc directed penetration operations against a pro-French
Vietnamese officer training school, and led an attack against it which
resulted in the death of all French officers and many Vietnamese
officer candidates.
Following the July I954 Geneva Accords on Indochina, Luc
remained in South Vietnam where he was assigned to the Eastern
Nam Bo Region Political Staff's Military Proselytizing Section. In
1957, he was recalled to North Vietnam where he attended a three-
year course (1957-1960) at the MND Intermediate-Advanced Political
School in Hanoi. Upon graduation, he was promoted to the rank of
senior captain, and became the political officer of the PAVN 380th
Division Engineering Battalion. In 1962, elements of PAVN Division
830 were sent to Laos for operations, and Luc remained in North
Vietnam as a battalion-level political officer with Division 330. In
July I965, he was transferred to the CDV. Between August and
November 1965, he attended a 12-man training course for CDV
POW specialists who left North Vietnam for South Vietnam in
December 1965. In April 1966, he became the head of the SVNLA
Enemy Proselytizing Office's Policy also known as POW Section,
which was responsible for US, Allied and ARVN POWs. Between
April and June 1968, he was assigned to a SVNLA Forward
Headquarters in Subregion 1, where he was in charge of a 40-man
enemy proselytizing section. In Iuly 1968, he was recalled to the
SVNLA, where he became the chief delegate for POW exchange
matters with the SVNLA Enemy Proselytizing Office's Policy Section.
In October 1968, he directed the first release of US POWs in Tay
Ninh Province. Luc continued to be responsible for US and ARVN
POW release ‘exchanges through 1973. As of I974, he held the rank of
lieutenant colonel.
Tran Luong, alias Tran Nam Trung, Hai Hau, COSVN Current
Affairs Committee member in charge of civil health, civilian
proselytizing, finance-economic, and military proselytizing affairs,
86 O-
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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.