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. 7 …supervising the activities of military POWs who cooperated with Hanoi in the preparation of psychological warfare…
  • p. 16 …POWs, ARVN as well as US, who cooperated with their captors. The’ CDV exploitation of POWs…
  • p. 22 …Those considered to have the same potential but whorefused to cooperate. ~ Category C: Those whose continued…
  • p. 23 …other techniques used to coerce them to cooperate. After a POW was initially categorized, CDV and…
  • p. 24 …Interrogations were aimed at gaining the complete cooperation of a POW for use in antiwar propaganda…
  • p. 25 …preparation of handwritten POW statements from selected cooperative and "progressive" POWs; and supervised “progressive” POWs who…
  • p. 41 …to join the revolution and not to cooperate with the Royal Lao Government. The section also…
  • p. 52 …and investigation of released ARVNi POWs who cooperated with the MSS. The ARVN MSS estimate did…
  • p. 54 …The national police were special targets for recruitment because of the cooperation they offered in processing…
  • p. 67 …in size) on short rations until they cooperated with their indoctrinators/interrogators. It soon became apparent…
  • p. 68 …over arms depots intact, and who had cooperated with the liberation armed forces. Several hundred Category…
  • p. 94 …who had been appointed Prime Minister, to cooperate with the revolution in establishing a coalition government…
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Commander of the Saigon Capital Military District Ordnance Depot.
ARVN Colonel Vu Quang Tai had been approached by his brother
Vu Quang Lan, a COSVN MPS agent handler, and reported it to the
ARVN Military Security Service (MSS), who put Lan under
surveillance which led to his arrest with COSVN MPS Lieutenant
Colonel Nguyen Nhon Nghia. Lan, a PAVN officer, was transferred
to the CDV in Hanoi because he had noted his brother Vu Quang Tai
as an ARVN officer. After completing CDV training in December
1966, Lan was sent to South Vietnam where he was assigned in
October 1967 to the COSVN MPS Officer Proselytizing Subsection
headed by Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Nhon Nghia. Through blood
ties, the COSVN MPS hoped to recruit his brother ARVN Colonel Vu
Quang Tai as a long-range in-place fifth column agent asset. Nothing
is known about Nghia's disposition since his capture in 1968. He is a
prime example of a CDV agent handler who was assigned to recruit
ARVN field grade officers through family ties.
Trinh Dinh Nghia alias Nguyen Viet Thanh, Korean-language
specialist, Quang Da Special Region Party Committee Enemy and
Military Proselytizing Section Propaganda Subsections Armed Propa-
ganda Unit, February to November 1970 (captured). Born onmat Xuyen Phuoc Village, Duy Xuyen District, Quang
Nam Province, Central Vietnam, Nghia joined the Quang Da Special
Region Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section in May 1968;
attended a 10-man Korean-language training course at the Region 5
Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section between April 1969 and
February 1970; and was a Korean-language specialist of the Quang
Da Special Region Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section’s Armed
Propaganda Unit until the date of his capture on 24 November 1970.
He is the only known CDV Korean linguist captured by Allied forces
during the Vietnam War. Nothing is known of his disposition since his
capture.
Hong Ba Ngoc, member, Quang Da Special Region Party Committee
Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section Command Group, concur-
rently chief", Penetration Cum 3 Unit E-15b, 1967 to 1974. Born about
1931 in Hoa Chau Village, Hoa Vang District, Quang Nam Province,
Central Vietnam, Ngoc participated in the 1945-1954 French
Resistance War in Region 5; regrouped to North Vietnam in
1954/1955; and infiltrated South Vietnam in 1965, when he became
the deputy secretary of the Hoa Vang District Party Committee.
Between late 1967 and 1974, he was assigned to the Quang Da Special
Region Enemy and_ Military Proselytizing Section as a member of its
command group and as the head of Penetration Cum 3 Unit E-15b.
Bui Thanh Ngon alias Ba Ngon, Deputy Chief, SVNLA Political Staff
Department's Enemy Proselytizing Office, 1965 to 1975. Born about
1928 in Phong Dinh Province, delta area of South Vietnam, Ngon was
assigned to the Nam Bo/COSVN Enemy Proselytizing Office during
the French Resistance War. Following the July 1954 Geneva Accords
on Indochina, he regrouped to North Vietnam, where he was assigned
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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.