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…
—SE€'R‘ET"
Thai Thanh Phong alias Ouyen, Staff Assistant, SVNLA Political
Staff Department Enemy Proselytizing Office’s Policy (POW)
Section, 1967 to 1975. Born about 1934 in Cia Dinh Province, South
Vietnam, Phong served in a PAVN combat unit in the Eastern NamBo area of South Vietnam during the French Resistance War;
regrouped to North Vietnam in 1954/1955; was demobilized;
attended the Hanoi Teachers College; and was an elementary teacher
at the Nguyen Khuyen School in Haiphong. Recalled to PAVN in
1963, he was assigned to the CDV and infiltrated South Vietnam in
late 1967 when he was assigned to the SVNLA Enemy Proselytizing
Office’s Policy (POW) Section. A fluent English, French and fair
Russian speaker, Phong often interrogated US POWs at camps
administered by the Policy Section’s POW Inter-Unit A. Phong held
the rank of senior lieutenant as of 1970.
Nguyen Phu, deputy chief, Quang Da Special Region Party
Committee Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section Administrative
Office, 1970 to 1974. Born about 1980 in Loc Phuoc Village, Dai Loc
District, Quang Nam Province, Central Vietnam, Phu had been a
cadre of the Dai Loc District Party Committees Farmer's Association
before his 1967 transfer to the Quang Da Special Region Enemy and
Military Proselytizing Section as the head of the administrative
office's food production unit.
Le Quan alias Ha Quan, Chief, Quang Da Special Region Party
Committee Enemy and Military Proselytizing Section, concurrent
head, Penetration Cum 1, March 1970 to 1974. Born about 1927 in
Xuyen Quan Village, Duy Xuyen District, Quang Nam Province,
Central Vietnam, Quan had operated for the Viet Minh in Region 5
during the 1945-1954 French Resistance War; regrouped to North
Vietnam in 1954/1955;" and served as a security guard at the DRV
Presidential Palace in Hanoi between 1955 and 1964. In 1964, he
infiltrated South Vietnam and was assigned as a deputy secretary of
the Duy Xuyen District Party Committee in Quang Nam Province. In
1969, he became a deputy chief of the Quang Da Special Region
Party Committee's Enemy and Military Proselytizing Subsection,
replacing Tran Vinh Quoc (deceased) as its chief in March 1970.
Quan was by then a member of the Quang Da Special Region Party
Committee's Current Affairs Committee.
Tran Van Quang alias Bay Tien, Deputy Director, MND General
Political Department for Enemy Proselytizing Affairs, 1954 to
February 1956. Born about 1918 in Nghi Loc District,'Nghe An
Province, North Vietnam, he joined the revolutionary movement in
the 19305 and had become an Indochinese Communist Party member
by 1939. "Between 1939 and August 1945, he was imprisoned by the
French for revolutionary activities. Released by PAVN forces in
August 1945, he received unspecified training from the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) in Yunnan. According to French records, he
was the political officer of PAVN Interregion 4 between February
1947 and April 1950, heading its administrative and resistance
91 .
-5-Eerre-r—
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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.