Written by Cory Chandler
The recently declassified documents review the CIA’s operations in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the ’60s and ’70s.
The CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence released on March 13 six volumes of previously classified books detailing various aspects of the CIA’s operations in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the ’60s and ’70s.
The works were distributed and discussed at a conference hosted by Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center and Archive.
The documents, penned by CIA historian Thomas L. Ahern Jr., draw on operations files as well as interviews with key participants to review American foreign policy and provide what CIA chief historian Gerald K. Haines calls a sharp analytical look at CIA programs and reporting from the field.
Ahern covers topics including the CIA’s rural pacification efforts in South Vietnam, efforts to stabilize and democratize South Vietnam following the fall of President Ngo Dinh Diem, intelligence officers’ failure to identify and monitor munitions supply lines to lower South Vietnam, and failed black entry insertion efforts into North Vietnam.
The books, scanned and stored on DVDs, were distributed to participants at the annual Vietnam Center Conference where this years’ topic was Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand and the Vietnam War.
Steve Maxner, director of the Vietnam Center, said the documents were released at the conference to ensure that the international slate of historians and other scholars and veterans who attended the event had access to the materials.
“One of the rights that Americans take pride in is their freedom to access information,” Maxner said. “The government engages in activities that must remain out of the public eye, and that means that while failures often get a lot of press, many successes don’t. These books present a very honest look at both the successes and failures of the intelligence community during that time period.”
Plus, it makes good reading.
“These materials are the kind of thing you see in spy books and movies, but this is the real thing,” Maxner said.
The Center for the Study of Intelligence was founded in 1974 and comprises both professional historians and experienced practitioners who work to document lessons learned from past operations, explore the needs and expectations of intelligence consumers and stimulate serious debate on current and future intelligence challenges.
Ahern was a covert operations officer in the CIA for 35 years and retired from the CIA in 1989 after five tours of duty in Asia, including three in Indochina. He was chief of base or stations in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. After retirement he joined the CIA history staff.
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April 11th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
In my first of two tours to Thailand (’71) as a broadcaster with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), I was sent to the Air Force R/TV station in Nakom Phenom (NKP), northern Thailand. I will never forget sitting in the downtown “Playboy Club,” (a popular bar literally built out over the Mekong river) and watching the B-52s’ saturation bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos while listening to our own radio broadcast of LBJ stating we “…are not bombing Laos.”
Note: In the center of NKP was a statue of Ho Chi Minh. It was NKP where Viet Cong came for R&R, and it was NKP , so the story goes, that supplied North Vietnam with huge amounts of cash collected from NKP’s “Massage Parlors” frequented by our GIs.
April 11th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Well, how about that. I was involved in Top Secret operations with the CIA in Laos. I guess I’ll have to figure out how to look at these books. Heck, I’ll just come down there and ask to see them.
Thanks for the notification.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
The Ho Chi Minh statue has to do with his living in Nakorn Panom province during the period 1924 to 1931 – or rather he had a safe house there. It was located about half way between NKP town the the air base.
It would probably be hard to see B-52s from NKP as that part of the trail was about 30 kilometers east of Thakek, the city on the other side of the Mekong from NKP. We never saw it from the USAID compound in Thakek.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I agree with Mr Douglas Clark that Mr Wess duBrisk could not see nor hear the B52 carpet Bombing from even Thahkek, across the Mekong river from Nakhon Phanom on the Thailand side. There could be bombing in the area but 100mi to the east, at the lower head of the HCM trails network east of Nephao. There could be more bombing 100 mi further south, east of Sepone, 25mi north of Khesanh. (Khesanh is located on the national highway #9 starting from Quang tri on the east end and going all the way to Savannakhet to the west on the Mekong river bank
Two observations : Many declassified documents released lately by the CIA have no historic values or lessons learned because of inacuracy and fantaisy. They revealed the mistakes made by the CIA in relying on less than reliable and honest, more adventurous than professional, info -gatherers. These don’t speak the local langages, don’t know the local cultures, thus mostly /relying on bar tenders, money exchangers on the street and or prostitutes, for spy work. No wonder why so many became voluntary relaying instruments of the ennemy’s propaganda.
With regard to HCM statue in the city of NKP, may I refer you to the recent book well documented and researched by a well known vietnamese author MINH VO :HoChiMinh, Nhan dinh Tong hop, Tieng Que Huong 2003, Virginia. HCM has never set foot in Thailand. His life has been essentially spent in France and in the Soviet Union where he was trained as a communist to carry out the grand plan of world domination designedby the komintern, and in China, mainly in the south side to end in VN after 1945. I thought as a Higher learning and serious institution, Texas Tech University”s Viet nam Center should challenge its scholars and students to look at books published in other langages like French, Chinese, Russian and more importantly Viet namese to produce more valuable works. It would be admirable if the Center could translate the Vietnamese books produced in quantity and quality lately as a way to enhance its academic standard and objectivity.
Thank you for a chance to participate.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I was stationed at USAG Headquarters atNKP in 1973. I agree, you could not see the bombings from anywhere along the river near NKP, but you could hear the thunder-like sounds in the distance and feel the vibrations of the carpet bombing somewhere in the distance. There was no doubt what was happening in the distance.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Very interesting. I am investigating my father’s career – DOD – which was heavily involved in Vietnam. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who might know something about his activities. He was William H. Godel.
January 29th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Franklin D. Roosevelt was determined to rule over the end of Colonialism. Winston Churchill saw what Roosevelt was trying to do in keeping the French from returning to Vietnam. But somehow a generation later the United States was involved in the cold war, and the thrust of Communism dominated the scene and prevented the Nation from seeing what was happening was the demise of Colonialism. Ho sought help from his OSS handler, but he was unable to obtain the assistance of the United States in ridding his country of foreign domination. It is tragic that so many Vietnamese had to fall prey to Communism torid their country of foreign influence.
billprice2@verizon.net
March 11th, 2010 at 11:10 am
In 1973 I partied with the cia operative that rode a harley, had a ponytail and lived in nkp. I walked by that clock from Ho many times. Dedicated to the peaceful, friendly people of nakom Phanom from Ho chi mihn is what I remember of it. Rocky’s pizza over the Mekong River–ha.
August 30th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
My apologies for not choosing my words properly. Thank you, Cliff Clark.
On a side note, when I first arrived in NKP, I went into the town and for a whole day took candid photos of the people. When I had the photos developed, I showed them to the Thai staff working at the R/TV station. I was hoping for a happy reaction to all the faces I thought were Thai. When I asked them how they liked the photos, one of the women looked up at me and said, “These not Thai, these Viet Cong.” That’s when I was told, truthfully or not, by the Thais that NKP was an R&R town for VC. Just a side note.
September 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am
I found it interesting to read the comments about the clock tower erected by the Viet Namese refugee’s from the French War. It was erected in gratitude for the Thais giving them refuge. The VietNamese people of NKP were very much shunned and segregated by the citizens of NKP and that was probably the source of the notion that they were an R and R center. I spent most of my year at NKP (’67-’68) on the economy and became very familiar with all these wild stories. The Thais love conspiracy theories and the papers were full of stories of the Viets bringing supplies and gurillas across the Mekong. These rumors resulted in the shooting down of an Air America helicopter by a Thai big game hunter (several stories in the Bangkok Times) and the shooting up of a C-130 by a Thai A-28 at Udorn.
October 12th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Does anyone who participated in this conference know details about the history of the Agency’s support station at Camp Chinen Okinawa? I believe it was operational from 1959 to 1972, but I am not certain. Any information about the station–its construction, operations, administration, etc.–would be most welcome.
November 5th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Lec Aluoc,
Never ceases to amuse me how people who were never at Nakhon Phanom always believe they know the events which occurred rather than those who were actually stationed there. The Vietnamese know Ho was at Nakhon Phanom, sent a delegation to verify the facts and have built a very nice museum. General Heinie Aderholt signed the guestbook sitting next to me when we visited in 2000. If you interested in the factual history of the airbase at Nakhon Phanom written by those who were there visit the web site I host:
http://aircommandoman.tripod.com/
Also the stories by children (now adults) taken across the Mekong to see the movies and had candy bought for them by Pathet Lao Communists must be fabrications? I doubt it. Too bad many of those who lived in the community surrounding Nakhon Phanom have not been interviewed and have their perspective and information as part of the history. Perhaps in the future Texas Tech will address this issue.