Vietnam Declassified: The CIA and Counterinsurgency [Hardcover]

Thomas L Ahern Jr. (Author), Donald P. Gregg (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0813125618 | ISBN-13: 978-0813125619 | Edition: 1

Vietnam Declassified is a detailed account of the CIA's effort to help South Vietnamese authorities win the loyalty of the Vietnamese peasantry and suppress the Viet Cong. Covering the CIA engagement from 1954 to mid-1972, it provides a thorough analysis of the agency and its partners. Retired CIA operative and intelligence consultant Thomas L. Ahern Jr. is the first to comprehensively document the CIA's role in the rural pacification of South Vietnam, drawing from secret archives to which he had unrestricted access. In addition to a chronology of operations, the book explores the assumptions, political values, and cultural outlooks of not only the CIA and other U.S. government agencies, but also of the peasants, Viet Cong, and Saigon government forces competing for their loyalty. The depth of Ahern's research combined with the timely relevance of his analysis to current events in the Middle East makes this title an important addition to military literature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""A major contribution to scholarship because it is the first one to be written entirely from the perspective of the major U.S. agency involved in the program, as well as the only one to be based primarily on inside sources -- almost all of them still secret."--John Prados, author of Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Co" --

""It relates years of intensive efforts by the agency to convince the rural masses of Vietnam that their best interest lay with the Saigon central government, and not with the communist Viet Cong."-- The Washington Times" --

""He also deconstructs many little-known and almost forgotten counterinsurgency projects such as Operation Switchback, the Mountain Scouts, Force Populaire, Combat Youth, and Revolution Youth."--WA Veteran" --

""As a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, counterinsurgency is once more a front-burner issue in national security studies. Ahern's analysis of the CIA's role in 'pacification' operations in Vietnam is based on his own experience there and on agency documents. Comprehensive in coverage and critical in its analysis, the book advances sober conclusions that should be an invaluable corrective to some of the facile arguments now being made about past U.S. successes in counterinsurgency. Should be required reading for practitioners and interested observers." --George C. Herring" --

""This long-awaited volume, finally cleared for open publication and filled with fascinating detail, insider perspective, and controversial judgments, is a must-read for all students of the Vietnam War." --Lewis Sorley" --

""At long last Ahern's authoritative and penetrating study of the CIA and counterinsurgency has been published. His book is indispensable to understanding the Vietnam War." --Richard A. Hunt" --

""Impressive. Ahern's work is timely, as there are more than a few challenges facing us on the ground today from which we could learn a lot if policy-makers and strategists paid more attention to Vietnam 'lessons learned.' Will we head down this same path in Afghanistan, as we almost did in Iraq? By sharing with future generations an inside look at controversial programs like Phoenix and the Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs), Ahern has produced a first-class (warts and all), authentic account of agency programs in Vietnam." --Stuart A. Herrington" --

""[Ahern] provides a unique narrative based on his personal experience in Vietnam and secret archives to which he had unrestricted access.... provides new perspectives on the CIA's role in the American effort to win the hearts and minds in Vietnam." --Vietnam Magazine" --

""Vietnam Declassified is a unique addition to the growing body of contemporary Counterinsurgency (COIN) works available today." --LTC Robert L. Menti, USF-I Special Troops Battalion Commander, Baghdad, Iraq" --

""[Ahern] has produced a significant work of history and historical analysis that will constitute the definitive account for some time to come of the CIA's effort, and ultimate failure, in the counterinsurgency conflict in the countryside of what was for a time South Vietnam." --Journal of Military History" --

About the Author

Thomas L. Ahern Jr. is a former CIA operations officer with service in East Asia, Indochina, Africa, Iran, and Europe. He currently serves as a CIA consultant.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; 1 edition (November 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813125618
• ISBN-13: 978-0813125619
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good research, but what an attitude., December 30, 2009

By 

Gary E. Masters (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vietnam Declassified: The CIA and Counterinsurgency (Hardcover)

People at Central Intelligence are smart. Mistakes are made, but not from being stupid. Most have been from an attitude of "being above it all." But they recognize the human urge to sum up and reflect at the end of a career and give terminal officers time and resources to write history. This book is a good example of what can be done. While the bibliography is limited, the footnotes are wonderful. If I were doing the bibliography I would have included books by John Sullivan (boxing) and Orrin De Forest (Bien Hoa and running by the book.) So you can expect all the benefits of a person having many records to consult and a good sense of what happened from 1954 to 1975. That should be enough to make it important as a scholarly resource. PhD's have been given for less work.

Slow Burn: The Rise and Bitter Fall of American Intelligence in Vietnam

Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner

But there are details to pick on, especially from who served in Vietnam and was always with the Infantry (one year) or out in the Provinces. I came to see the Saigon warriors as those who would visit our province in the morning, but who always left before evening and who would never ever go to the districts with us to see the work. They knew all about intelligence but never bothered to register agents or even to run name checks. Gregg did serve in Bien Hoa and did good work there, but Saigon was 15 minutes away by car. DeForest had spent time with the Japanese security services and did all of the paper work he knew to do and created more to help his work. For an example "General Sinh" is listed as being police chief in Bien Hoa, but is not listed in the index. Neither is Bien Hoa or Colonel Sinh who ran the interrogation center.

The book mentions contractors used as field officers, but never explains why or what the alternatives were. The Station had limits on how many staffers were allowed to serve and contractors were allowed to fil empty positions. But why not train them? And what about the staff officer who spent a year building model airplanes in his office? How effective was he? Or all the staff officers who refused to go to Vietnam? After a while anyone who was sent was seen to be a "loser" in their division.

The whole contract system created a "second class" who received discrimination, were given the worst jobs and expected to stay loyal. But they did. The traitors (like Ames) were all staffers. But the whole system of contractors and staffers was a mistake. You don't set up someone to fail, if you know better.

The claim that the Delta had the best operations should be read again in the light of Sullivan's book. Most of the super ops were fabrications. In my opinion, the best resource was contacted in Tay Ninh.

By the by, maps on stock paper never look all that good and the shades are just about impossible to tell from each other.

Read this book. It is a valuable part of the record. Use it and consider the conclusions. But do not take them for granted. It could have turned out better.

Read the other side:

Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam

A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam