(God, I love anaphoric puns)
http://www.macvsog.cc/the_misuse_of_...tion_group.htm (an example like another)
MAC/SOG were tasked with the thankless task of conducting ''psychological warfare'' against Hanoi and/or against South Vietnamese civilians and even American reporters. The cornerstore of this effort was ''The Sacred Sword of the Patriots'', a supposed resistance group inside North Vietnam, fighting the communists. A key point to stress immediately is that post 1974, everyone involved claimed it was a notional resistance group, AKA the effort was to persuade the interested of the existence of the group, NOT create one (altough rather criminally, it does not seems the South Vietnamese agents were made aware of this) In substance, the idea was to use crude schemes to suggest to the world (or at least Vietnam) that there was something akin to the Viet-Cong in the North-a fierce untractable guerilla with considerable popular support. (1) This meant propaganda broadcasts of supposed SSOP radio underground, raiding against North Vietnamese targets with supposed SSOP naval forces (you might have overheard about this one, since it involved at one time 4 gunboats buzzing North Vietnam one day before the Gulf of Tonkin incident...) and almost comical plans such as capturing North Vietnamese fisherman to take them to a ''secret base in the highlands'' to convince them of the SSOP omnnipotence (effect somewhat ruined by the SSOP raiders being given orders by Europeans and Norwegian/German skippers on the gunboats...) . Integral to this was the sending of agents to the North. It was supposedly the key point of the entire scheme. But it's also here were things get murky : was the SSOP a diversion (a pretty stupid one) for the insertion of agents ? Or were the agents supposed to reinforce the idea that there a SSOP ?
The fatal flaw, hubris even of this scheme was the assumption that North Vietnamese were A) stupid and B) paranoid to the point of launching witch hunts against supposed deep cover moles (the good old ''let them kill each other''. Not to mention C), the bright idea of trying to instigate a crackdown of the Communists against ethnic minorities. Like they needed the suggestion...). While in fact it was Hanoi who played like a fiddle MAC/SOG : out of 475 (non-American) agents sent between 1962 and 1968 in North Vietnam, around 460 were captured within 24 hours of their insertion.
All the supposed human intelligence from North Vietnam came to be controlled by Hanoi, with radio operatives constantly asking for reinforcement teams that were very warmly greeted upon landing-as to make matters worse MAC/SOG used the same drop zones and procedures from 1962-1968, after inheriting them from the CIA.
As an example of utter criminal incompetence, MAC/SOG provided the equivalent of ''safe words'' to radio operatives. In at least three cases, the radio used a code boiling down to BROADCASTING WITH A PISTOL PROPPED AGAINST MY FOREHEAD and MAC/SOG went ahead judging it was an accident...Should I precise that the information given by those teams was along the lines of ''People completely behind the party and wiling to fight to the death against colonial imperialist bandits and their lackeys-bombings utterly non-effective'' ?
(1) MAC/SOG managed briefly to reach some minimal success at hiding who they were (Hanoi thought that SSOP communiqués were from Soviet or Chinese agents trying to ruin Vietnam relationship with the other, as the SSOP masqueraded as first as communist patriots concerned by Chinese takeover....effect ruined when they realized the messages were coming South of the DMZ...)
http://www.macvsog.cc/the_misuse_of_...tion_group.htm (an example like another)
MAC/SOG were tasked with the thankless task of conducting ''psychological warfare'' against Hanoi and/or against South Vietnamese civilians and even American reporters. The cornerstore of this effort was ''The Sacred Sword of the Patriots'', a supposed resistance group inside North Vietnam, fighting the communists. A key point to stress immediately is that post 1974, everyone involved claimed it was a notional resistance group, AKA the effort was to persuade the interested of the existence of the group, NOT create one (altough rather criminally, it does not seems the South Vietnamese agents were made aware of this) In substance, the idea was to use crude schemes to suggest to the world (or at least Vietnam) that there was something akin to the Viet-Cong in the North-a fierce untractable guerilla with considerable popular support. (1) This meant propaganda broadcasts of supposed SSOP radio underground, raiding against North Vietnamese targets with supposed SSOP naval forces (you might have overheard about this one, since it involved at one time 4 gunboats buzzing North Vietnam one day before the Gulf of Tonkin incident...) and almost comical plans such as capturing North Vietnamese fisherman to take them to a ''secret base in the highlands'' to convince them of the SSOP omnnipotence (effect somewhat ruined by the SSOP raiders being given orders by Europeans and Norwegian/German skippers on the gunboats...) . Integral to this was the sending of agents to the North. It was supposedly the key point of the entire scheme. But it's also here were things get murky : was the SSOP a diversion (a pretty stupid one) for the insertion of agents ? Or were the agents supposed to reinforce the idea that there a SSOP ?
The fatal flaw, hubris even of this scheme was the assumption that North Vietnamese were A) stupid and B) paranoid to the point of launching witch hunts against supposed deep cover moles (the good old ''let them kill each other''. Not to mention C), the bright idea of trying to instigate a crackdown of the Communists against ethnic minorities. Like they needed the suggestion...). While in fact it was Hanoi who played like a fiddle MAC/SOG : out of 475 (non-American) agents sent between 1962 and 1968 in North Vietnam, around 460 were captured within 24 hours of their insertion.
All the supposed human intelligence from North Vietnam came to be controlled by Hanoi, with radio operatives constantly asking for reinforcement teams that were very warmly greeted upon landing-as to make matters worse MAC/SOG used the same drop zones and procedures from 1962-1968, after inheriting them from the CIA.
As an example of utter criminal incompetence, MAC/SOG provided the equivalent of ''safe words'' to radio operatives. In at least three cases, the radio used a code boiling down to BROADCASTING WITH A PISTOL PROPPED AGAINST MY FOREHEAD and MAC/SOG went ahead judging it was an accident...Should I precise that the information given by those teams was along the lines of ''People completely behind the party and wiling to fight to the death against colonial imperialist bandits and their lackeys-bombings utterly non-effective'' ?
(1) MAC/SOG managed briefly to reach some minimal success at hiding who they were (Hanoi thought that SSOP communiqués were from Soviet or Chinese agents trying to ruin Vietnam relationship with the other, as the SSOP masqueraded as first as communist patriots concerned by Chinese takeover....effect ruined when they realized the messages were coming South of the DMZ...)
