Vietnam Declassified: The CIA and Counterinsurgency

By: Thomas L. Ahern Jr.

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Synopsis: This insider&’s account of CIA operations in the Vietnam War is &“a major contribution to scholarship&” on US counterinsurgency programs (John Prados, author of Lost Crusader). 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 US government agencies, but also of the peasants, Viet Cong, and Saigon government forces competing for their loyalty. &“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, author of Westmoreland