Book description
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.
""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" --
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.
