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. 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.
