by Max Boot
53 EGL to HL, May 14, 1953, PCLPP.
54 EGL to HL, April 29, 1953, PCLPP.
55 EGL, Midst, 108.
56 Ibid., 116.
57 EGL to HL, May 14, 1953, PCLPP.
58 EGL to HL, April 29, 1953, PCLPP.
59 EGL to HL, May 14, 1953, PCLPP.
CHAPTER 10: “A Real Vindication”
1 Quezon, Good, 149; Philippine Free Press, Aug. 19, 1942.
2 Romulo, Magsaysay, 226.
3 Abuevo, Magsaysay, 253–54.
4 Cullather, Illusion, 110.
5 Romulo, Magsaysay, 219.
6 Abueva, Magsaysay, 259.
7 Romulo, Magsaysay, 225.
8 EGL to Myron Cowen, June 11, 1953, HSTPL/MMC.
9 Smith, Portrait, 263.
10 EGL to Allen Dulles, Nov. 23, 1953, HI/EGL, box 34, file 764.
11 NWC/EGL.
12 EGL to Allen Dulles, Nov. 23, 1953, HI/EGL, box 34, file 764.
13 EGL to Stephen Shalom, May 20, 1975, CCP.
14 EGL to Jose Abueva, Nov. 5, 1962, HI/EGL, box 36, file 817.
15 EGL to Roswell Gilpatric, July 27, 1961, NSA/EGL.
16 NWC/EGL.
17 EGL to Stephen Shalom, May 20, 1975, CCP.
18 EGL to Myron Cowen, June 11, 1953, HSTPL/MMC. $250,000: Time, Nov. 23, 1953.
19 EGL, Midst, 115.
20 NWC/EGL.
21 EGL, Midst, 119–20 (“skulduggery”); EGL to Dulles, Nov. 23, 1953, HI/EGL, box 34, file 764 (“emulation”).
22 EGL to Allen Dulles, Nov. 23, 1953, HI/EGL, box 34, file 764.
23 Election Day: EGL to HL, Nov. 12, 1953, PCLPP (all quotations unless specified); EGL to HL, Nov. 23, 1953, PCLPP (“constructively”).
24 Smith, Portrait, 103.
25 EGL, “The Good Fights,” HI/EGL, box 77, file 272; EGL, Midst, 123.
26 NARA/CREST CIA-RDP79-00498A0005000300008-5; HI/EGL, box 71.
27 EGL interview, Nov. 30, 1984, CCP.
28 EGL to HL, Nov. 23, 1953, PCLPP.
29 EGL to HL, Dec. 5, 1953, PCLPP.
30 Ibid.
31 https://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;ws=33313.
32 Time, Jan. 11, 1954.
33 http://www.gov.ph/1953/12/30/inaugural-address-of-president-magsaysay-december-30-1953/.
34 Taruc, Tiger, 121.
35 EGL to Magsaysay, May 24, 1954, HI/EGL, box 97, file 6.
36 Romulo, Magsaysay, 277.
37 Karnow, Image, 354; Time, May 31, 1954.
38 EGL interview, Sept. 17, 1986, MLEPP.
CHAPTER 11: La Guerre sans Fronts
1 Greene, Ways, 161.
2 EGL was to write in Midst, 110, that he spent “about six weeks” in Indochina, but the O’Daniel mission, which included EGL, left Saigon on July 10, meaning the trip lasted three weeks (“Note of Captain Feral,” CHA, box 10H 155, file O’Daniel Mission).
3 Fall, Street, 252.
4 Greene, Ways, 161.
5 1953 trip: All quotations, unless otherwise noted, from EGL to HL, June 24, July 4, 1953, PCLPP; EGL to “Folks,” July 16, 1953, PCLPP; EGL to PK, June 21, July 3, 1953, PYPP.
6 Sainteny, Memoir, 20.
7 Duiker, Ho, 15.
8 Ibid., 64; Logevall, Embers, 14.
9 “Stalinist”: Duiker, Ho, 95. “Goodness”: 94.
10 Sainteny, Memoir, 51–52.
11 Duiker, Ho, 167.
12 Sainteny, Memoir, 48.
13 Duiker, Ho, 251.
14 Ibid., 289.
15 Logevall, Embers, 83.
16 Ibid., 97.
17 Fall, Street, 32–33; Logevall, Embers, 238–52.
18 Bodard, Quicksand, 137.
19 FRUS 1952–1953, Indochina, 13.643.
20 Morgan, Valley, 168.
21 WP, March 30, 1975 (“jut jawed,” “hit,” “slum”); Atkinson, Day, 430 (“inch”); Atkinson, Guns, 209 (“axe”).
22 EGL, “The Good Fights,” HI/EGL, box 77, file 272.
23 EGL to HL, June 24, 1953, PCLPP.
24 EGL to “folks,” July 16, 1953, PCLPP.
25 Ibid.
26 Commander, Jacquelot Battalion, July 5, 1953, CHA, box 10H 155, file O’Daniel Mission.
27 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.683–89.
28 Ibid.
29 LBJPL/EGLOH.
30 EGL, Midst, 111.
31 “Psychological Warfare,” n.d., HI/EGL, box 35.
32 EGL to O’Daniel, “Unconventional Warfare,” June 23, 1953, HI/EGL, box 35; EGL to O’Daniel, “Guerrilla Warfare,” June 25, 1953, HI/EGL, box 35; “Guerrilla Warfare,” n.d., NSA/EGL.
33 Fall, Street, 267–79.
34 EGL to “Folks,” July 16, 1953, PCLPP.
35 EGL to PK, July 3, 1953, PYPP.
36 “Report of U.S. Special Mission to Indochina,” Feb. 5, 1954, NARA, RG 330, EGL office files, box 3, Indo-China file.
37 Windrow, Last, 233.
CHAPTER 12: A Fortress Falls
1 Windrow, Last, 238.
2 Morgan, Valley, 232.
3 Fall, Hell, 127.
4 Morgan, Valley, 228.
5 EGL to PK, Jan. 20, 1954, PYPP.
6 EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
7 AI/ELCL.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 AI/PLCL.
11 RP, email to author, Jan. 12, 2017.
12 Pete Lansdale interview, Nov. 11, 1985, CCP.
13 AI/PLCL.
14 AI/ELCL.
15 Ted Lansdale, email to author, Nov. 17, 2014.
16 EGL to HL, Jan. 11, 1954, PCLPP.
17 Smith, Eisenhower, xi.
18 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.949.
19 Ibid., 1016.
20 Ibid., 1006.
21 Nashel, Lansdale’s, 1; Currey, Unquiet, 136.
22 HI/EGLOH/CRS.
23 EGL interview, May 16, 1984, CCP.
24 HI/EGLOH/CRS.
25 EGL to CIA Director, March 21, 1954, HI/EGL, box 97, file 6.
26 HI/EGLOH/CRS.
27 Lansdale, Midst, 127–28.
28 EGL to HL, May 3, 1954, PCLPP.
29 EGL to HL, May 29, 1954, PCLPP.
30 EGL to HL, May 31, 1954, PCLPP.
31 EGL to HL, May 3, 1954, PCLPP.
32 Manila Bulletin, April 22, 1954.
33 EGL to HL, April 24, 1954, PCLPP.
34 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.1271.
35 Logevall, Embers, 454–509.
36 Fall, Hell, 344.
37 Windrow, Valley, 592.
38 Ibid., 591.
39 Ibid., 616.
40 EGL to HL, May 29, 1954, PCLPP.
41 EGL, Midst, 128; EGL to Allen Dulles, Nov. 15, 1961, HI/EGL, box 37.
42 EGL to HL, May 31, PCLPP; EGL, Midst, 128–29.
CHAPTER 13: “I Am Ngo Dinh Diem”
1 EGL, Midst, 131.
2 Ibid., 134.
3 EGL to HL, June 1, 1954, PCLPP.
4 LBJPL/EGLOH. In this interview, EGL did not identify the Air Force attaché. His identity comes from U.S. State Department, Foreign Service List.
5 Emmett J. McCarthy, OSS personnel file, NARA, RG 226, box 498.
6 EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
7 EGL to PK, June 2, 1954, PYPP; EGL to HL, June 1, 1954, PCLPP.
8 EGL to HL, Nov. 1954 (n.d.), PCLPP.
9 Cyclo, “loved”: EGL, Midst, 135–36. “Vacuum”: EGL to PK, July 14, 1954, PYPP.
10 EGL to PK, July 14, 1954, PYPP.
11 EGL, draft memoir, HI/EGL, box 76, file 263.
12 EGL, Midst, 150.
13 Ibid.
14 EGL to PK, June 2, 1954, PYPP.
15 Ibid.
16 EGL to HL, June 4, 1954, PCLPP.
17 EGL to PK, June 5, 1954, PYPP.
18 EGL to HL, July 5, 1954, PCLPP.
19 EGL to HL, June 4, 1943, PCLPP.
20 EGL to PK, June 2, 1954, PYPP.
21 EGL to PK, June 18, 1954, PYPP.
22 EGL to HL, June 13, 1954, PCLPP.
23 E
GL to HL, June 4, 1954, PCLPP.
24 EGL interview, Dec. 17, 1984, CCP.
25 EGL, Midst, 142.
26 EGL to PK, June 5, 1954, PYPP.
27 EGL to family, Feb. 26, 1956, PCLPP.
28 Chapman, Cauldron, 15; author’s visit to Cao Dai Holy See, 2016.
29 Chapman, Cauldron, 26; Miller, Misalliance, 92.
30 EGL to HL, June 20, 1954, PCLPP.
31 Greene, Ways, 162.
32 EGL, Midst, 147.
33 EGL to HL, June 20, 1954, PCLPP.
34 EGL, Midst, 147; FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.1722.
35 EGL to HL, June 27, 1954, PCLPP.
36 Ibid.
37 RP, Vietnam, 21.
38 Chapman, Cauldron, 33.
39 Simpson, Tiger, 14.
40 EGL, Midst, 148–49.
41 Ibid., 149.
42 EGL to HL, July 5, 1954, PCLPP.
43 NSA/EGL/SMM, 3.
44 EGL, Midst, 137–39.
45 CIA, “Weekly Indochina Report,” June 2, 1954, NARA/CREST, CIA-RDP91T01172R000300190004-6.
46 EGL, Midst, 154–55.
47 Miller, Misalliance, 24.
48 Jacobs, Mandarin, 19.
49 Shaplen, Lost, 107.
50 Hammer, Death, 50.
51 Ibid., 51.
52 Shaplen, Lost, 110.
53 Jacobs, Mandarin, 31.
54 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.553–55.
55 Logevall, Embers, 590.
56 EGL to HL, Aug. 4, 1954, PYPP.
57 EGL, Midst, 156–57.
58 Miller, Misalliance, 4.
59 Ahern, Declassified, 10; “Courses of Action Which the United States Should Adopt to Ensure Survival of Free Vietnam,” NARA, RG 84, box 1, file 22.
60 EGL, Midst, 158–59.
61 NSA/EGL/SMM, 5.
62 EGL, Midst, 159.
63 WGBH, pt. 1.
64 Mecklin, Mission, 40.
65 WGBH, pt. 2.
66 EGL to Roswell Gilpatric, April 25, 1961. NARA, RG 330, EGL office files, box 5.
67 Mecklin, Mission, 42.
68 USAFA/EGLOH.
69 VCA/OWOH.
70 EGL interview, Dec. 19, 1985, CCP.
71 EGL, “Thoughts concerning Diem,” n.d., HI/EGL, box 80, file 298.
72 WGBH, pt. 2.
73 USAFA/EGLOH.
74 EGL, Midst, 362.
75 EGL interview, Dec. 19, 1984, CCP.
76 EGL, Midst, 160.
CHAPTER 14: The Chopstick Torture
1 AI/TN.
2 NSA/EGL/SMM, 8.
3 “Courses of Action Which the U.S. Should Adopt to Ensure Survival of Free Vietnam,” NARA, RG 84, box 1, file 22. Internal evidence indicates this was written by EGL in late July 1954.
4 EGL, Midst, 165.
5 EGL to HL, July 5, 1954, PCLPP.
6 NSA/EGL/SMM, 2.
7 NYT, Jan. 3, 1999.
8 RP, Vietnam, 19.
9 AI/VH.
10 Kansas City Star, Sept. 20, 1998.
11 Conein’s CIA personnel file, NSA.
12 Grant, Phoenix, 48.
13 Conein’s CIA personnel file, NSA.
14 Conein interview with Lydia Fish, July 30, 1989, CCP.
15 NYT, Jan. 3, 1999.
16 Grant, Phoenix, 104–5.
17 RP, Vietnam, 19.
18 EGL to Bohannan, Jan. 23, 1957, CCP.
19 NSA/EGL/SMM, 2.
20 EGL, Midst, 161.
21 RP, Vietnam, 11–12.
22 Ibid., 13.
23 Ibid., 14.
24 Grant, Phoenix, 104.
25 EGL, draft memoir, HI/EGL, box 78, file 281.
26 RP, Vietnam, 17.
27 Ibid., 16.
28 NYT, July 25, 1962.
29 EGL to HL, Aug. 2, 1955, PCLPP.
30 Richard W. Smith to Cecil Currey, May 15, 2000, CCP.
31 EGL interview, Dec. 17, 1984, CCP.
32 EGL to PK, Sept. 12, 1954, PYPP.
33 Simpson, Tiger, 121.
34 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.1922.
35 EGL to Smith Simpson, Jan. 19, 1973, HI/EGL, box 28, file 639b; EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
36 EGL, draft memoir, HI/EGL box 76, file 263.
37 HI/EGLOH/CRS.
38 Simpson, Tiger, 128–30.
39 Jacobs, Mandarin, 45.
40 Dooley, Deliver, 119.
41 NYT, Jan. 19, 1961.
42 Fisher, Dr. America, 80.
43 Los Angeles Times, Dec. 15, 1991.
44 Simpson, Tiger, 127.
45 NSA/EGL/SMM, 11.
46 Ibid., 12.
47 EGL, “Military Psychological Operations,” Armed Forces Staff College, Jan. 7, 1960, CCP.
48 NSA/EGL/SMM, 23.
49 RP, Vietnam, 39–40.
50 NSA/EGL/SMM, 12.
51 EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
52 EGL, Midst, 138–40; EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
53 Grant, Phoenix, 109.
54 Fall, Two, 153.
55 Smith, Portrait, 179.
56 EGL to Smith Simpson, Jan. 19, 1973, HI/EGL, box 28, file 639b.
57 NSA/EGL/SMM, 48.
58 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.2074.
59 Fall, Two, 153.
60 AI/RWS.
61 NSA/EGL/SMM, 11.
62 RP, Vietnam, 14.
63 Nick Arundel interview, April 2, 2001, CCP.
64 FitzGerald, Fire, 76–77.
65 Halberstam, Best, 126.
66 Grant, Phoenix, 108.
67 NSA/EGL/SMM, 12.
68 Ibid.
69 Conboy, Spies, 7–10; Tourison, Secret, 9.
70 NSA/EGL/SMM, 32.
71 EGL, Midst, 168.
72 AI/RWS.
73 Conboy, Spies, 13–15.
74 AI/DG.
75 Berman, Perfect, loc. 948.
76 Ibid., loc. 961.
77 Bass, Spy, 87, 95, 97.
CHAPTER 15: Pacification
1 Porter, War, 12.
2 NSA/EGL/SMM, 9. In his memoir, written two decades later (EGL, Midst, 172), Lansdale said the lighter came from Nasser, who by then was more famous than Naguib.
3 NSA/EGL/SMM, 13–14.
4 RP, Vietnam, 30–31; EGL, Midst, 173; NSA/EGL/SMM, 8–9.
5 RP, Vietnam, 31.
6 EGL interview, May 17, 1984, CCP.
7 NSA/EGL/SMM, 13–14.
8 EGL, Midst, 175.
9 Ibid.
10 EGL to HL, Oct. 25, 1954, PCLPP.
11 EGL, Midst, 175.
12 PP, Part IV.A.3, p. 13.
13 Ahern, Ngo, 49.
14 FRUS 1952–1954, Indochina, 13.2157.
15 Simpson, Tiger, 135.
16 EGL interview, Dec. 17, 1984, CCP.
17 Ahern, Ngo, 47.
18 WP, Sept. 13, 1987.
19 Jeffers, Command, 3.
20 Simpson, Tiger, 136.
21 EGL, Midst, 203.
22 Collins to State, Nov. 25, 1954, DDEPP/JLCP, box 25.
23 EGL, Midst, 204; Grant, Phoenix, 121; RP, Vietnam, 32; LBJPL/EGLOH, pt. II. I have not been able to locate a contemporaneous record, and Collins later said he could not recall the incident (see WGBH/JLC). But “it was common knowledge among Lansdale’s team at the time” (RP, Vietnam, 322). See also Joe Baker interview, June 23, 1985, CCP.
24 Grant, Phoenix, 122.
25 LBJPL/EGLOH, pt. II.
26 EGL, Midst, 205–7.
27 Ibid., 207.
28 EGL to PK, Aug. 4, 1954, PYPP.
29 EGL to PK, Aug. 10, 1954, PYPP.
30 RP, email to author, Dec. 17, 2014.
31 EGL to PK, Sept. 3, 1954, PYPP.
32 PK to EGL, Sept. 21, 1954, PYPP.
33 Richard Smith to Cecil Currey, May 15, 2000, CCP.
34 EGL to family, Oct. 31, 1956, PCLPP.
35 LBJPL/KBOH.
36 EGL to HL, Dec. 27, 1954, PCLPP.
37 Ibid.
38 EGL to PK, n.d., PYPP.
39 AI/VH.
40 Grant, Phoenix, 122.
41 EGL, Midst, 169.
42 NSA/EGL/SMM, 14, 46; Ahern, Ngo, 52; Ahern, Declassified, 19.
43 EGL to Rockefellers, April 12, 1957, RAC, Series O, RG 2, box 22, folder 220.
44 AI/FSJ.
45 EGL, Midst, 214.
46 EGL to J. Lawton Collins, Dec. 29, 1954, DDEPL/JLCP, box 28 (Lansdale).
47 Mojica and Maik to PK, March 3, 1987, CCP.
48 NSA/EGL/SMM, 51.
49 EGL to PK, n.d., PYPP.
50 EGL to PK, Jan. 12, 1955, PYPP; EGL to James Douglas, Feb. 12, 1963, HI/EGL, box 37.
51 EGL to HL, Dec. 27, 1954, PCLPP.
52 EGL to HL, April 5, 1956, PCLPP.
53 EGL to family, Feb. 6, 1955, PCLPP.
54 Fishel to EGL, April 15, 1955, HI/EGL, box 35, Vietnam 1954–66 file.
55 EGL to HL, Sept. 5, 1955, PCLPP.
56 EGL, Midst, 229–31.
57 NSA/EGL/SMM, 17.
58 FRUS 1955–1957, Indochina, 1.8.
59 EGL to HL, Feb. 6, 1955, PCLPP.
60 EGL to Robert Shaplen, May 30, 1965, HI/EGL, box 40.
61 Spector, Advice, 240.
62 EGL to PK, Jan. 12, 1955, PYPP.
63 EGL to HL, Jan. 11, 1955, PCLPP.
64 EGL to PK, Jan. 29, 1955, PYPP.
65 EGL to HL, Feb. 10, 1954, PCLPP.
66 EGL to PK, Jan. 29, 1955, PYPP.
67 EGL, Midst, 218.
68 Ibid.
69 “Bulletin,” Deuxieme Bureau, May 14, 1955, CHA, group 10, box 4198.
70 Joe Baker to Cecil Currey, Feb. 18, 1988, CCP.
71 Joe Redick interview, Dec. 18, 1984, CCP.
72 EGL to HL, Oct. 25, 1954, PCLPP.
73 EGL, Midst, 235.
74 RP, email to author, Jan. 12, 2017.
75 RP, Vietnam, 45; NSA/EGL/SMM, 24.
76 EGL, Midst, 234.
77 Ibid., 232–33.
78 RP, Vietnam, 42.
79 NSA/EGL/SMM, 24.
80 EGL, Midst, 237–38.
81 EGL to Lionel McCarr, Oct. 2, 1961, NARA, RG 330, EGL office files, box 5, Vietnam #3 file.
82 NSA/EGL/SMM, 7.
83 RP, Vietnam, 53–55, 5861, 67–70.
84 NSA/EGL/SMM, 47.
85 Ahern, Declassified, 18.
86 FRUS 1955–1957, Vietnam, 1.65; Grant, Phoenix, 127.
87 EGL interview, Nov. 29, 1984, CCP.
88 RP, Vietnam, 71.
CHAPTER 16: The Viper’s Nest
1 Sherry, Greene, 2.434.
2 Ahern, Ngo, 67.
3 EGL, Midst, 184.
4 EGL to HL, Feb. 13, 1955, HI/EGL, box 83, file 1.
5 EGL, Midst, 189–90; EGL, draft memoir, HI/EGL, box 78, file 281.
6 Ahern, Ngo, 41–42.
7 EGL, Midst, 190–94.
8 Ibid., 196–99.
9 Ibid., 199–201.
10 EGL to HL, Feb. 13, 1955, HI/EGL, box 83, file 1.
11 LBJPL/EGLOH, pt. II.
12 EGL to Karl H. Cerny, 1965, HI/EGL, box 37.
13 EGL to Lt. William P. Dickey, April 14, 1965, HI/EGL, box 37.
