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.S.Actions Regarding Indochina" which stated that "The employment ofatomic weapons is contemplated in the event that such course appears militarilyadvantageous."17 (General Charles Willoughby, MacArthur's director of intelligence,put it a bit more poetically when he advocated the use of atomic bombs "to create a beltof scorched earth across the avenues of communism to block the Asiatic hordes".)18By this time, two American aircraft carriers equipped with atomic weapons hadbeen ordered into the Gulf of Tonkin, in the North of Vietnam,19 and Dulles is, in fact,reported to have offered his French counterpart, Georges Bidault, atomic bombs to saveDien Bien Phu.Bidault was obliged to point out to Dulles that the use of atomic bombsin a war of such close armed conflict would destroy the French troops as well as theVietminh.20Dulles regularly denounced China, in the ultra-sanctimonious manner he wasknown for, for assisting the Vietminh, as if the Chinese had no cause or right to bealarmed about an anti-communist military crusade taking place scant miles from theirborder.As the Geneva conference approached, a CIA propaganda team in Singaporebegan to disseminate fabricated news items to advance the idea that "the Chinese weregiving full armed support to the Viet-Minh" and to "identify" the Viet-Minh "with theworld Communist movement".The CIA believed that such stories would strengthen thenon-Communist side at the Geneva talks.21Joseph Burkholder Smith was a CIA officer in Singapore.His "press asset" wasone Li Huan Li, an experienced local journalist.It is instructive to note the methodemployed in the creation and dissemination of one such news report about the Chinese.After Smith and Li had made up their story, Li attended the regular press conferenceheld by the British High Commissioner in Singapore, Malcolm MacDonald.At theconference, Li mentioned the report and asked the Commissioner if he had anycomment.As expected, MacDonald had nothing to say about it one way or the other.The result was the following news item:MORE CHINESE SUPPLIES AND TROOPS SPOTTED EN ROUTE TOHAIPHONG.At the press conference of the British High Commissioner for SoutheastAsia today, reports of the sightings of Chinese naval vessels and supply ships in theTonkin Gulf en route from Hainan to Haiphong were again mentioned.According to these reports, the most recent of many similar sightings occurred oneweek ago when a convoy of ten ships was spotted.Among them were two armedChinese naval vessels indicating that the convoy consisted of troops as well as arms andsupplies.High Commissioner Malcolm MacDonald would not elaborate further about thesereports.22124The story was put onto a wire service in the morning, and by the evening hadgone around the world, coming back to Singapore on the European relay to Asia.The Geneva conference, on 20 July 1954, put a formal end to the war inVietnam.The United States was alone in refusing to sign the Final Declaration, purelybecause it was peeved at the negotiated settlement, which precluded any further militaryeffort to defeat the Vietminh.There had been ample indication of American displeasurewith the whole process well before the end of the conference.Two weeks earlier, forexample, President Eisenhower had declared at a news conference: "I will not be a partyto any treaty that makes anybody a slave; now that is all there is to it."23 But the US didissue a "unilateral declaration" in which it agreed to "refrain from the threat or the use offorce to disturb" the accords.24The letter and the spirit of the ceasefire agreement and the Final Declarationlooked forward to a Vietnam free from any military presence other than Vietnamese orFrench, and free from any aggressive operations.However, while the conference wasstill in session in June, the United States began assembling a paramilitary team insideVietnam.By August, only days after the close of the conference, the team was in place.Under the direction of CIA leading-light Edward Lansdale, fresh from his success in thePhilippines, a campaign of military and psychological warfare was carried out againstthe Vietminh.(Lansdale's activities in Vietnam were later enshrined in two semi-fictional works, The Ugly American and The Quiet American.) Over the next sixmonths, Lansdale's clandestine team executed such operations as the following:" Encouraged the migration of Vietnamese from the North to the South through "an extremelyintensive, well-coordinated, and, in terms of its objective, very successful.psychological war-fare operation.Propaganda slogans and leaflets appealed to the devout Catholics with suchthemes as 'Christ has gone to the South' and the 'Virgin Mary has departed from the North'."25" Distributed other bogus leaflets, supposedly put out by the Vietminh, to instill trepidation inthe minds of people in the North about how life would be under Communist rule.The followingday, refugee registration to move South tripled.(The exodus of Vietnamese to the South duringthe "regrouping" period that followed the Geneva Accords was often cited by American officialsin the 1960s, as well as earlier, as proof of the fact that the people did not want to live undercommunism "They voted with their feet" was the catchphrase) Still other "Vietminh" leafletswere aimed at discouraging people in the South from returning to the North." Infiltrated paramilitary forces into the North under the guise of individuals choosing to livethere." Contaminated the oil supply of the bus company in Hanoi so as to lead to a gradual wreckageof the bus engines." Took "the first actions for delayed sabotage of the railroad (which required teamwork with aCIA special technical team in Japan who performed their part brilliantly)."" Instigated a rumor campaign to stir up hatted of the Chinese, with the usual stories of rapes." Created and distributed an almanac of astrological predictions carefully designed to play onVietnamese fears and superstitions and undermine life in the North while making the future ofthe South appear more attractive." Published and circulated anti-Communist articles and "news" reports in newspapers andleaflets." Attempted, unsuccessfully, to destroy the largest printing establishment in the North becauseit intended to remain in Hanoi and do business with the Vietminh." Laid some of the foundation for the future American war in Vietnam by: sending selectedVietnamese to US Pacific bases for guerrilla training; training the armed forces of the South whohad fought with the French; creating various military support facilities in the Philippines; smug-gling into Vietnam large quantities of arms and military equipment to be stored in hidden loca-tions; developing plans for the "pacification of Vietminh and dissident areas".26At the same time, the United States began an economic boycott against theNorth Vietnamese and threatened to blacklist French firms which were doing businesswith them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]