VIEWS OF POLICE OFFICIAL DUONG VAN HIEU

Created: 9/17/1963

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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SUBJECT: Views of Police Official Duong Van Hieu

1. Police strongman Duong Van Hleu, whose secretPolice Branch and Special Action Section)Colonel Tung forces forarrests Buddhists andweeks, toldstatement not

true his office provided "hard evidence" which recent Times of Vietnam article claims available to GVN concerning CAS coup plotting. Hieu statement was tongue in cheek type with emphasis on term hard evidence.

2. In further conversation re Times of Vietnam allegations it

evident Hieu. press personnel in Vietnam are CAS

officers and that CAS has many covert operatives (not known to GVN)

in State, USOM, USIS and among American businessmen in Vietnam. It

also evident Hieu believes CAS, directing above elements and similar

elements other countries, ls responsible for local and international

groundswell anti-GVN sentiment. When asked specifically whether he

believed all this, however, Hleu shrugged shoulders and said he only

discussing prevalent rumors which perhaps now supported to some

extent by articles appearing in American press. Asked specifically

which American press articles meant, Hieu made vagueMirror and

Hieucomment on Times articles,alleged ruigur inai LB^spentillion dollars on coup plot. ] replied that coup plot rumor, like rest of 'Times" Series of attacks against CAS, premeditated combination of lies and fabrication which reflect both the intention and integrity of the person who wroteasked whether Hleu, being an intelligent man, felt It logical that Americans would spend hundreds of millions building up the GVN from nothing, then plot to tear it down again. Hleu said it does not seem logical.

Hieu again made reference torumors" and said with apparent bitterness that GVN has serious problem with Vietnamese intellectuals and educated professional class. Hieu contrastedDoctor Dooley, whom he really admired, with unnamed Vietnamese doctors who go abroad for furthor education and research then elect to stay there and dabble in political intrigues from afar. Hieu added that those doctors who do return to Vietnam refuse to work ln the provinces where they are desperately needed, and seek instead

toolitical position within the GVH. When this is denied them, Hieu added, they become part of the politically dissatisfied, and seek foreign sympathy here or ln places like Paris and Washington. Hleu stated further that the Vietnamese intellectual, once educated, Isolates himself from the Vietnamese people and serves no useful function, electing instead to involve himslef^ical intrigues

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in Saigon, Paris and Washington. Hieu did not bring his point into further focus, apparently satisfied to leave iteneralof such individuals as sources of political information or materiel for political action.

Later in the conversation Hieu returned to the above subject, this time to inject the idea that dissatisfied political elements are sometimes communist controlled. Hieu said ho had brokeniet Cong operation through the arrestniversity professor who, during the. "recent difficulty" had used his position to agitate against the GVN. Hieu found, he said, that the professor had been recruited by the Viet Cong several years agois instructions had been to avoid political activity, push theof democratic principles and processes,tudent following and wait for further instructions. When the "recentstarted, Hieu said, the professor was recontacted by the Viet Cong and given instructions to agitate against the GVN, which ho allegedly did, and was arrested. Hieu said sleepers such as this are emerging during this crisis.

Hieu's attitude throughout the conversation was one of solid support to the regime and its current course of action. He seems convinced that CAS is up to no good in Vietnam and isfor the current diplomatic friction between. Government and the GVN.

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