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78-571: SSPL may refer to: Sacred Sword of the Patriots League Saratoga Springs Public Library, Saratoga Springs, New York Science & Society Picture Library of the Science Museum, London Server Side Public License , a software license Solid State Physics Laboratory Space Shuttle Payload Launcher , a DRAGONSat satellite Swiss Science Prize Latsis ,

156-502: A guerrillera ( [geriˈʎeɾa] ) if female. Arthur Wellesley adopted the term "guerrilla" into English from Spanish usage in 1809, to refer to the individual fighters (e.g., "I have recommended to set the Guerrillas to work"), and also (as in Spanish) to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes a specific style of warfare. The use of

234-584: A PSYWAR assessment throughout the history of the Vietnam War. Throughout the SSPL's history, SOG commanders proposed a number of ways of expanding the notional resistance force, many of which were turned down by policymakers. Advocates for expanding the program could point to the increasing paranoia coming out of Hanoi, North Vietnam's counterintelligence state mentality, and the creation of nineteen new capital offenses for crimes relating to SSPL operations. However, if

312-451: A basic science award Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title SSPL . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SSPL&oldid=1209086605 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

390-619: A real station's frequency"), and "hitchhiking," ("com[ing] up on the same frequency as a real station was signing off and using its call sign"). True to the SSPL nationalist message, the station took a non-ideological approach that emphasized traditional Vietnamese values. After developing psychological profiles of the North Vietnamese, programming was targeted towards "various audiences such as fishermen, Catholics , farmers, and junior cadre. [It] called for carefully planned and executed actions, most of which were passive, like spreading news of

468-511: A target and then disappeared into civilian crowds frustrated the British enemy. The best example of this occurred on Bloody Sunday (21 November 1920), when Collins's assassination unit, known as "The Squad" , wiped out a group of British intelligence agents ("the Cairo Gang ") early in the morning (14 were killed, six were wounded) – some regular officers were also killed in the purge. That afternoon,

546-444: Is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military , such as rebels, partisans , paramilitary personnel or armed civilians including recruited children , use ambushes , sabotage , terrorism , raids , petty warfare or hit-and-run tactics in a rebellion , in a violent conflict , in a war or in a civil war to fight against regular military , police or rival insurgent forces. Although

624-576: Is also a type of irregular warfare : that is, it aims not simply to defeat an invading enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrilla strategy aims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more cumbersome one. If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy by attrition , eventually forcing them to withdraw. Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete

702-527: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Sacred Sword of the Patriots League The SSPL was "planned and implemented beginning in April 1963," though it continued to develop through 1968. It formed the centerpiece of various PSYOP directed against North Vietnam, which were codenamed Humidor. It attempted to convince the people—and sometimes

780-454: Is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection . Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements. Guerrilla warfare is a type of asymmetric warfare : competition between opponents of unequal strength. It

858-865: Is that the SSPL's existence was "notional, whereas the Viet Cong was real. As the mandate for PSYOP against North Vietnam expanded, U.S. officials decided that the large force required would be better left to the Pentagon instead of the CIA. The transfer, which took place in November 1963, was termed Operation Switchback. Herb Weisshert was transferred to the newly formed MACV-SOG, with operation described in OPLAN 34Alpha to start on 1 February 1964. According to Gordon L. Rottman, who served in MACV-SOG, U.S. Special Forces had five primary duties in

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936-590: Is today called the Fabian strategy , and in China Peng Yue is also often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies. Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited skirmishes with

1014-581: The Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921 are the most famous examples of Barry's flying columns causing large casualties to enemy forces. The Algerian Revolution of 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout

1092-814: The Maratha Kingdom , pioneered the Shiva sutra or Ganimi Kava (Guerrilla Tactics) to defeat the many times larger and more powerful armies of the Mughal Empire . Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja) (1753–1805) used guerrilla techniques chiefly centred in mountain forests in the Cotiote War against the British East India Company in India between 1793 and 1806. Arthur Wellesley (in India 1797–1805) had commanded forces assigned to defeat Pazhassi's techniques but failed. It

1170-515: The Paris Peace Accords of 1973. The SSPL drew from a short history of elaborate deceptions in U.S. military history. Historian John Plaster asserts that the MACV-SOG branch which ran the SSPL was "patterned after the old OSS Morale Operations Division ," formed by William Donavan in 1943. The comparison is apt, as both largely relied on deceptive radio operations, fraudulent letters, and distribution of leaflets. The SSPL also benefited from

1248-777: The Rif War in 1920. For the first time in history, tunnel warfare was used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco. In the early 20th century Michael Collins and Tom Barry both developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare during the guerrilla phase of the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence . Collins developed mainly urban guerrilla warfare tactics in Dublin City (the Irish capital). Operations in which small Irish Republican Army (IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked

1326-869: The Royal Irish Constabulary force consisting of both regular RIC personnel and the Auxiliary Division took revenge, shooting into a crowd at a football match in Croke Park , killing fourteen civilians and injuring 60 others. In West County Cork , Tom Barry was the commander of the IRA West Cork brigade . Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their fellows in urban areas. These units, called " flying columns ", engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10 – 30 minutes. The Kilmichael Ambush in November 1920 and

1404-763: The Saigon Daily News or the VSSPL. Similar to the Chiêu Hồi program, their defection would be exploited in order break down the morale of North Vietnam's soldiers. It is questionable whether the fishermen were taken by the Paradise Island rouse, or merely played along. At least one captive fisherman claimed to have known he was not in North Vietnam upon feeling the sand on the beach of the island. And records of some fishermen being kidnapped three separate times may indicate that

1482-425: The diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state. Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes: Primitive (and guerrilla) warfare consists of war stripped to its essentials: the murder of enemies; the theft or destruction of their sustenance, wealth, and essential resources; and

1560-532: The 19th century: ...our troops should...fight while protected by the terrain...using small, mobile guerrilla units to exhaust the enemy...denying them rest so that they only control the terrain under their feet. More recently, Mao Zedong's On Guerrilla Warfare , Che Guevara 's Guerrilla Warfare , and Lenin's Guerrilla warfare , were all written after the successful revolutions carried out by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized

1638-682: The Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary and civilians during the Bangladesh Liberation War that transformed East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971. An earlier name Mukti Fauj was also used. The growth of guerrilla warfare was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by Matías Ramón Mella written in

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1716-412: The CIA's "longest running notional campaign." The American founders of the SSPL chose to root it in popular Vietnamese history. The name hearkened back to the 15th century Emperor of Vietnam, Lê Lợi , who led a revolt against Chinese rule. His guerrilla warfare tactics succeeded in winning Vietnam's independence from China after 1,000 years of subservience. Sometime after the war, Lê Lợi's famous sword

1794-478: The Deputy Chief of Staff MACV, crisply conveys the thought process behind the SSPL's operations. "The SSPL is the denial mechanism for disclaiming U.S. and Republic of Vietnam sponsorship of Operation Plan 34A activities...The cover story for the SSPL will be that it is the action arm of the front and that it receives it[s] funds from the front. By avoiding public announcement of responsibility for OPLAN 34A operations

1872-563: The Fabian choice. The Roman general Quintus Sertorius is also noted for his skillful use of guerrilla warfare during his revolt against the Roman Senate . In China, Han dynasty general Peng Yue is often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare due to his use of irregular warfare in the Chu-Han contention to attack Chu convoys and supplies. In the medieval Roman Empire , guerrilla warfare

1950-538: The Hungarians the confidence to begin a revolution. The Hungarian revolutionaries acted under the reasonable assumption that Americans would provide military backup. Policymakers did not want to see a repeat of history. It would be reckless to encourage the SSPL recruits to begin a coup in the first place, if policymakers lacked the determination to push the Vietnam War across the DMZ. Guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare

2028-450: The North then confirmed that those targeted by the clandestine radio were often relieved of their duties." In addition to attacking the North Vietnamese government, other broadcasts were directed towards encouraging fictional SSPL forces within North Vietnam. However, in deference to policymakers, the VSSPL never advocated regime change in North Vietnam. The station had some success in gaining

2106-558: The Peanuts project, SOG distributed thousands of radios to the North Vietnamese. They distributed 10,000 in 1968 alone. These Japanese manufactured radios were designed to tune in VSSPL and other American stations while distorting North Vietnamese stations. They were inserted by various methods including reconnaissance teams, air-drops and boats. Second, the VSSPL used a variety of deceptive radio methods to subvert actual North Vietnamese broadcasts. These included "surfing" ("transmitting alongside

2184-634: The SSPL action front. The action front would be based at a real "Paradise Island" in northwestern North Vietnam. The plan was approved by the U.S. ambassador in Saigon, Henry Cabot Lodge . However, the plan was eventually turned down. Another review SOG was commissioned by General William Westmoreland in 1967. The review was known as the Brownfield Report because it was led by Brigadier General Albert Brownfield. Released on 14 February 1968 it concluded that "the SSPL should have, for an ultimate planning goal,

2262-605: The SSPL as anti-Chinese nationalist movement, while steering clearly making ideological statements that might lose some North Vietnamese support. The legend also emphasized the historical union between South and North Vietnam against any kind of imperial aggression. According to the legend, the SSPL was founded by Lê Lợi admirer Lê Quốc Hùng in response to the communist land reforms of 1953 . It supposedly had 10,000 members and held its first national Congress in 1961. The SSPL opposed all foreign involvement in North and South Vietnam . In April 1961, President John F. Kennedy demanded

2340-542: The SSPL group will not be forced to provide answers to such questions as: Where did the boats come from? Who paid for them? Where are they based? SSPL broadcasts, which the local Saigon residents might hear, can be explained by saying that the SSPL rented air from a local station." The SSPL was conceived as the covert U.S. counterpoint to recognized North Vietnamese support of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. The main difference

2418-541: The SSPL was not always fully integrated within SOG's broader efforts. SOG significantly ramped up its maritime operation in 1967 through the Forae initiative, which included operation Urgency. During Urgency, a Naval Advisory Detachment acquired additional patrol boats, allowing them to scan the North Vietnam coast for vulnerable junkets nearly every day. These activities were also served to inflame paranoia within North Vietnam and force

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2496-505: The SSPL was to accomplish more than diverting Hanoi resources, it would have to be activated. In the eyes of one SOG historian, its merely notional existence made for "an almost crippling limitation." Colonel Donald D. Blackburn, who became SOG chief in June 1965, designed plans to activate the notional SSPL. Doing so, thought Blackburn, would require creating a South Vietnamese support network of religious groups and labor unions in order to support

2574-457: The SSPL. MACV-SOG spent significant resources distributing leaflets wherever the enemy was likely to find them. Leaflets chiefly served to demoralize the enemy. During the Vietnam War, this was accomplished at least as much by the volume as the quality of the messages. A typical "MACV PSYOP/POLWAR Newsletter" from August 1969 records 683 million leaflets dropped that month alone, though leaflets dropped by SOG into North Vietnam could be numbered in

2652-459: The SSPL...It also offered the SSPL viewpoint on happenings in different parts of North Vietnam." VSSPL aimed to slowly break down respect for North Vietnamese leadership. One former VSSPL operator commented, "The 'Patriot' station pounded relentlessly at venal and immoral Communist cadres who not only diverted funds, but also seduced the young wives of NVA soldiers in the South...Our few reliable agents in

2730-438: The U.S. shut down PSYOP directed at North Vietnam, including support for the SSPL. U.S. officials agreed to the policy and enforced it. SOG was informed that while the VSSPL radio could continue to operate, virtually other SSPL operations surrounding the SSPL, including Paradise Island, had to be shut down. SOG commanders were aghast at the decision. In one historian's assessment, "The announced cessation of overt U.S. operations and

2808-531: The USSR, and that the Soviets provided the broadcast facilities." The North Vietnamese responded to U.S. PSYOP by counter-indoctrination and by discouraging any mention of enemy propaganda. The VSSPL continued to operate years after most of the SSPL was disbanded on November 1, 1968. A favorite technique of SOG was to send forged letters to North Vietnamese officials and loyalists in order draw suspicion towards them. Many of

2886-499: The Vietnam War: The SSPL was the focal point of Black PSYOP within MACV-SOG, which was an elite special forces unit that drew from all branches of the military as well as the CIA. MACV-SOG spread the SSPL message by air, boat, ground forces, and telecommunications. The Psychological Operations Group that developed the SSPL was instructed "to advise, assist, and control psychological operations of Strategic Technical Service for

2964-446: The broadcasts must be legitimate. By the end of the program, over 1,000 North Vietnamese had visited Paradise Island. Visitors to Paradise Island were supplied with VSSPL-tuned radios and gift packages before leaving. Eventually they gave visitors two gift packages: one that was expected would be stolen by the communist government, and another to keep hidden. The long indoctrination sessions allowed SSPL leaders plenty of time to judge

3042-600: The coast of North Vietnam to interdict enemy coastal shipping, capture prisoners for interrogations and psychological warfare exploitation, and to force North Vietnam to increase its coastal defenses." SOG patrolled the waters of North Vietnam with high-speed Norwegian "Nasty" boats . Despite the program's moderate success, Mint operations sometimes ran afoul other programs. For example, In Loki missions, SOG used identical Nasty vessels to sink small Vietnamese boats, even though doing so accomplished little except angering fishermen. This problem persisted until 1968, demonstrating that

3120-561: The command histories of MACV-SOG, comments, "Dropping leaflets was one of the least successful PSYOP. From beginning to end MACSOG dropped tons of leaflets in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam with virtually no effect." To complicate matters, SOG forces sometimes tipped their hand by dropping the SSPL leaflets from discernibly American aircraft. However, SSPL leaflets may have been more effective than others because they were used in especially creative ways. Some were placed on North Vietnamese corpses in

3198-458: The course of about three weeks. ) The SSPL taught the fishermen the history of the resistance movement, allowed them opportunities to explain abuses and corruption under Hanoi government, and encouraged them to spread the message of the SSPL to their neighbors. Human intelligence gathered during these operations was later used for radio broadcasts, giving listeners the illusion that the SSPL had intimate knowledge of events within North Vietnam and that

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3276-542: The defeat of their regular armies, the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against the Napoleonic troops and defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy in combination with a scorched earth policy and people's war (see also attrition warfare against Napoleon ). In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla unit is a guerrillero ( [geriˈʎeɾo] ) if male, or

3354-453: The development of a notional (fictitious) Vietnamese national liberation movement, which would be the ostensible sponsor of the operations. That was, after all, what the North Vietnamese were doing in the South." The final plan, OPLAN 34Alpha, called for the military "to use all available media and practical means...phantom resistance movements, and psychological development of actual resistance." A 1966 letter from Major General Richard Abbey,

3432-536: The earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare. This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare. In the 3rd century BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , used elements of guerrilla warfare, such as the evasion of battle, the attempt to wear down the enemy, to attack small detachments in an ambush and devised the Fabian strategy , which the Roman Republic used to great effect against Hannibal 's army, see also His Excellency : George Washington :

3510-560: The ears of the people and even the soldiers in North Vietnam. One North Vietnamese officer, who defected to the South, claimed, "he and other members of his unit listened regularly to Radio Red Flag, Radio Saigon, and the Voice of the SSPL on their unit's radio. The men were evenly divided on whether the Red Flag and VSSPL broadcasts were genuine or not. He personally believed that the VSSPL was run by Colonel Ly Van Quoc, PAVN officer who had defected to

3588-603: The enemy retreats, we pursue." At least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with inspiring Mao's tactics. In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh , often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban " foco " theory and the anti- Soviet Mujahadeen in Afghanistan . Guerrilla groups may use improvised explosive devices and logistical support by

3666-493: The establishment of "networks of resistance" in North Vietnam. It took government officials some time to build the resources necessary to cross the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone . Responsibility for PSYOP against North Vietnam initially went to the CIA, which continued to play a supporting role throughout the war. In 1962 the CIA identified Hmong tribesmen as worthy recruits for North Vietnamese resistance. But by

3744-599: The experiences of Herbert Weisshart, who was appointed Deputy Head of MACV-SOG's PSYOP at its inception. Unlike most SOG commanders, Weisshart arrived with experience PSYOP. "Part of a six-man psychological warfare team dispatched to Taiwan in 1952, he had been instrumental in coordinating leaflet drops and radio play against China in support of one of the Central Intelligence Agency's first notional resistance campaigns." Still operating in 1963, Weisshart's fictional resistance movement against mainland China became

3822-400: The fishermen were planning their own capture in order to enjoy the amenities provided by the SSPL. SSPL developed other operations relating to Paradise Island that were rejected by policymakers. These included training visitors to assassinate North Vietnamese officials, and encouraging them to develop guerilla warfare plans upon returning to North Vietnam. Zealous SOG staff continued to raise

3900-602: The future. The Normans often made many forays into Wales, where the Welsh used the mountainous region, which the Normans were unfamiliar with, to spring surprise attacks upon them. Since the Enlightenment , ideologies such as nationalism , liberalism , socialism , and religious fundamentalism have played an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare. In the 17th century, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj , founder of

3978-437: The goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw (see also attrition warfare ). Organized guerrilla groups often depend on the support of either the local population or foreign backers who sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts. The Spanish word guerrilla is the diminutive form of guerra ("war"); hence, "little war". The term became popular during the early-19th century Peninsular War , when, after

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4056-485: The government to assign additional resources to defend their coasts. Perhaps the most inventive of covert SOG operations was the creation of Paradise Island (Cu Lao Cham). After capturing the fishermen for indoctrination, the SSPL took them to this island, safely located within the waters of South Vietnam. In order to give the blindfolded captives the illusion that they were still off the coast of North Vietnam, they were quickly transferred to high speed boats. Paradise Island

4134-498: The government—of North Vietnam of the existence of an autonomous, non-communist society within North Vietnam. Creating and promulgating the "legend" of the SSPL required U.S. Special Forces to build on PSYWAR techniques established by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Some historians believe the SSPL managed to divert the attention of North Vietnamese officials enough to justify its expenses and manpower. However,

4212-400: The hopes that fellow soldiers would be demoralized upon finding that their comrade was a member of the SSPL. In addition to leaflets, SOG even developed SSPL postage stamps to give the impression of the prevalence of the resistance throughout North Vietnam. Regardless of the effectiveness of the leaflets in winning support, they informed the North Vietnamese people that resistance to the regime

4290-524: The inducement in them of insecurity and terror. It conducts the basic business of war without recourse to ponderous formations or equipment, complicated maneuvers, strict chains of command, calculated strategies, timetables, or other civilized embellishments. Evidence of conventional warfare , on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu , in his The Art of War (6th century BC), became one of

4368-521: The latter of which had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish forces and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic. The Moroccan military leader Abd el-Krim ( c.  1883 – 1963) and his father unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during

4446-508: The letters, sometimes called poison pen letters, concerned alleged support for SSPL activities. SOG sent 50–100 such missives through a Hong Kong address per week, and up to 7,000 through Bangkok a year. SOG intercepted one communication indicating that a North Vietnamese general who received the letter "was inexplicably relieved of his divisional campaign and recalled to Hanoi." The sheer volume of letters allowed SOG to potentially incriminate untold numbers of North Vietnamese while enhancing

4524-593: The local population. The opposing army may come at last to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers. The guerrillas might get political support from foreign backers and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion through propaganda and use of force. Some guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles. Many governments and states also recruit children within their armed forces. No commonly accepted definition of "terrorism" has attained clear consensus. The term "terrorism"

4602-499: The motivations and loyalties of the fishermen, as well as other prisoners who were sent to Paradise Island for SSPL sessions. Under project Borden, some were sent back to collect intelligence for SSPL. Even if they decided to tell their story to the North Vietnamese authorities, doing so would only enhance the image of the SSPL and spread knowledge of its mythical history. However, those who SSPL judged to be true-believing communists were returned as pseudo-intelligence agents. Unbeknownst to

4680-468: The opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and taking advantage of terrain that is difficult for larger units to use. For example, Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War as: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack;

4758-655: The overthrow of the Hanoi Regime." Neither General Westmoreland nor officials in Washington supported this conclusion. Military leaders and Washington officials who rejected the proposal had four primary concerns: Behind all of these objection lurked the memory of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . Badly supervised broadcasts from the American-sponsored Radio Free Europe station probably gave

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4836-512: The people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery. In the 1960s, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara developed the foco (Spanish: foquismo ) theory of revolution in his book Guerrilla Warfare , based on his experiences during the 1959 Cuban Revolution . This theory was later formalized as "focal-ism" by Régis Debray . Its central principle

4914-582: The perception that the SSPL held many active members. SOG recruited SSPL members by kidnapping fishermen off the coast of North Vietnam. These operations, codenamed Mint (Maritime Interdictions) lasted from May 1964 to November 1968. SOG employed former inhabitants of North Vietnam, who spoke the correct dialects, to pose as SSPL members and seize the unsuspecting fishermen at gunpoint. Meanwhile, American members of SOG could travelled below deck where they would not be seen. The SOG Command History states: "Covert boat and landing team operations were conducted against

4992-466: The program is not known for any particularly noteworthy successes and it suffered from a lack of direction regarding its ultimate goals. Recurring disagreements between some military leaders in Vietnam and policymakers in Washington kept the program from ever becoming an actual counterrevolutionary force within North Vietnam. It was mostly disbanded in 1968 following an early round of negotiations in what became

5070-477: The prospect of turning the SSPL into a counterrevolutionary force. SSPL operations significantly expanded in 1968 with the launch of the diversionary operation, Forae. Forae included many operations that linked SOG intelligence collection and subversive efforts with the myth of the SSPL, including sending pseudo-intelligence agents to North Vietnam for capture. Hanoi negotiators at the Paris Peace talks demanded that

5148-537: The purpose of establishing a climate of opinion in North Vietnam -- [Words Illegible] -- SO/STS operations, supporting SOG/STS physical destruction operations, and exerting PSYOP pressure on the North Vietnamese to erase support for activity in the Republic of Vietnam." By 1967, SOG dedicated about 150 members of its staff to covert propaganda, in addition to employing many more Vietnamese citizens for their language skills, cultural understanding and ability to act as members of

5226-438: The released prisoners, their clothing and luggage were lined with SSPL membership cards or leaflets that would surely be found by North Vietnamese authorities. Any attempt by the ex-prisoner to explain his loyalty would naturally fall under intense suspicion. Fishermen sent to Paradise Island were sometimes presented with the option of defecting to South Vietnam. Those who did so had to agree to be featured in news outlets such as

5304-538: The spring of 1963 their pilot program had a total of just eight recruits. CIA Deputy Chief and Chief of Operations in Saigon, William Colby , chose Herbert Weisshart to expand North Vietnamese resistance and PSYWAR operations beginning in March 1963. Weisshart played a role in implementing the CINCPAC Operations Plan (OPLAN) 34-63 for PSYOP directed towards North Vietnam, which was later endorsed by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara . "McNamara also desired

5382-481: The sudden disappearance of SSPL craft were bound to have been noticed and linked by both the authorities and citizens of the North." The SSPL effectively ended on November 1, 1968. A possible reason for the closure was disdain for SOG by leading members of the military and government. General Westmoreland, among many others, never put much in the SOG and its covert operations. However, SOG had itself to blame for much of this; its Research and Analysis branch never conducted

5460-406: The tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according to Che Guevara 's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression". Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of

5538-509: The tens of millions. Leaflets could be left on corpses, blasted out of timed cannons or dropped from aircraft. (Spies and Commandos 106) While many of these leaflets were part of the Chiêu Hồi defection campaign, others specifically referenced the SSPL resistance. SOG depended on a cadre of North Vietnamese defectors to translate and perfect these messages. Assessments of the effectiveness of leaflets varied. Historian Charles Reske, who annotated

5616-526: The term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century BC , Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in The Art of War . The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what

5694-550: The world today. In South Africa , African National Congress (ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis of Nelson Mandela ; in their intifada against Israel, Palestinian fighters have sought to emulate it. Additionally, the tactics of Al-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians. The Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as "freedom fighters", or liberation army), also known as

5772-499: Was chosen by SOG because it appeared nearly identical to the highlands of Vietnam. Prisoners were only allowed to see a portion of the island and were told that they were in a "liberated zone" within North Vietnam. Upon arriving the fishermen were found guilty of death, but the SSPL granted them clemency. The captives found their life under the SSPL in every way superior to life under communist government. They were provided with high-calorie foods, dental care and plenty of time for rest over

5850-565: Was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid. In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name as De velitatione bellica ('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in

5928-646: Was possible and helped distract their government from fighting the real war. The Voice of the Sacred Sword of the Patriots League (VSSPL) began broadcasting into North Vietnam in April 1965. The branch responsible for the broadcasts, SOG OP-33, later designated OP-39, purported to be broadcasting from within North Vietnam. Instead, the signal came from a 20-kW transmitter in Thu Duc, near Saigon. The VSSPL found two main ways of increasing its listenership. First, through

6006-619: Was taken from him by a turtle. The Emperor declared that the sword had been entrusted to him for the duration of the war, only to be taken by the turtle of the Lake of the Returned Sword after his victory. The story of Lê Lợi fulfilled Weisshart's declared goal of pursuing "a legend and an easily recognized symbol upon which to base a notional resistance movement in North Vietnam." It was a story that "Every school child in North Vietnam knew." Knowing that North Vietnam relied on Chinese aid, SOG framed

6084-541: Was the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the Indian subcontinent. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India with Presidency army regiments that suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare. The Dominican Restoration War was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic between nationalists and Spain ,

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