Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–1, Documents on Global Issues, 1969–1972

214. Telegram 19761 From the Embassy in the Republic of Vietnam to the Department of State¹ ²

Saigon, December 22, 1971, 1055Z.

CINCPAC for Polad

Subj:

• Conversation With President Thieu on Anti-narcotic and Anti-smuggling Campaign.

1. I called on President Thieu December 21, accompanied by Berger, to discuss the status of the Vietnamese anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling campaign. I said it had got off to a good start in May, when there was a great sense of urgency, but had lost its momentum in recent months and was in need of a new initiative, and more energetic direction and supervision by him.

2. I then went into details:

A. The men he had appointed to head the campaigns—Admiral Cang, Commissioner Qui of the police force, and Colonel Khanh, the new Customs Director—were good and hard-working men, had created more effective organizations, were giving US good cooperation, and there had been some progress. Their problems were sabotage of their efforts, bureaucratic inertia and the absence of sustained pressure through the government to pursue the campaigns with energy, vigor and imagination.

B. I called attention to the areas of weakness:

1) Arrests were up 75 most of those arrested were small peddlers or habitual users. Vietnamese intelligence on its own had failed to uncover any major ring or traffickers. The large operators that were detected and arrested was based on intelligence developed by US. There were signs that when the Vietnamese intelligence and police got on the track of significant traffickers they were being waved off.

2) The Vietnamese Air Force and to some extent the Vietnamese Army and Navy were not cooperating in the anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling campaigns. In some cases customs officers were being prevented from searching Vietnamese Air Force planes.

3) The courts were excessively lenient in imposing penalties and slow in trying and punishing even the major offenders who have been arrested.

4) Although the need for a reward program was recognized from the very start, and funds had been earmarked for rewards, no funds had as yet been provided to the authorities to pay rewards.

5) The Director General of Customs was having difficulty getting rid of some of his incompetent and corrupt subordinates, and was still unable to get the extra manpower—450—he had asked for to strengthen the customs force and broaden its coverage in the country

6) Most of the arrests and seizures were concentrated in Saigon.

7) The Vietnamese were reluctant to discuss with the Thai and Korean Governments the narcotic and smuggling activities of members of their forces.

8) As a result heroin was still easily available in most parts of the country and there were huge revenue losses arising from smuggling of goods in general.

C. Finally, I made reference to the need to develop regional cooperation with the neighboring countries, to actively press for the passage of the new narcotics bill, and to ratify Vietnam’s membership in the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and support the proposal to amend the convention to make it more effective. I ended by urging on him the necessity for him personally to reinvigorate the program in the various areas where weakness existed. I asked him to call in Admiral Cang, Commissioner Qui and Colonel Khanh to learn at first hand the difficulties they were encountering, and to call in the service chiefs and the judiciary, and the Ambassadors of Thailand and Korea.

3. Thieu took no issue with what we had to say and made notes. I shall follow up with an aide memoire. I left him in no doubt but that while we recognized that some progress had been made, we were not at all satisfied with the effort so far.

Bunker

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, SOC 11-5. Secret; Exdis. Repeated to Bangkok and Seoul. The Embassy requested that the Department pass to CINCPAC for POLAD. The text of the aide mimoire is in telegram 587 from Saigon, January 13, 1972. (Ibid.)
2. The telegram reported a conversation between the Ambassador and Vietnamese President Thieu on the status of the Vietnamese anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling campaign.