Page:Allied Participation in Vietnam.pdf/73

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Most of these points were academic because MACV had some three days earlier authorized the Philippine group seventeen additional APC's (armored personnel carriers), six 105-mm. howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, two M41 tanks, and 630 M16 rifles.

With the signing of the military working agreements between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States (Mata-Westmoreland Agreement, 20 July 1966) and between the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Vietnam (Mata-Tam Agreement, 3 August 1966), the way was clear to implement the provisions of the bill.

The military working agreements specified that tasks for the Philippine Civic Action Group, Vietnam, would be determined by the Free World Military Assistance Policy Council. Pursuant to these agreements the Philippine groups basic mission was "to render civic action assistance to the Republic of Vietnam by construction, rehabilitation, and development of public works, utilities, and structures, and by providing technical advice on other socio-economic activities." Command and control was vested in the Commanding General, Philippine Civic Action Group, Vietnam. The Philippine rural health teams and provincial hospital medical and surgical teams were to provide services on a mission basis in co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Health of the government of South Vietnam and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In considering the employment of the Philippine Civic Action Group, Vietnam, MACV had decided that Long An Province was unsuitable because its compartmented terrain precluded maximum use of the group and that the land in Hau Nghia Province was preferable. Partly because of the support of the Philippine military attaché for the Hau Nghia location, the area around the town of Bao Trai (Kiem Cuong) was selected. On 1 June, however, General Westmoreland directed that a staff study be conducted to determine the feasibility of relocating the Philippine group in Tay Ninh Province. He believed that the operations of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division around Bao Trai would make it unnecessary to use the Philippine group in that area. In addition there was a certain historical affinity between Cambodia and the Philippines, and the new site would place the Philippine group near the Cambodian border. This suggestion of a border site for the Filipinos was met with some misgivings by the government of South Vietnam; the Vietnamese Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Nguyen Huu Co, believed that there was a security risk in stationing a unit so close to War Zone C, but he added that it would be a great advantage if the group could pro[vide]