Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 5.djvu/309

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  ""MR. DURBROW. Not only in the south, sir; they were concentrated down there, but they were allover the country, the Communists, in particular.

"The sects were in the southwest basically, and in Saigon, but as far as the Binh Xuyen is concerned, they were primarily in the Saigon-Cholon area.

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. Yes.

"There was little real military strength to resist a Vietminh invasion from the north had it come about at that time?

"MR. DURBROW. Very little, sir.

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. South Vietnam was a war-prostrated area with very extensive devastation?

"MR. DURBROW. Quite correct. There is still evidence of that, sir.

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. There were hundreds of thousands of refugees from the north waiting to be resettled, the figure being somewhere between 600,000, the official figure, and 1 million?

"MR. DURBROW. Correct.

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. These conditions have changed in significant degree in the past 4 years, have they not?

"MR. DURBROW. Very much so."

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. And there is a far greater degree of internal stability and security in Vietnam than there was in 1955?

"AMBASSADOR DURBROW. Very definitely.

"SENATOR MANSFIELD. I should like to read into the record at this point a statement by Maj. Gen. Samuel L. Myers, former Deputy Chief of MAAG in Vietnam. General Myers stated on April 17 of this year, and I quote: "'The Binh Xuyen group was completely eliminated as a menace. The Cao Dai group was pacified or reoriented through political means to a point where it ceased to be any considerable obstacle. The Roa Rao had been reduced to a handful of the diehards still holding out against the Government and still conducting extremely limited armed raids and assassinations. The Vietminh guerrillas, although constantly reinforced by men and weapons from outside South Vietnam, were gradually nibbled away until they ceased to be a major menace"" Rh