Southeast Asia: Table of Contents
Organizer and Chair: William R. Heaton, Central Intelligence Agency
Discussants: Douglas Pike, Texas Tech University; Evelyn S. Colbert, U.S. State Department
Newly declassified CIA documents shed new light on the involvement of the Agency in the War in Vietnam. This panel will have two former experienced intelligence officers who were intimately involved in the CIA effort in Vietnam present their research on the basis of these documents. Through such documentary research and personal experience, Hal Ford and Tom Ahern will provide new insights into developments during the war. Douglas Pike, a former intelligence officer and now the head of the Vietnam archive (in the process of moving to Texas Tech), and Dorothy Avery, an intelligence officer with INR, Department of State, are also experts on this period and will discuss how these studies contribute to our analysis of the war.
Harold P. Ford, Central Intelligence Agency
This study will discuss what the NIEs said and how they compared with military assessments. Working with newly declassified documents, including NIEs, this paper will clarify how the CIA viewed the prospects for U.S. policy during the war.
Thomas Ahern, Central Intelligence Agency
Tom Ahern has completed a landmark study of the CIA’s interaction with the Diem regime, including the events leading up to Diem’s assassination. This study also is based on newly declassified documents, which will become public for the first time with his presentation on the panel.
Because of the unique nature of this material, instead of adding an additional paper, we are proposing two discussants, both of whom have distinguished intelligence backgrounds and can evaluate the contribution of this newly released information. Because only two presenters will speak, we anticipate additional time for audience discussion—which we think will be lively given the nature of the subject and the material.