The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 7 | Issue 19 | Number 3 | May 2009

Origins of the American War in Vietnam: The OSS Role in Saigon in

1945

Geoffrey Gunn

Origins of the American War in Vietnam: views on colonialism and proscribed direct U.S.
The OSS Role in Saigon in 1945 support for French resistance groups inside
Indochina. By January 1945, U.S. concerns had
shifted decisively to the Japanese archipelago
Geoff Gunn and the prospect of U.S. force commitments to
Southeast Asia was nixed, leaving this sphere to
Nearly thirty years have passed since the end of British forces. Following the Yalta Conference
the Vietnam War or rather the American (February 1945), U.S. planners declined to offer
War, as it is known in Vietnam. But the logistical support to Free French forces in
American war in Vietnam originated in the Indochina. But the American position came
French war to restore colonialism in the power under French criticism in March 1945 in the wake
vacuum following the Japanese surrender in of the Japanese coup de force in Vichy French-
August-September 1945. As the following article
administered Indochina leading to Japanese
documents, early U.S. post-war planners seemed
military takeover and internment of French
to have grasped the iniquitous nature of old-style
civilians. The American decision to forego
colonialism only to have forgotten their ideals
commitment to operations in Southeast Asia
when confronted with an independent
prompted the Singapore-based British Southeast
revolutionary movement in the early days of US-
Asia Command (SEAC) commander Admiral
Soviet conflict. History has revealed the
Louis Mountbatten to liberate Malaya without
disastrous consequences of American escalation
U.S. assistance. At the time of Roosevelt's death
in Vietnam on the wrong side of history, just as
on 12 April 1945, U.S. policy towards the colonial
the lessons of history appear seldom to have been
possessions of Allies was in disarray. [1]
learned as, one generation on, America plunges
into no less disastrous military adventures in
Roosevelt is on record for his anti-colonial views
other theaters in pursuit of militant Islam tied to
with regard to French rule in Indochina. These
terror.
were elaborated at the Teheran Conference of 28
A Watershed in U.S. Policy on Southeast Asia
November 1943 where Roosevelt and Stalin
concurred that Indochina should not be returned
As the Pentagon Papers reveal, U.S. policy to the French, and were reiterated in January the
towards France and repossession of its colonial following year over the opposition of the British
territories was ambivalent. On the one hand, the who fear the effect [trusteeship] would have on
U.S. supported Free French claims to all overseas their own possessions and those of the Dutch.
possessions. On the other hand, in the Atlantic As reported by Charles Taussig, who interviewed
Charter and in other pronouncements, the U.S. Roosevelt, the President was concerned about
proclaimed support for national self- the plight of brown people in the East ruled
determination and independence. Through 1944, over by a handful of whites. Our goal must be to
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt held to his help them achieve independence 1.1 billion

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enemies are dangerous, he said. Roosevelt of determined British opposition. At the

opined that French Indochina and New Dumbarton Oaks Conference in August-
Caledonia should be placed under a trusteeship September 1944, where the blueprint for a new
or, at a minimum, should France retain these international system was brokered, the British
colonies, then with the proviso that skirted the colonial issue altogether. The
independence was the ultimate goal. [2] President's lip service to anti-colonialism was not
matched by U.S. intervention in Vietnam, indeed
Roosevelt also launched the predecessor of the Indochina would be assigned a status parallel to
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Office of that of Burma, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies
Strategic Services (OSS), headed by William (Indonesia), that is free territory to be re-
Donovan, in July 1941. Enjoying close ties to conquered by the colonial powers. [4]
Roosevelt, Donovan was instructed to provide
cover to support national liberation movements The advent of the Truman Administration in
in Asia to resist the Japanese. Whereas in France April 1945 represented a turning point in
the OSS worked alongside the Free French to Washington's thinking on the larger questions of
resist the Nazi occupation, in Asia the situation colonialism and independence. The New Deal
differed in Asia. When Japanese invaded idealism of Roosevelt and Donovan, which
Indochina in September 1940, the U.S. froze viewed the struggle against Western colonialism
Japanese assets, the first of several moves that as part of the struggle against tyranny, came
would lead to the Pearl Harbor attack. In July under intense scrutiny in the light of a
1942, with Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia reappraisal of the Soviet Union and changing
a reality, the OSS set up a guerrilla base in India conceptions of the U.S. global role in general, and
for operations in Southeast Asia and China. In its position in the Asia-Pacific in particular.
northern Vietnam and southern Yunnan, the OSS
worked hand-in-hand with the Vietnamese The change of direction in the Truman
communists, while Ho Chi Minhs Viet Minh Administration was matched by a more assertive
gave assistance to downed U.S. fliers. The OSS approach by the State Department, especially its
team was also present in Hanoi on 17 August European section. In April 1945, French
1945, the day that the Viet Minh took over Hanoi diplomats in Washington skillfully applied
from the Japanese. [3] pressure to gain official recognition of French
sovereignty in Indochina. Notably, at the United
Nations Conference at San Francisco in May-June
1945, Under-Secretary of State James Dunn,
together with Secretary of State Edward
Stettinius, assured the French about the
unchanged colonial status of Indochina, asserting
that Washington had never officially
questioned French sovereignty. According to
Richard J. Aldrich, at this stage the OSS in the
field was obviously out of step with
metropolitan policy-makers, especially with
respect to the larger issues of colonialism and
Vo Nguyen Giap with Vietminh communism. [5]

Roosevelt's penchant for trusteeships as a bridge But the dye was also set for the future of post-
to independence foundered, however, in the face surrender Indochina by the terms of the Potsdam

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Conference of July-August 1945 where it was containment as enunciated in the Truman

decided to temporarily partition Vietnam (and Doctrine of 12 March 1947, also bears Kennan's
Laos) at the 16th parallel. Under this signature. America's slide into the Vietnam War,
arrangement, Allied chiefs-of staff assigned as tracked in the Pentagon Papers and elsewhere,
British forces to take the Japanese surrender in can be traced back to these watershed events and
Saigon and in Cambodia, while Japanese troops decisions. But how did these lofty ideals,
were to surrender to Chinese forces of Jiang reappraisals, and fast-shifting commitments play
Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) north of the 16th out on the ground in Saigon in the heady days of
parallel. August-September 1945 following the Japanese
surrender?
Notable, as well, was the direction and influence
of George Kennan of the U.S. State Department. The China-Indochina Theater
Kennan, who had helped establish the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow in 1933, became increasingly In the larger scheme, the U.S. role in Indochina
skeptical towards the USSR, believing that the preceding and following the Japanese surrender
Roosevelt spirit of cooperation was misplaced. flowed out of its commitments in support of
Apparently, State Department realists had Jiang Jieshi and the Guomindang in the China
already drawn the line on vigilance against Theater, which included those parts of Thailand
international communism, even prior to the and Indochina then occupied by the Allies.
advent of the Truman administration. While Jiang exercised preeminence over the
Allies in the China Theater, at a meeting at his
Support for the Dutch and French under the wartime headquarters in Chongqing
Atlantic Treaty obliged the U.S. to walk a fine (Chungking) on 16 October 1943, SEAC
line in dealing with these two nations with Commander, Louis Mountbatten gained the
respect to their Southeast Asian colonies. Kennan Generalissimo's approval for the British-
recommended that the Dutch and French dominated SEAC to operate inside these
distance themselves from 19th century boundaries.
imperialism and face up to modern realities. He
also urged multinational collaboration in Asia
with India, Pakistan, and the Philippines to
dispel association with white imperialism.
Specifically, Kennan recognized militant Asian
nationalism as a historical reality and viewed any
attempt to reverse this process as an anti-
historical act and, in the long run, would create
more problems than it solves and cause more
damage than benefit. But, according to A.K.
Nelson in an introduction to a State Department
Policy Planning paper, Kennan viewed Soviet
attention to Southeast Asia as a strategic lever
against the U.S. [6]

Kennan was convinced that the Soviet Union had

expansionist goals and that it had to be stopped,
the subject of his now famous Long Telegram
of 22 February 1946. The U.S. Cold War policy of

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goals among the British, French and the

Americans concerning restoration of the colonial
status quo ante.

First Americans in Saigon

The first Americans into Saigon entered by

parachute on 1 September 1945. They were a
prisoner-of-war evacuation group under First
Lieutenant Emile R. Counasse. This was an
advance element of Operation Embankment, in
turn planned as early as 10 August by OSS
Detachment 404 based in Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
The above group was to accompany British
troops to Saigon with the stated objective of
investigating war crimes, locating and assisting
Allied POWs, particularly Americans, securing
American properties, and tracking political
trends. From the outset British General Gracey
had objected to the American presence in
Mountbatten in China, 1944 Vietnam. However, he was overridden by SEAC
commander, Mountbatten. Operation
As early as 1942-1943 clandestine American Embankment was commanded by Lieut-Colonel
parties were operating in Free China and by 1944, A. Peter Dewey, who arrived in Saigon by C-47
the OSS already actively sought the support of on 2 September with four team members landing
the Viet Minh in the anti-Japanese cause. [7] In on a Japanese airfield near the main Saigon (Tan
1945 the OSS was reorganized with the tacit Son Nhut) airport. Dewey was told that he was
agreement of SEAC and China, setting up staff on his own and could expect no logistical help
headquarters in strategically located Kunming in from the British. This arrangement also allowed
Yunnan. The Japanese coup de force in Indochina him to operate independently. [10]
of March 1945 also galvanized the OSS into
action in the north, just as Free French guerrillas
took to the mountains in both Vietnam and Laos
to prepare for an eventual colonial restoration.

Drawing upon OSS sources, Specter [8] argues

that the American role in the south, if more
conspicuous than in the north, was much less
important. Yet it was in Saigon in September
1945 that American support for self-
determination and independence came
unstuck.[9] The following account seeks to
explain less well documented events and actions
on the part of the OSS in southern Vietnam,
which, together with contemporaneous events in
Laos, also highlight conflicts of interests and

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crimes in Vietnam, of which there were many

against French officials and French and
Vietnamese civilians alike. French investigations
led to the execution of five Japanese for the
murder of American airmen downed in
Indochina. At this time, many Japanese,
Kempeitai included, avoided investigation by
throwing in their lot with the Viet Minh as
military advisors and in other roles.

In the event, Counasse's advance team was

greeted respectfully by the Japanese. They also
had to content with the so-called United National
Front government in Saigon comprising
Trotskyists, Cao Dai, Hao Hoa and other
nationalist and religious groups and sects. While
dismissing the motley coalition government as a
drugstore revolution, the team nevertheless
reported that its control was complete, even if
its actions appeared hazy or unexplainable.
Peter Dewey With Dewey's arrival and assumption of local
command, the American team established close
The arrival of the OSS team was not America's contact with the leaders of the independence
first involvement in southern Vietnam. For three movement, including the Viet Minh. Almost
years American air and naval forces had been immediately, however, Dewey was prevailed
harassing Japanese positions in and around upon by both the French and General Douglas
Vietnam. Notably, Saigon harbor had been Gracey, the British commander of occupation
raided by U.S. carrier-based aircraft and bombing forces south of the 16th parallel as outlined in the
raids had flown out of India. At least one Potsdam Conference, to keep his distance, lest he
American airman had been shot down over give the impression of official U.S. support for
Cholon, Saigon's China-town, in an attempted the independence movement.
raid on the railway station.
Dewey had also made personal contact with the
Eventually, the OSS team liberated 214 Viet Minh. On 7 September, he radioed the first
Americans held in Japanese POW camps outside American account of what had transpired in
of Saigon. The majority had been captured in Saigon on Independence Day, matching the
Java and employed on the River Kwai railroad events of the August Revolution in Hanoi,
before being interned in Saigon. Another eight leading to the establishment of the Democratic
were airmen shot down over Indochina. They Republic of Vietnam by a triumphant Ho Chi
were flown out of Saigon on seven DC3s on 5 Minh. He also air-pouched a comprehensive
September. [11] Archival sources make no report on complex Vietnamese political
mention of Dewey's brief to investigate Japanese maneuvers in the south and confirmed French
war crimes, indeed these records possibly remain General Cedile's arrival on 22-23 August. Dewey
classified. Setting aside high profile cases, such as made contact with left-wing French elements
with Field Marshal Terauchi Hisaichi, it was the then in Saigon leading to his meeting with the
French who vigorously prosecuted Japanese war Viet Minh supremo of southern Vietnam and

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future communist historian, Tran Van Giau only Allied presence in Saigon. Later that day, a
(along with Dr. Pham Ngoc Thac and Nguyen company of British soldiers (a Gurkha division
Van Tao) on 27 August. He kept up a stream of from Rangoon) flew in at around the same time
reports relating to the fragile relationship as a company of French paratroopers from
between Giau and the Trotskyists. [12] Calcutta.

U.S.-Vietnamese relations took a major turn for In the interim, Dewey made contact with the Viet
the worse on 24 September, when OSS Captain Minh-established Committee of the South.
Joseph Coolidge was wounded in an ambush and Advocates of a peaceful policy, they looked to
two days later when Dewey was killed (26 America, China, and Russia to prevent a French
September) in then mysterious circumstances by restoration. Also opposing the French were the
a group of Vietnamese. Dewey's successor, Lt. pro-Japanese Phuc Quoc Party as well as the
James R. Withrow, arrived soon after, to observe United National Front. They spread rumors of an
the French re-conquest of South Vietnam. [13] imminent French restoration and were in no
mood for negotiations. As always, the Binh
Sometimes billed as America's first Vietnam War Xuyen (Saigon gangsters) were a force to be
casualty, Dewey was born in 1916 in Chicago, reckoned with. For their part, the Viet Minh had
schooled in Switzerland and later majored in constructed makeshift roadblocks around Saigon
French at Yale. He saw action in France against to prevent the French return.
the Germans, before evacuating via Portugal and
Spain back to the U.S. In August 1942 he enlisted Three days prior to Dewey's death, General Jean
in the U.S. army as an intelligence officer with the Cedile and his forces brazenly occupied all major
Air Transport Command in Africa. Following an buildings in Saigon, while arming interned
approach made to an old family friend, General French troops. But these were French troops
Bill Donovan, he was recruited by the OSS. released under British General Gracey's order,
Dewey was also the son of U.S. Congressman, and Gracey himself was responsible for
Charles S. Dewey. He was dispatched deep into disarming the Japanese. Provocative actions by
German occupied France supplying crucial the newly armed French troops along with
intelligence on the German withdrawal and French civilians on the streets of Saigon threw the
making an epic 600-mile retreat march through Viet Minh on the defensive, ironically setting the
enemy territory. Returning to Washington, in trap for Dewey on the fateful day of 26
July 1945 he was selected to head the OSS team September. Dewey attempted to lodge an official
that would enter Saigon after the Japanese complaint with Gracey, but the British
surrender. commander, suspecting that Dewey was in
cahoots with the Viet Minh, declared the
Dewey's OSS team was ordered to leave Sri American persona non grata and ordered him
Lanka for Saigon on 1 September. Following out of the country. Dewey acceded to this order,
stops in Rangoon and Bangkok, the team arrived believed by the American party to have been
at Tan Son Nuth airport in Saigon on 4 passed down by the French, not at all happy with
September where they were met by members of the OSS role in Indochina generally. [14]
the Japanese High Command and enthusiastic
crowds of Vietnamese, holding high Returning to the Villa Ferrier from the airport by
expectations of a perceived American jeep owing to a delay in the arrival of his aircraft,
commitment for an end to colonial empires. Until Dewey - possibly mistaken for a Frenchman -
12 September, the OSS team with headquarters at was shot dead in a Viet Minh ambush on the
the Villa Ferrier northeast of the airport, was the airport perimeter. His companion, Major Herbet

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Bleuchel, was able to escape. Subsequently, six forbidden by the French. [17]
Vietnamese were killed in a fierce exchange of
fire with the beleaguered OSS team holed up in The OSS View
the Villa Ferrier, pending the arrival of two
British Gurkha platoons who helped evacuate the Documents relating to OSS Activity in Vietnam,
American party to the Continental Hotel. notably those relating to Dewey's death, are also
revealing of the attitudes of the OSS, not to
Testimony in the form of a signed affidavit of 13 mention French, British and Japanese towards
October 1945 by Captain Frank H. White, an OSS the Viet Minh but also the Viet Minh pris de
team member who sought to recover Dewey's position in this standoff.
body, is also revealing. According to White, in
the late afternoon, he approached a Vietnamese The brief by Major F. M. Small is illustrative. As
party displaying a Red Cross flag, seeking to he wrote in a signed affidavit of 25 October 1945,
recover bodies of their slain comrades. White From my own observation and study, the
observed a considerable number of armed general situation in Saigon reflects an intense
Vietnamese in the vicinity including the leader of desire on the part of the Vietnamese (Annamese)
the party, a French-speaking individual around for independence and thorough hatred of them
30 years old. Launching into a polemic against for the French and any other white people who
the French and the British who protected them, happen to be in any way supporting or
he asserted that, had he known that Dewey was sympathizing with the French. The hatred of the
American, he would not have ordered the attack. Vietnamese for the French has been brought
He also stated that his party had only attacked about by the not too enlightened policy of the
OSS headquarters because he believed that French, which has been to exploit the Vietnamese
French and British resided there. White also to the greatest extent possible and treat them
observed that the Vietnamese were equipped more or less with contempt. The Vietnamese
with Japanese military material including naturally greatly resent the British protection of
cartridge boxes and canteens. [15 French interests and insomuch as the American
military in Saigon regularly attend British staff
Recriminations as to who ordered the killing meetings, it is quite likely that the Vietnamese
poisoned the atmosphere, with some Americans infer that the United States tacitly approves the
blaming British Special Operations Executive British policy. Small also described British
(SOE), also operating clandestinely in Saigon, General Gracey as not well suited to his
and the British blaming the Japanese, while the assignment. Notably, his mishandling of the
French blamed the Viet Minh. In part, to mollify situation with respect to arming the French
the Americans, Ho Chi Minh let it be known that POWs was the single immediate contribution to
he disapproved of the killing. This took the form the intensification of Vietnamese animosity to all
of a letter addressed to President Truman whites in Saigon, and thus directly contributed to
expressing condolences and friendship with the Dewey's death. [18]
American people. Long after the end of the war,
Tran Van Giau apologized to Dewey's daughter Sideshow in Laos
for the Viet Minh error. [16] The Allied Control
Commission subsequently produced a report on Neither was there any love lost between the
Dewey's death, inter alia casting doubt on newly returned French in Laos and a party of
whether the incident could have been prevented Americans dubbed Raven Mission dispatched by
if the Americans were allowed to fly an OSS headquarters in Kunming and parachuted
American flag on their jeeps as wished, and as into the landlocked country on 16 September

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1945. [19] French General and military historian blocks of Laos, were witness to the first sparks
Jean Boucher de Crvecoeur [20] goes as far as to igniting what would be a fratricidal 30-year civil
say that the American officers were not only and international war of almost incalculable
opposed to the French and pro-French Lao but costs.
actually supported (pro-independence) groups
including Prince Phetsarath, the anti-French Lao Certain of the OSS veterans and relatives have
Issara or Lao nationalist leader, obliquely backed returned to Vietnam as virtual state guests, as
by the Japanese. Major Aaron Banks (already a with Peter Dewey's daughter. Notably, Viet Minh
veteran of various anti-Nazi missions in Europe) and OSS veterans, including Asian members,
and Major Charles Holland of the OSS are have held at least two reunions, one in 1995 and
described as spouting anti-French propaganda. one in 1997 in New York. Some of the OSS
veterans returned to civilian life, as with Frank
Events reached a climax on 27 September when a White who became a foreign correspondent.
British party led by Major Peter Kemp of Force Georges Wickes, also with Dewey in Saigon,
136 (the cover name for the British SOE in became a professor of English at the University of
Southeast Asia) crossing the Mekong from their Oregon. Another, Major Aaron Banks, also a
base at Nakhon Phanom in northeast Thailand Korean War veteran, joined the American war as
were surrounded by an armed Viet Minh patrol the father of the Green Berets or U.S. Special
who demanded the surrender of French Forces. Yet another of the OSS team in Laos, B.
Lieutenant Francis Klotz. Although protected by Hugh Tovar, went on to play key roles in U.S.
the British, Klotz was assassinated by the Viet Cold War operations. Among other posts, Tovar
Minh. To the disdain of the French, OSS agent served the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta in 1964-1966
Reese, also accompanying the party, maintained during the Suharto coup and bloodbath, later
his neutrality. Although, the OSS party resurfacing as CIA station chief in Laos between
remonstrated with the Viet Minh, the killer was May 1970 and September 1973, at the height of
never transferred to the British base as they the secret war and bombing. In Washington,
demanded. According to de Crvecoeur, [21] the Tovar headed Covert Action and
incident was also a turning point for the Counterintelligence Staffs. More recently, Tovar
Americans recalled from the mission by higher emerged as an advocate of Hmong minority
authorities in Kunming. [22] But in the eyes of rights in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
the Americans what made the British operations
reprehensible was that they were undertaken on It would be tempting to allow that the OSS-Viet
behalf of the French (and working in territory Minh reunions of the mid to late 1990s were
north of the 16th parallel formally reserved for harbingers of a larger reconciliation between
the Chinese under the Potsdam Agreement). [23] Washington and Hanoi. While the realities of the
American war long pushed these historical
More than anything, the events in Saigon as well memories to the background, the sacrifices
as the Laos incident reveals the bind that shared by both the OSS and the Viet Minh in the
individual Americans were in, especially in being anti-Japanese struggle of 1944-1945 are
seen by the French and their British allies as nevertheless notable. Still it required larger shifts
siding with the Viet Minh (alongside Lao by both sides to even reach the stage of
nationalists) against pro-French collaborators resumption of economic ties. Political
and coalitions, who were actively succored by accommodation would arrive only during the
stay-behind Free French guerrillas. It may not Clinton Administration. Up until 1993, the
have been apparent at the time, but the United States still imposed an economic embargo
Americans in urban Saigon, as well as the back upon Vietnam. Although bitterly opposed by

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many veteran groups, along with Republicans in Background to the Crisis, 1940-50 pp. 1-52.
Congress, Clinton lifted the embargo and, in July [2] Thomas G. Paterson and Dennis Merrill,
1995, restored diplomatic relations. In part, Major Problems in American Foreign Policy, Vol.
Clinton was also under pressure from American II: Since 1914, 4th ed. D.C. Heath and Co.,
business interests that were still barred from Lexington 1995, pp.189-90.
trading with Vietnam. But, responsive to veteran [3] Archimedes Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to
groups, Washington also demanded progress by America' s Albatross, University of California
Hanoi in expediting the search and recovery of Press, Berkeley, 1980.
missing-persons or MIA cases, while ignoring [4] Pentagon Papers.
Vietnamese demands for reparations for Agent [5] Richard J. Aldrich, Intelligence and the War
Orange and other victims of the American war. Against Japan, Britain, America and the Politics
In November 2000, Clinton became the first U.S. of the Secret Service, Cambridge University
head of state to visit Vietnam since the end of the Press, 2000, pp. 305; 343-45.
war. Although offering no apologies, he [6] A.K. Nelson (ed), The State Department Policy
nevertheless expressed the need to further the Staff papers, 1947-1949 (3 vols. New York), pp.
process of reconciliation. As he stated in Hanoi, 1ix.
The history we leave behind is painful and hard. [7] Patti, Why Viet Nam?, p.52.
We must not forget it, but we must not be [8] R.H. Spector, Advice and Support The Early
controlled by it. As one who had said no to Years of the United States Army in Vietnam
the war in his youth, his audience was doubtless 1941-1960, The Free Press New York London,
all the more appreciative. In November 2006 1985.
George W. Bush became the second U.S. [9] For a focused study of intra-factional
president to visit Vietnam since the end of the struggles between the Viet Minh, Trotskyists, and
war, ostensibly to strengthen business ties in the others in Saigon in 1945, see David G. Marr,
booming Vietnamese economy. But Bush's visit Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power (University
also drew comparisons between U.S. failure in of California Press, Berkeley, 1995).
Vietnam and the war in Iraq, prompting the [10] Patti, Why Viet Nam?, p. 272.
president's suggestive, but ironic, We'll succeed [11] OSS Southeast Asia Command.
unless we quit one-liner. [24] [12] Patti, Why Viet Nam?, pp. 275-76.
[13] Spector, Advice and Support, p. 68.
[14] In a recent book on the role of the British in
Geoff Gunn is author of Political Struggles in Vietnam, Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to Disaster,
Laos, 1930-1954 (Duang Kamol, Bangkok, 1988; 1945-6 (Routledge, 2007, chap Death of an OSS
reprint White Lotus, Bangkok, 2005) and an Asia- Man), Peter Neville strikes a more critical
Pacific Journal coordinator. He wrote this article position on the OSS role in Saigon, at least as
for The Asia-Pacific Journal. reported by Archimedes Patti in Why Viet Nam?
Neville even doubts that Dewey was ordered out
Recommended citation: Geoff Gunn, "Origins of of Vietnam suggesting he wished to leave on his
the American War in Vietnam: The OSS Role in own volition.
Saigon in 1945." The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. [15] Death of Major Peter Dewey, October 1945,
19-3-09, May 9, 2009. Pike Collection, Item no. 2360209040
[16] Seymour Topping, Vietnamese Historian
Notes Recalls Untold Story of Tragic Murder of Peter
[1] Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department Dewey," in The OSS Society, Inc, Summer 2005,
History of United States Decisionmaking on pp.3-4.
Vietnam, Beacon Press, Boston, 1971, Chapter 1 [17] Documents Relating to OSS Activity in

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French Indochina MLB-2739-B. President Truman and successors as to the need

[18] Death of Major Peter Dewey, October 1945. for firmer presidential control over a successor
[19] Arthur J. Dommen and George W. Dalley, intelligence organization, namely the CIA. The
The OSS and Laos: The 1945 Raven Mission and OSS also fell victim of intra-bureaucratic turf
American Policy, Journal of Southeast Asian wars in Washington. Abolished by Truman, the
OSS was formally closed down in October 1945
Studies, 22, no.2, September, 1991, pp.327-46.
with individuals morphing into a Strategic
[20] Jean Boucher de Crvecoeur, La Liberation
Services Unit coming under the War Department.
du Laos, 1945-1946, Service Historique de
In July 1947, the CIA was created as America's
l'Arme de Terre, Vincennes, 1985, pp. 51-60. prime intelligence organization, just as the Cold
[21] de Crvecoeur, La Liberation, pp.51-60. War was given priority.
[22] Dommen and Dalley, p.342. See, Aldrich, Intelligence and the War Against
[23] Dommen and Dalley (p.346) suggest that Japan, p.343.
knowledge of the impermissible independence [24] Robert Scheer, Bush's Vietnam Analogy,
of the OSS in Laos actually gave pause to The Nation, 22 November 2006.

Geoffrey Gunn (/authors/view/9159)

A long time resident in Nagasaki (I live in what used to be called the "foreign settlement"), I teach
"international relations" in the Faculty of Economics of Nagasaki University to mostly Japanese
students. This is an old red brick establishment going back a hundred years which survived the
atomic bombing though not the "black rain." I also teach courses on Japanese society to visiting
North American students at Nagasaki Foreign Languages University, a somewhat different game.
As an even longer term resident or sojourner in some Southeast Asian countries, I mostly write
and comment about these countries for Japan Focus as well as in other publications. Needless to
say, I spend a lot of time in the field. Recent trips have taken me back to Laos and Vietnam, with a
cycle of earlier trips to Indonesia and East Timor. Perhaps reflecting my research interests (and
my audiences), some of my books have recently entered Indonesian, Portuguese and Chinese
translations (virtually nothing in Japanese if you follow my logic). One of my recent books takes a
broader optic, namely, First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange (1500-1800)
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0742526623?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)[Roman & Littlefield, 2003]

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