CHAPTER 16
The CIA had begun a counter-insurgency experiment in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam during 1961. It was under the direction of their United States Special Forces, the Green Berets, who were not part of the regular U.S. Army. The Green Berets worked for the Defense Department and were handled and supplied by the CIA. They did not report to any Army brass.
The new operation was called the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG). It was a counter-insurgency program, necessitated by the fear that the Viet Cong would recruit the many tribes of the Montagnards and other minority groups who populated the Central Highlands. These tribesmen hated both the North and South Vietnamese peoples, who had treated them viciously in the past and had driven them into the mountains.
The
