{"id":10892,"date":"2022-11-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/?p=10892"},"modified":"2023-01-11T12:52:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T12:52:36","slug":"britains-secret-propaganda-campaign-in-the-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/britains-secret-propaganda-campaign-in-the-vietnam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s secret propaganda campaign in the Vietnam war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The British Foreign Office provided key propaganda support to the US during its war in Vietnam, chiefly through its Cold War propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 1960s, this support involved helping the US-backed South Vietnamese regime to set up its own propaganda unit, and whitewashing Washington\u2019s image over civilian bloodshed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also entailed distributing material to hundreds of British political and media figures in order to sanitise US atrocities, and make the British public less critical of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, Britain even offered to provide the US with \u201cspecial\u201d support during the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, which Washington used to cynically and dramatically escalate<\/a> its war effort in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain was not only interested in currying favour in the so-called \u2018special relationship\u2019. Like the US, Britain wanted to contain a radical nationalist movement in Vietnam which threatened to set an example of successful independent development in South East Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These documents demonstrate the lengths that Britain was prepared to go to support Washington\u2019s war, which resulted in the deaths of two to three million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Emergency target\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In September 1961, a British Advisory Mission (BRIAM) arrived in Saigon \u201cto offer advice to the Vietnamese Government on how to go about the problem of destroying the Communist threat\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key pillar of British advice would be in the field of propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 1961, the British ambassador in Saigon judged that South Vietnamese ruler Ngo Dinh Diem needed to improve his unpopular regime\u2019s \u201cinformation services\u201d, but democratic reform was out of the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the head of BRIAM, Robert Thompson, \u201cmuch was made of the fact that the administration was not democratic, but democracy does not work in all countries and could not do so in South Vietnam in the present circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Washington\u2019s puppet was unlikely to win a fair election, and democracy thus had to be withheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“A key pillar of British advice would be in the field of propaganda”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the IRD\u2019s output in Vietnam required \u201cstrengthening\u201d, with one British embassy official in Saigon, the capital in the south, writing: \u201cThe fact is that Vietnam must now be regarded as an emergency target [for the IRD]\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s initial propaganda objectives would be to \u201chit the peasant on the rice field\u201d, to \u201chelp build loyalty among government officials by giving them good exposure\u201d, and \u201cto insure the population is informed of what is happening in Hanoi\u201d, the capital of North Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end, the Foreign Office embarked on helping the South Vietnamese regime \u201con the setting-up of a central office to study, analyse and expose Communist tactics\u201d \u2013 a replica of Britain\u2019s IRD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRD chief Donald Hopson felt the idea of \u201chelping the Vietnamese to set up their own IRD\u201d struck \u201can encouraging note\u201d, and the Foreign Office thus \u201centirely approve[d] of the action\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These discussions were followed by visits of South Vietnamese political figures to the IRD in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
US helicopters attack a Vietnamese camp northwest of Saigon, March 1965. (AP Photo\/Horst Faas\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rehabilitating a Hitler-enthusiast<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After Diem was overthrown in a US-sanctioned coup in November 1963, the IRD continued \u201cadvising the Vietnamese authorities on their counter-Communist activities\u201d. It was also \u201cbriefing foreign correspondents and others on North Vietnamese and NFLSV [National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam] affairs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By June 1965, a military officer named Nguyen Cao Ky had been installed as prime minister of South Vietnam. One month later, Ky told London\u2019s Sunday Mirror<\/em>: \u201cPeople ask me who my heroes are. I have only one: Hitler\u201d. He added that: \u201cWe need four or five Hitlers in Vietnam\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ky\u2019s statement caused predictable controversy, and damaged the US- and British-promoted narrative that the war in Vietnam was one of the \u201cfree world\u201d pitted against totalitarianism. Calls were made in the UK parliament to de-recognise the South Vietnamese government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruised by the scandal, the British Foreign Office set about rehabilitating Ky\u2019s Hitler-enthusiast image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“We need four or five Hitlers in Vietnam”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On 25 January 1966, an IRD official wrote to the British embassy in Saigon that \u201cwe would welcome details of Viet Cong atrocities, and positive activities by the Americans \u2013 such as the provision of medical or educational facilities \u2013 and material to support a better projection of Ky than the traditional one of a pistol-packing Hitler worshipper\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official added: \u201cI need hardly say that the closer we receive this material to the events the better, and items that have not been exploited by the Americans, if any exist, would be particularly useful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herbert Lancashire, the first secretary at the British embassy in Saigon, responded that \u201cwe shall enquire\u2026 of Richard Morris, Diplomatic Correspondent of the Times<\/em> who is due here for four days, whether his paper might accept a Man-in-the-News biography of Ky which might paint a different picture\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the issue of Ky could not \u201cbe broached\u201d in the meeting with Morris, and Britain\u2019s designs to rehabilitate a Hitler-enthusiast were apparently cut short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RELATED<\/h3>\n
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\n \n \"\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Britain\u2019s secret role in the brutal US war in Vietnam<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Godsend\u2019 to Washington<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The IRD also directly assisted Washington\u2019s propaganda campaigns. In the view of one Foreign Office official, \u201cdefeat for the Vietnamese and the Americans would be a disaster for the Free World and would not end here\u201d. As such, Britain \u201cmust continue to give what help we can, as best we can\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 1962, the IRD agreed to a request by the United States Information Service, which promoted government media operations, to produce \u201cabout fifteen 15-minute scripts depicting the impressions of a group of\u2026 refugees who left the North within the last twelve months\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea was to present conditions in the communist North as far inferior to those in the South, and the scripts were handed over to South Vietnamese officers versed in psychological warfare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s point man for this plan was Major Pham Xuan Ninh, the Director of the National Radio in Saigon, who had already visited London for propaganda training in September 1961. The US later told an IRD official that \u201cthe resources of your man in Saigon was a godsend\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gulf of Tonkin incident<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On 2 August 1964, the USS Destroyer Maddox<\/em> was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Though the US declared that the attack was unprovoked, it was in fact prompted<\/a> by covert US attacks on North Vietnamese forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days later, Washington claimed that US ships had once again been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. This was a lie<\/a> based on faulty intelligence, but it provided the US with a useful justification to massively escalate the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 10 August, US President Lyndon B. Johnson acquired permission<\/a> from Congress \u201cto take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate\u201d against North Vietnam, forming the legal basis for Washington\u2019s future prosecution of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, Britain offered to provide \u201cspecial\u201d assistance during the Gulf of Tonkin incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one IRD official noted in secret correspondence, \u201cat the beginning of the recent Gulf of Tonkin crisis I spoke to Mr. Wilt at the American Embassy and asked if there were anything special that we could do to help\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilt was \u201cvery appreciative\u201d of the offer but said that the US government was at that time \u201cvery satisfied with the way that the story was playing itself\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving Washington\u2019s blood-stained image<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the following years, with the US fully committed to the war, British propaganda assistance continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1966, as the US conducted its Rolling Thunder operation<\/a> – a massive and indiscriminate bombing campaign – Foreign Office notes show that IRD policy \u201cwas to help in improving the US image over bloodshed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to US estimates<\/a>, 182,000 North Vietnamese civilians were killed during Rolling Thunder, though the real figure is certainly much higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Britain offered to provide \u201cspecial\u201d assistance during the Gulf of Tonkin incident”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

IRD officials justified this on the grounds that \u201cthere was no promise of a reasonable life for the people of South Viet-Nam if the Americans pulled out\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some years after the conclusion of the war, a former CIA officer, Frank Snepp, admitted<\/a> that when he would try to plant disinformation about Vietnam into the US media, he would \u201cgo to the British ambassador and brief him on the disinformation I had just given a reporter. So when a reporter wanted to cross-check what I told him with\u2026 the British ambassador\u2026 he would get false confirmation \u2013 the same message coming back at him\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Propaganda at home<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alongside supporting the South Vietnamese and US propaganda effort, the IRD also went to considerable lengths to promote its material to the British public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1960s, it was noted with disappointment that \u201cthe Americans and South Vietnamese seemed to be getting a worse press in Britain than in most other Western countries\u201d. The Americans were \u201closing sympathy\u201d in Britain, one official added, and \u201csome of the odium is rubbing off on HMG [the UK government]\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end, a British embassy official in Saigon wrote that \u201ca greater information effort at home in support of the Vietnamese\/American war effort\u201d would be appreciated. Proposals were invited for \u201cpossible ways of improving IRD output for home\u2026 consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By early 1966, the IRD had \u201cincreased its output and distribution on Vietnam\u2026 particularly in this country [Britain]\u201d. Material devoted exclusively to Vietnam was being sent to over 250 contacts in Britain, including 61 MPs, 56 journalists and commentators, 13 members of the BBC, and 22 academics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Material devoted exclusively to Vietnam was being sent to over 250 contacts in Britain”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those newspapers most \u201creceptive\u201d to the material included the Daily Telegraph<\/em>, Sunday Telegraph<\/em>, Sunday Times<\/em>, the Times<\/em>, the Economist<\/em>, and the Spectator<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This material was clearly aimed at shoring up the British public\u2019s sympathy for the war effort, and shifting blame for the massive civilian casualties away from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this period, the IRD also sought to send delegations of British politicians and journalists to Vietnam, hoping that \u201cthe visitors would come back more convinced of the possibilities of victory, or at least of the need to contain communism, and therefore more inclined to support the US cause\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRD material sent to Western Europe was also \u201cregularly and effectively used\u201d, while distribution in Latin America was described as \u201chigh because of the insatiable demand for anti-Communist material\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British propaganda support during the war was considerable, but clearly not as effective as was desired \u2013 much of the British public remained bitterly opposed to the conflict, and the US was eventually forced to make an embarrassing withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The British Foreign Office provided key propaganda support to the US during its war in Vietnam, chiefly through its Cold War propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD). Throughout the 1960s, this support involved helping the US-backed South Vietnamese regime to set up its own propaganda unit, and whitewashing Washington\u2019s image over civilian bloodshed. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":10920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,16,6],"tags":[121,357],"coauthors":[222],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBritain\u2019s secret propaganda campaign in the Vietnam war<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UK Foreign Office\u2019s propaganda unit, the Information Research Department, worked to gloss over Washington\u2019s complicity in civilian bloodshed during its devastating war in Vietnam, declassified files show.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/britains-secret-propaganda-campaign-in-the-vietnam-war\/\" \/>\n<meta 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propaganda campaign in the Vietnam war","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/britains-secret-propaganda-campaign-in-the-vietnam-war\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/britains-secret-propaganda-campaign-in-the-vietnam-war\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/John-vietnam-header-sized.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-17T09:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-11T12:52:36+00:00","description":"The UK Foreign Office\u2019s propaganda unit, the Information Research Department, worked to gloss over Washington\u2019s complicity in civilian bloodshed during its devastating war in Vietnam, declassified files 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