U.S. Strategy on Sunnis Questioned

[Ken White]

Reality is such a pain...

It'll take two generations, minimum, to build a truly nationally loyal Iraqi security forces structure.

[Dominique R. Poirier]

For the record and from recollection.

It seems to me that this has been attempted first during the Vietnam War. The idea would have been suggested and put underway by William Colby himself some years before he was named as Director of the C.I.A.
This idea was considered as foolish and even crazy at that time, as many would say today.

I don't remember in which year this story happened. Sorry. But this I remember about it is that Vietnamese civilians living in remote small villages had to be provided with arms and ammunitions in order to let them defend by their own against Việt Minhs.

I don’t clearly remember to which scale the idea was put underway and how successful it proved to be. But this info gives a lead about anteriority searches. At least I am pretty sure that further historical information about this story can be found in Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, by William Colby, 1978.

[Steve Blair]

For the record and from recollection.

It seems to me that this has been attempted first during the Vietnam War. The idea would have been suggested and put underway by William Colby himself some years before he was named as Director of the C.I.A.
This idea was considered as foolish and even crazy at that time, as many would say today.

I don't remember in which year this story happened. Sorry. But this I remember about it is that Vietnamese in remote small village had to be provided with arms and ammunitions in order to let them defend by their own against Việt Minhs.

I don’t clearly remember to which scale the idea was put underway and how successful it proved to be. But this info gives a lead about anteriority searches. At least I am pretty sure that further historical information about this story can be found in Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, by William Colby, 1978.

This actually happened with some regularity and in a variety of locations in SNV, Dominique. It was done with Catholic refugees from the North, a variety of Montagnard tribes, and some other elements as well. The 'Yard effort was quite successful, but ran into problems from the SVN government. Seems no one bothered to determine that Vietnamese in general (north and south) didn't care much for 'Yards, and that they returned the dislike. Still, the SF border camps did play a role during much of the war, and 'Yards served with distinction on SOG teams throughout the region.