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From the blog "Unredacted comes this article by Lauren Harper
Air Force officer Edward G.
Lansdale was famous for his influential theories of counterinsurgent warfare,
namely that Communist revolution was best confronted by democratic revolution.
His theories proved successful in the Philippines after World War II, but were
much less so later in South Vietnam. From 1957 through 1963 Lansdale worked for
the Department of Defense in Washington, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Special Operations, Staff Member of the President’s Committee on Military
Assistance, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations. During
the early 1960s he was primarily involved in clandestine efforts to topple the
Cuban government, mostly through Operation Mongoose, including concocting plans to assassinate
Fidel Castro.
Nearly 25 years ago the Archive submitted FOIA requests for all
material from Lansdale’s papers that were obtained in 1983 and 1984 from the
Hoover Institution of War’s Archive. Today, thanks to a series of FOIA appeals,
MDR requests, and the hard work of the declassifiers at the Department of
Defense’s Washington Headquarters Service, the Archive is posting the Lansdale
Releases, a great addition to the Archive’s on-site Lansdale Collection. Please check out the over 300 pages of
newly declassified documents, which includes the Confidential February 24,
1960, memorandum by Col. Lansdale, “Subject: Presidential Candidates,
Philippines,” on how the US could best wield influence through the 1961
elections (page 80), the Secret February 26, 1966, memorandum by Lansdale’s
one-time subordinate Daniel Ellsberg, “Subject: Colonel Chau and CIA,” on the
Vietnamese colonel’s concerns over rural construction programs (page 46), a
Confidential October 29, 1956, memorandum for the Customs commissioner on the
smuggling of pornographic films, referred to as “fighting Fish films,” into
Saigon (page 115), and much, much more.
A Confidential October 29, 1956, memorandum for
the Customs commissioner on the smuggling of pornographic films, referred to as
“fighting Fish films,” into Saigon (page 115) – just one of the documents in
the new #Lansdale2013 release.
This posting is part
of an ongoing crowdsourcing initiative where the Archive
provides documents newly-released through the Freedom of Information
Act to the public, and gives you the first crack at the documents so you can
tell us what is significant about them. Please read these
Lansdale documents, and find and flag those that are important or interesting
and tag it #Lansdale2013!
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