This was run by the CIA-sponsored Saigon Military Mission, described in detail in earlier chapters. It was part of “Operation Brotherhood,” an organization managed by CIA-run Filipino leaders under the aegis of the International Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Intelligence gleaned from paid native informers always reported massive buildups everywhere. These native sources in intelligence never saw starvation-crazed refugees; they always saw what they were being paid to see. Every refugee area was another regiment of Vietcong. General Hunger was General Giap, and Communists were abroad in the land. After all, even the “intelligence source” was a shrewd businessman. He was a creation of the American CIA, and the CIA was running the war, with a checkbook, in 1960-61, as it had been since 1945.