From his excellent book Sub Rosa: The CIA and the Uses of Intelligence (New York: Times Books, 1978). This is a good source of “inside the family” information about certain aspects of the intervention in Vietnam and of the role played by the various participants.
Previous CIA station chief, Saigon.
At the time General Taylor issued these instructions to General Westmoreland, I was serving with the Joint Staff as chief of the Office of Special Operations in SACSA. I attended meetings at which General Taylor presided and was well aware of his brilliance and experience. His remarks to General Westmoreland cannot be taken lightly. For my work with the Joint Staff, I was awarded, by General Taylor, one of the first Joint Chiefs of Staff Commendation Medals ever issued.
During the summer of 1944, I had been ordered to fly from Cairo via Tehran over the Caspian Sea and then across southern Russian into the Ukraine to a point just west of Poltava. I saw firsthand the indescribable destruction of such cities as Rostov, and how the once-fertile Ukraine had been laid bare. Only the firebombed Tokyo had suffered more damage.