Viet Cong Cadres and the Cadre System: A Study of the Main and Local Forces

Unlike previous Memorandums on the Viet Cong cadres, this study focuses on the nature of the cadre system and the ways in which it operated in main and local force units of III and IV Corps through 1966 to ensure maximum performance of high- and low-ranking military leaders. Based primarily on 63 interviews conducted by the RAND field team in South Vietnam, and augmented by captured documents and other interrogation reports, the study seeks to shed light on some of the reasons why many cadres were effective servants of the system despite the Front's failure to fulfill its ambition of national 'liberation' and despite an intensification of the war. Supersedes Rept. no. RM-5414-ISA/ARPA, AD388241