Myth: The great majority of villagers were VC sympathizers, so no counterinsurgency programs ever succeeded
Fact: About 20% of the population of South Vietnam supported the communists. 80% did not.
- The Viet Minh was not an indigenous South Vietnam organization. They were imported from North Vietnam.
- Many were tricked into thinking that Ho was a nationalist and sought Vietnamese independence.
- The Viet Minh moved into the South in the 1940's and recruited from local villagers, but the leadership was from the North.
- Locals were recruited, but command and control came from North Vietnam, not from the indigenous southerners.
- Much of the local support that existed was coerced with murder, torture and intimidation.
