ABSTRACT
Establishing Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) within the military headquarters in Saigon was no guarantee that it would escape Office of Civil Operations fate. William C. Westmoreland's decision in May 1967 to give CORDS responsibility for territorial security forces was critical to its mission of helping the South Vietnamese deal with the insurgency. The South Vietnamese were responsible for the anti-infrastructure effort. From the early days of the struggle, the South Vietnamese police and security services had achieved little success in attacking the infrastructure. The additional advisers would enhance CORDS's ability to assist South Vietnamese efforts at bolstering local security and help improve Regional Forces and Popular Forces performance. CORDS was a bureaucracy dedicated to finding ways, usually standardized programs or plans, to get the South Vietnamese to perform better in pacification. The issue divided the Americans and the South Vietnamese and put Agency for International Development and CORDS at odds.
