ABSTRACT
Vietnam gave the International Rescue Committee the opportunity to apply the expertise it had gained in handling political refugees from the Soviet bloc countries to the exigencies of a Third World counterinsurgency campaign. Intrinsic to the U.S. drive to defeat the Viet Minh was an extensive program of psychological warfare, designed to mold and manipulate the views of the Vietnamese people. The Cold War had raised propaganda to a central position in the unceasing conflicts between the rival superpowers. A diverse assortment of organizations operating within the covert network cooperated with the CIA in disseminating the U.S. line throughout the world. Although the IRC, as a refugee relief agency, normally operated within a different segment of the network, Vietnam would change this.
