ABSTRACT
The growing numbers of American advisers working for Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) brought fresh opportunities for reviving some leverage tools that had fallen into disuse and devising new ones. As 1967 ended, CORDS could attribute some changes in the South Vietnamese pacification program to the exercise of leverage and months of liaison meetings. To the Americans, better management represented an essential step toward strengthening the operations of South Vietnam's government and a precondition for ultimate self-sufficiency. The procedure neatly balanced a respect for Saigon's sovereignty with the American desire to be involved in the government's affairs in an effort to improve performance. American leverage schemes tended to follow a pattern. United States officials would assert a broad claim to monitor some South Vietnamese function. If the South Vietnamese resisted, then the Americans would settle for less sweeping authority.
