Central Intelligence Office


The Central Intelligence Office was the national strategic intelligence agency for the government of the Republic of Vietnam, headquarters in Saigon. It was created in 1961, via Executive Decree No. 109/TTP, signed into law on May 5, 1961, by President Ngô Đình Diệm. The agency was responsible for investigating, gathering and analyzing strategic & military intelligence information on communist North Vietnam, and its branch in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and report and advise the South Vietnamese government on national security.

Organization

The Intelligence Office included three divisions:
  • Domestic Intelligence Bureau . This division has a department for surveillance of domestic communist/enemy activities ; a counterespionage department ; and a political department e.g. on subversive political activities like coup d'etats and on the North Vietnamese government.
  • Foreign Intelligence Bureau
  • National Inquiry Centre . This division was only responsible for receiving and sending prisoners, e.g. POWs, suspected communists etc., for interrogation
Each military corps zone has one Special Contact Mission under the Domestic Intelligence Bureau. Overseas, there are Foreign Intelligence Bureau departments in France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Thailand and Cambodia.

[Fall of Saigon]

According to journalist Huy Đức's 2013 book, Bên Thắng cuộc '', ''on April 24, 1975, Nguyễn Khắc Bình secretly fled. Acting President Trần Văn Hương then appointed Nguyễn Phát Lộc, an assistant of Binh, as the new Director. On the afternoon of April 28, 1975, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon asked all CIO staff to evacuate to 3 Bạch Đằng St. and await for evacuation out of Vietnam; they fled to 2 Nguyễn Hậu St. afterwards. However, on April 30, 1975, at 01:00, electronic communication between the Embassy and CIO staff were cut, leaving them stranded there.

Chronological List of CIO Directors