View source for Pacification in South Vietnam

===Implementation===
While it was agreed that the Mekong Delta would be the first target area, there were quite different plans of how it should be carried out. The first formal proposal came, in November 1961, from [[Robert Thompson|Sir R. G. K. Thompson]], head of the British Advisory Mission who had put down the Malayan insurgency.  Thompson wanted to start with moderate steps, in areas not under heavy Communist domination. Palmer also saw elements of earlier and modest French programs in the plan, although he also saw it fail because statistical evaluation had taken the place of understanding of actual progress. <ref name=Palmer>{{citation
 | first = Dave R. | last = Palmer
 | title = Summons of the Trumpet | publisher = Presidio Press | year = 1978}}, pp. 25-26</ref>

Palmer saw a constant repackaging of old ideas. "Rural reconstruction", or ''bo xay dung''. followed "Strategic Hamlets", but American officials preferred "Revolutionary Development."  [[Nguyen Cao Ky]] then decreed that Revolutionary Development was henceforth to be translated, ''bo xay dung.''<ref>Palmer, p. 221</ref>

The U.S. military actually wanted ARVN operations against VC main forces in the Delta, then known as War Zone D, before starting pacification.  U.S. civilians, however, wanted some local operation which could achieve concrete gains. Diem's wanted control of a strategic area, again protecting his perceived interests against the Communists, Americans, and his generals.

[[Operation Sunrise]] of March 1962, in [[Binh Duong Province]] north of Saigon. It would be directed by Diem's brother, [[Ngo Dinh Nhu]], who would set the schedule without much U.S. control. Nhu exerted local control through the province and district chiefs, not the military. Diem and Nhu consciously separated power between the ARVN and the chiefs under the Ministry of the Interior, which caused command friction, as at the [[Battle of Ap Bac]], but also protected against coups.