headquarters to operational A detachments�remained unchanged and distinct within the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, chain. With the growth of the U.S. advisory effort and the expansion of counterinsurgency programs, there was an increasing need for better co-ordination at all levels, particularly in the field where in many areas CIDG camps were near Vietnamese Army and provincial units. Accordingly, on 1 May 1964, in order to integrate more effectively the CIDG program within the countrywide pacification program, operational control of Special Forces A and B detachments was transferred to the Military Assistance Command senior advisers in each corps tactical zone. The Vietnamese Special Forces were already under corps command, so both the U.S. Special Forces and the Vietnamese Special Forces were responsive to the same command levels.

During Operation SWITCHBACK, a number of CIDG camps had been placed along the Laotian-Cambodian border. (See Map 4.) Emphasis was placed on expanding the Montagnard area development camps toward the border to provide border-screening forces. After Operation SWITCHBACK, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, placed even greater emphasis on border surveillance and control. The Border Surveillance-Control Operating Concept drafted by Special Forces (Provisional), Vietnam, specified the following missions for U.S. and Vietnamese Special Forces: recruit and train personnel to serve in border surveillance and control units in populated areas; establish intelligence nets in the border areas to detect infiltration; direct psychological indoctrination and civic action programs in the border control zone; gain control of the international border little by little and gradually expand small secure areas until the border zone should be permanently under the control of the Border Command; and conduct guerrilla warfare�long-range patrol activities to deny the border areas to the Viet Cong by detection, interdiction, harassment, and elimination of the infiltration routes parallel to or through the border control zone.

In November 1963 the U.S. Mission's responsibility for border surveillance was terminated and the mission assigned to Special Forces (Provisional), Vietnam. From this date, priority was given to the establishment of CIDG camps near the border where they could carry out a border surveillance or area development center and border surveillance mission, depending on the density of the population in the area. CIDG and Special Forces did not, however, have the entire mission. The Vietnamese Pacification Plan called for use of both CIDG camps and Vietnamese Ranger battalions.