Thang, like Lansdale, believed that it was important to win “hearts and minds,” and that a first step was to curb military abuses against the populace. By the beginning of 1966, Lansdale was writing that Thang “is a younger version of Ramon Magsaysay (even to the foot jingling), and we’ve become close friends.”17 But Thang started off “with practically no staff in his Ministry,” thus occasioning yet another delay while he staffed up.18 Even once he acquired a staff, he still faced the problem of trying to implement a pacification program on behalf of a government that was barely functional. A
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