This new directive had a problem as well, however, for it presupposed that an indigenous South Vietnamese government actually existed. It did not. Instead, virtually every function of the civil administration in Vietnam’s southern half was still officiated over by the French. Lansdale was given a stark illustration of this when, shortly after his arrival, he convened a meeting of provincial Vietnamese officials to discuss security issues. “They were practically all Frenchmen as [sic] province and district chiefs,”
