The meeting with the fugitive Thé was only the most dramatic of a number of such clandestine meetings Lansdale held in the closing months of 1954. Both in quiet backrooms in Saigon and during quick forays into the countryside, the SMM commander met with an array of local warlords, as well as militia leaders from both the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao sects, part of a concerted effort to wean the private armies away from their French paymasters and to Diem’s side.
