| #1 Cost of doing business. Chieu hoi type programs are no different from army recruitment programs in this respect. Just as Taliban will infiltrate the Afghan government security services, fake Taliban will pretend to surrender. In Vietnam, it was estimated that 25% were genuine. However, the cost was nugatory and the program did indeed siphon off a great deal of communist guerrilla manpower, such that the communist victory in 1975 was achieved via a conventional cross border invasion using tanks, artillery and warplanes (purchased hastily on credit from the Soviets that North Vietnam was paying back a quarter century later). |