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Jack Poulson's avatar

I have admittedly been primarily basing my understanding of that time period on former 5th Group deputy commander Charles Simpson's book "Inside the Green Berets" and, for broader understanding of CORDS, Gawthorpe's "To Build as Well as to Destroy."

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Peter Byrne's avatar

Check out Michael Herr’s classic book Dispatches. Also books by Doug Valentino and many accounts of the genocidal bombing of Laos Plain of Jars.

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Jack Poulson's avatar

Thanks -- I had listened to some of the incredible audio interviews Valentino published alongside the book but haven't had a chance to pick up a copy yet.

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Maria's avatar

Ok, so if I understand Marco Rubio's post on X correctly, 73% of USAID contracts were terminated, and 18% were kept. If you look at the audited funding, it's not favorable as a source of 'humanitarian aid'. Can you distill the contracts that were kept after DOGE to see if any maintained their humanitarian outreach?

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Jack Poulson's avatar

A large number of development and humanitarian contractracts were preserved; percentage-wise, the political programs were what was cut. You can read the primary source here:

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000195-d4ba-dc7d-add5-f6fe93e40000

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