Conv-House Seven

From: Jim Anderson

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

One of the other refugees on the "Pioneer Commander" heard a similar radio message, late afternoon April 29 or on the 30th. The translation provided me was that all North Vietnamese divisions were ordered to withdraw to counter the Chinese invasion. Never read the book but as I recall Terzani was an Italian Communist. I will add that the Italian Embassy personnel evacuated April 29, courtesy of Air America.

Jim A.

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

Terzani's accounts seem heavily biased toward North Vietnam. No guarantees as to accuracy of his book.
Giai Phong! was the first book I came across about Saigon's fall. It was published in 1976. Kind of an obscure publication found in a chain bookstore.
Billy

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

Mike, the book cover photo of what was presumably House Seven (middle attachment) looks like it was possibly shot from the cross street off of Hong Thap Tu south? of AFVN and THVN. That cross street is visible at the bottom of the first (historical) photo.
Doesn't look to me like it was shot from Hong Thap Tu.
Or maybe it was taken from another "side" entrance.
Billy

From: Steve Sevits

Dated: November 17, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

Attached find a newspaper article from the 11/10/15 Post Star newspaper of Glens Falls, NY sent to me by a friend. [Click on the above link.] This concerns a recounting of the activities a CIA operative in Vietnam as retold by his daughter who as a youngster was in Vietnam in the 1970s.
The activities recounted herein are something new and unknown to me, but since the article is titled “Mother Vietnam Radio’ it seemed worth passing along.
Steve

From: Mike McNally

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: House Seven Entrance on Nguyen Bink Khiem Street

I've attached Taber's House Seven photo, slightly enlarged, and two of the aerial photos focusing on the buildings on the corner of Nguyen Binh Khiem and Hong Thap Tu streets. I think those buildings might be the ones in Taber's photo.
I agree with Billy that the street in Taber's photo doesn't appear to be Hong Thap Tu. I rarely saw HTT without a ton of vehicles on it. Nguyen Binh Khiem, however, may have had restricted access for security reasons, perhaps directly because of House Seven having an entrance there.
I'll continue to look for more visual evidence about the House Seven location.

Mike

[NB: Again all of the attachments are posted on the Related to Saigon page. Click here.]

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 19, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

To be effective as a propaganda tool, House Seven programming would need to have been fed to powerful transmitters capable of covering a large part of Vietnam with a sufficient signal to be received on basic radio receivers.
Would be of interest to know where these transmitters were and how the House Seven program feed reached the transmitters for broadcast.
Especially later in the war, AFVN relied on the Integrated Wireless Communications System (pictured in this video, I.W.C.S. Radio Sites, Vietnam War) to relay the feed to upcountry detachments.
Maybe House Seven used a similar hookup?

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 17, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

Frank Snepp describes "Mother Vietnam" radio in "Decent Interval" on page 408 (paperback). Operated by the CIA, the studio was located at "House Seven" at 7 Hong Thap Tu (adjacent to AFVN Saigon). It featured a "seductive female voice, nostalgic music and plenty of soft news."
One seductress was Mai Lon who studied broadcasting in the U.S. Her father was a ranking official in the Thieu government, according to Snepp. The House Seven staff was airlifted to Phu Quoc island shortly before the fall of Saigon.
Another product of House Seven was Radio Red Star according to Tiziano Terzani in "Giai Phong!" (page 48 paperback)
Also, in "Radio, The Forgotten Medium," Soley writes about the House Seven operation.
Billy Williams

AFVN Qui Nhon, Da Nang, Saigon 1971-72

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 17, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

The last words concerning the phony news [BIlly's messsage above] should read...... "and the withdrawal of three North Vietnamese divisions from the South in order to confront a Chinese invasion of North Vietnam."
-------------------
Terzani's version of White Christmas stated that eventually the "105 degrees and rising" message on ARS was changed because "by now, all Saigon knew" (about the evacuation). The new voice message was "mother wants you to call home." He adds "...... the American radio continued to broadcast music."
Billy Williams

[Terzani's comments above contradiction the story as related by Chuck Neil. (Click here) Webmaster]

From: Dickie Ellis

Dated: November 17, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

House Seven was next door to us and Mai Lon use to come over and visit with her "handler" Army Lt. Mike Markovski (sp?) Mai Lon and I did a TV program called "Lets Speak Vietnamese." which I wrote and produced as well. Mai Lon would teach me Vietnamese words and phrases on the TV show. I recall she had attended an American High School on a military base when her father was an Ambassador. I recall it was Thailand. Later, back home I had a Vietnamese friend in Washington who use to find Vietnamese now living in the states. He owned a restaurant in Arlington Virginia. He found Mai Lon in Baltimore married to an American GI. He contacted her with my name and address but she told him her husband was very jealous and she could not speak with me on the phone. That was the last I knew of her. I have photos of us on the TV set somewhere....and a photo of me and Lt. Markovski taken at the AFVN compound.

Dickie

From: Ron Turner

Dated: November 19, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

There was at least one off-shore/on-island transmitter somewhere closer to the DMZ than I would wish to be. Other than that I do not know where the transmitters were, however a reasonably small MF DSB transmitter (e.g. 300-400 Watts) can cover a reasonably sized area and, if it is pretending to be a NVA broadcast, the signal should not be overly strong. In most areas, there were more than a few available unused 3KC channels in the Integrated Wideband Communications System (IWCS).

Regards, Ron

A Sample of what House Seven Might Have Been Doing?

This link goes to a BBC Radio interview of Rick Hofmann who was assigned to

US Army Psychological Operations (PSYOP) in Vietnam in the late 1960's.

[Received from Jim Anderson in July 2017.]

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 17, 2015

Subject: re: Master Thesis on Vietnam

Hi Bob,
While repairing helicopter radios at Avionic Electronics Central in Phu Loi briefly before getting to AFVN, I remember hearing a lady, Mai, on AFVN with a short Saturday morning program. Possibly, she was the same person as the lady at House Seven. Don't remember her at AFVN though when I was there in Saigon.
In Giai Phong!, Terzani writes about Radio Red Star "for years the CIA had been operating, at No. 7 Hong Thap Tu Street, a clandestine radio station that imitated the call letters, music and language of Radio Giai Phong, the Voice of the National Liberation Front, and transmitted on almost the same frequency. Its purpose was to create confusion in enemy ranks by spreading false news reports, interpolated with speeches by Vietcong leaders whose voices it imitated.
"It was this broadcast station, for instance, that had reported the death of General Giap in December 1972 under an American bombing of Haiphong, a story later taken up by the whole international press; it was this station that which, after the fall of Da Nang and Hue, broadcast the news of a coup d'etat in Hanoi and the withdrawal of three North Vietnamese divisions from the South in order to confront invasion [a Chinese invasion (see Billy's message below)] of North Vietnam."
Billy

AFVN Group Conversations

From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: "Mai Lan" Mentioned in Taber Book about House Seven

Looks like a good book to read. Can't tell where the coveer photo was taken.

[NB: The cover photo is of House Seven taken sometime during the Vietnam War. Webmaster]

From: Mike McNally

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: "Mai Lan" Mentioned in Taber Book about House Seven

A "Mai Lan" is mentioned in the Taber book about House Seven. I've attached a screenshot of the paragraph which mentions Mai Lan . And here's a link to info about the Taber book. (Click here)

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From: Mike McNally

Dated: November 18, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

In his small book, "Get Out Any Way You Can:" The Story of the Evacuation of House Seven, CIA officer Charles Eugene Taber described 7 Hong Thap Tu in 1973 as appearing to be a military compound with ARVN guards at the gate. Taber worked mainly in a "warehouse" located in the compound.
I've attached an aerial photo of AFVN. The "alley" next to AFVN is visible. Beyond it is what I would call a "compound". Lacking information to the contrary, I think that might be the House Seven compound.
Today, the "alley" is "Hem (lane) 7" and addresses down the lane have 7-slash-something numbers, eg. 7/32.
Today, the business next to Hem 7 has a 7D Nguyen Thi Minh Khai( former Hong Thap Tu) address. The next business is 7C. Then there's a gate into the interior of the old compound. That gate has an address of 7B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. I've attached a screenshot.
The cover photo of Taber's book is shown inside the book and described as House Seven. I've attached a copy. There's no indication whether Taber's "warehouse" is in the photo.
I think the 7 Hong Thap Tu compound may have had more than one gate. It may have had a "side gate" on Nguyen Binh Khiem Street. Perhaps Taber entered from the side gate.
Other information on the web says that MACV-SOG had operations in this compound. Materials may have been printed at this location for use in their activities.
If anyone knows more about this compound, or about any activities located down Alley/Hem 7, please let me know.

Mike McNally

[NB: All of the attachments are posted on the Related to Saigon page. Click here.]

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From: Billy Williams

Dated: November 19, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

That sounds plausible, Ron. A transmitter near the DMZ. The House Seven signal would need to have been comparable in strength to usual signals coming from NVN unless they were trying to override another "legitimate" signal.
Billy

From: Ron Turner

Dated: November 19, 2015

Subject: The House Seven Location Near AFVN

As to House 7, I have never been there but have some knowledge of it. The SOG admin officer (a young sharp AG 0-3) talked to me one day at some length. Also, SOG personnel often ate in the AFVN snack bar. I assume that the more secret movements of counterfeit items to various distribution points within CORDs network originated at #7. Said items were printed on the 7th PSYOPS pressses in Okinawa (not yet [returned to] Japan) and escorted by armed guard to RVN.

Regards, Ron

Hong Thap Tu 7 - The House that "Wasn't There"

November 2015

Go to Related to Saigon, Page 2 (Click here) for a clipping and some photos of House 7