Buon Enao Experiment

U.S. Army Special Forces begins the Buon Enao Experiment. Buon Enao, a Montagnard village in Darlac Province, serves as the pilot site for a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program. The CIA runs the program with help from U.S. Army Special Forces and South Vietnamese personnel. CIDGs are recruited from local indigenous populations and trained for combat and defense. Their primary mission is to hinder Viet Cong control of rural areas and to expand the influence of the South Vietnamese government in the countryside, especially in the Central Highlands and the Cambodian and Laotian border regions.1