Roger Hilsman quotes:

My idea was that the role of the special forces were to train Vietnamese to behave as guerrillas, harassing the supply lines down through the mountains of the, ah, the Viet Cong. And the special American special forces were to train their special forces to do that.

I had done a guerrilla in World War II, so I had some knowledge of, of the the village life, and the way guerrillas worked.

The United States must keep a low profile in Vietnam so we can negotiate its neutralization like we did in Laos .

I had been a guerrilla leader in World War II. And I used to say that the way to fight the guerrilla was with guerrillas. And I disbelieved that you could by bombing, ah, have any effect on the supplies coming down through the Ho Chi Minh trails.

Kennedy saw the insurgency as a anti-colonial, essentially nationalist movement, feeding on social discontent. So you don't shoot people.