Edward Geary Lansdale (February 6, 1908-February 23, 1987) was a United States Air Force officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Agency. Lansdale was a member of General John W. O'Daniel's mission to Indo-China in 1953, acting as an advisor on special counter-guerrilla operations to French forces against the Viet Minh. From 1954 to 1957 he was stationed in Saigon as an advisor to the US supported government of South Vietnam. During this period he was active in the training of the Vietnamese National Army (VNA), organizing the Caodaist militias under Trinh Minh The in an attempt to bolster the VNA, a propaganda campaign encouraging Vietnam's Catholics to move to the south as part of Operation Passage to Freedom, and spreading claims that North Vietnamese agents were making attacks in South Vietnam.