8 January With the advice of American and French experts, the government of South Vietnam adopted Ordinance No. 2 which set the rent tenant farmers were obligated to pay to landlords to a maximum of 25 percent of the crop.
31 January Colonel Edward Lansdale head of the CIA's Saigon Military Mission (SMM) reported to Washington that his team had smuggled 300 rifles, 50 pistols, 100,000 rounds of ammunition and 300 pounds of explosives into North Vietnam.