Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
IV. A. 4.
U.S. TRAINING OF THE VIETNAMESE NATIONAL ARMY, 1954–1959
SUMMARY
- "Hanoi was evacuated on 9 October [1954]. The [U.S. liaison] team left with the last French troops, disturbed by what they had seen of the grim efficiency of the Viet Minh in their takeover, the contrast between the silent march of the victorious Viet Minh troops in their tennis shoes and the clanking armor of the well-equipped French whose western tactics and equipment had failed against the communist military–political–economic campaign."1
Up to 1960, Vietnam was one of the largest recipients of U.S. economic and military assistance in the world: the third ranking non-NATO recipient of aid, the seventh ranking worldwide. The U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam (MAAG), was the only military mission commanded by a lieutenant general; the U.S. economic aid mission in Vietnam was the largest anywhere. In the years 1955 through 1960, more than $2 billion in aid flowed into Vietnam, and more than 80% of that assistance went toward providing security for the Government of Vietnam. Nonetheless, in 1960 the Joint Chiefs of Staff determined that the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVNAF) were inadequately trained and organized, and directed urgent action by MAAG to improve their anti-guerrilla capabilities.2
Thus, despite the massive U.S. investment in aid to Vietnam in the period 1954–1960, very little had been accomplished in the way of fashioning South Vietnamese forces into a suitable instrument for countering the "communist military–political–economic campaign" aimed at overturning the Government of Vietnam.
The principal issue examined here is that of the role and effectiveness of U.S. advice and assistance provided the armed forces of the GVN prior to 1960.
The principal focus is on American assistance to the Vietnamese National Army — subsequently the ARVN — although plans and support for the Civil Guard and Self-Defense Corps are also considered. Subsidiary questions include:
- — Why did the U.S. undertake the training of ARVH?
- — How was this decision taken?
