Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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These organizational type improvements have been accompanied by what I feel is equally heartening progress in the long delayed training of RVNAF forces and the Civil Guard. All training programs, both in-country and off-shore, have been re-examined and revised to place additional stress on anti-guerrilla tactics and techniques. Many training courses are now being conducted under the revised programs and the results are beginning to be felt.
Immediately following the transfer of the Civil Guard to the Department of Defense, we developed a concept of employment for Civil Guard units, which now serves as the basis for all Civil Guard training. This program includes special leadership training as well as individual unit training, all oriented toward anti-guerrilla combat. 3,500 of the Civil Guard have been trained to date, and 6,000 are now undergoing individual and unit training at Quang Trung and Song Mao. In addition, 650 are now undergoing OCS and NCO training.
The Ranger training program has continued to receive high priority and emphasis. As you know, a series of U.S. Special Forces teams were brought to Vietnam, one of which is still here, and MAAG developed a program of instruction which was adopted by RVNAF for Ranger Cadre Training. In this respect, your Ranger Training Center at Nha Trang is outstanding. Additionally, an on-site unit training program has been developed to further train Ranger Companies in the vicinity of their actual operational areas using ARVN-US Mobile Training Teams.
Closely tied to improvements in training is the work now being done by the joint RVNAF-MAAG study group on the MAAG paper, "Tactics and Techniques of Counter-Insurgent Operations." This is an important project because it will establish RVNAF tactical doctrine in the Vietnamese language which will be widely distributed to the Armed Forces. Once refined and distributed, I believe we can expect another significant increase in training improvement and subsequently in operations. As you know, however, certain of the concepts proposed in this study, because of their far reaching and comprehensive nature, will require policy decisions at a very high governmental level before the full effect can be gained in the field. The timing and timeliness of these decisions is most essential for anti-guerrilla combat to be successful.
In the field of tactical operations, you have authorized MAAG advisors to accompany RVNAF battalion and company-size units engaged in operations, with the understanding that they will observe and advise but
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