Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces
Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa
War flag of the Republic of Vietnam
Flag of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces
Motto"Tổ Quốc – Danh Dự – Trách Nhiệm"
("Homeland – Honour – Duty")
Founded30 December 1955
Disbanded30 April 1975
Service branches Army
 Air Force
 Navy
HeadquartersSaigon, Central-South region of Vietnam
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief Ngo Dinh Diem (19551963)
Nguyen Van Thieu (19671975)
Chief of Joint General Staff See list
Personnel
Active personnel586,838
Deployed personnel1,000,000 in 1972
Industry
Foreign suppliers United States
 Australia
 Canada
 France
 Germany
 Israel
 Japan
 New Zealand
 Philippines
 South Korea
 Francoist Spain
 Taiwan
 Thailand
 United Kingdom
Related articles
HistoryMilitary history of Vietnam
RanksRanks and insignia of the Republic of Vietnam

The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF; Vietnamese: Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa – QLVNCH; Chữ Hán: 軍力越南共和), were the official armed defence forces of the defunct Republic of Vietnam and were responsible for the defence of the state and the republican regime since its independence from France on 26 October 1955 to its collapse from its northern communist counterparts and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) on 30 April 1975.

Branches

The QLVNCH (also known as the RVNAF) was formally established on December 30, 1955, by the strongman and republican first South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, which he declared on October 26 that year after winning a rigged referendum[1] on the future of the State of Vietnam. Created out from ex-French Union Army colonial Indochinese auxiliary units (French: Supplétifs), gathered earlier in July 1951 into the French-led Vietnamese National Army or VNA (Vietnamese: Quân Đội Quốc Gia Việt Nam – QĐQGVN), Armée Nationale Vietnamiènne (ANV) in French, the armed forces of the new state consisted in the mid-1950s of ground, air, and naval branches of service, respectively,the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces day is also celebrated (mostly by the overseas Vietnamese people) every years in 19 June

Their roles were defined as follows: to protect the sovereignty of the free Vietnamese nation and that of the Republic; to maintain the political and social order and the rule of law by providing internal security; to defend the newly independent Republic of Vietnam from external (and internal) threats; and ultimately, to help reunify Vietnam – divided since the Geneva Accords in July 1955 into two transitional states, one at the north ruled by Ho Chi Minh’s Marxist Lao Dong Party regime and the other in the south under Diem's regime.

Command structure

Regional commands

Administrative divisions and military regions of South Vietnam in June 1967.

How the command structure work

  • The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces consisted of four military corps (Quân đoàn) I,II,III,IV responsible for the administration and control of four military zones of the Republic of Vietnam. Each military zone operates specifically within provinces/regions. This system is somehow related and works almost exactly the same as the ancient Roman legionary system, in which each legionary was also responsible for administering and controlling a specific province of the Roman Empire. By any mean necessary the word "Quân đoàn" means "Legionary" in Vietnamese, which would explain why the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces operate almost exactly the same as the ancient Roman legionaries. While these details are not crucial or important in any way, it is still quite fascinating to know about them.

Military corps/tactical zones

  • Corp I, Command in Da Nang, including 5 provinces:

Tactical zone 11, including 2 provinces Quang Tri and Thua Thien Tactical zone 12, including 2 provinces Quang Tin and Quang Ngai Quang Nam Special Zone, including Quang Nam Province and Da Nang City

  • Corp II, Tactical Region 2 Command is located in Nha Trang, but the 2nd Army Corps Command is located in Pleiku (had to move to Nha Trang from mid-March 1975), including 12 provinces:

Tactical Zone 22, including 3 provinces Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Phu Bon Tactical Zone 23, including 7 provinces Darlac, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Tuyen Duc, Quang Duc, Lam Dong and Cam Ranh city Special area 24, including 2 provinces Kon Tum and Pleiku

  • Corp III, Command in Bien Hoa, including 10 provinces:

Tactical Zone 31, including 3 provinces Tay Ninh, Hau Nghia, Long An Tactical zone 32, including 3 provinces Phuoc Long, Binh Long, Binh Duong Tactical Zone 33, including 4 provinces Binh Tuy, Phuoc Tuy, Long Khanh, Bien Hoa and Vung Tau city

  • Corp IV, Command in Can Tho, including 16 provinces:

Dinh Tuong tactical zone, including 4 provinces Kien Tuong, Dinh Tuong, Go Cong, Kien Hoa Tactical Zone 41, including 7 provinces Kien Phong, Chau Doc, Vinh Long, Vinh Binh, An Giang, Kien Giang, Sa Dec Tactical Zone 42, including 5 provinces Phong Dinh, Chuong Thien, Ba Xuyen, Bac Lieu, An Xuyen

On July 1, 1970, 4 tactical zones were transformed into 4 corps, after which the tactical zone level was removed.

  • Corp I includes 5 provinces of Thua Thien, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Quang Tin, Quang Ngai and Da Nang Special Zone.
  • Corp II includes 12 provinces and the Cam Ranh Special Zone with an area of 78,841 square kilometers, accounting for almost half of the territory of the Republic of Vietnam, but with only almost 3 million inhabitants.
  • Corp III includes 11 provinces[b] and the Vung Tau Special Zone. The Capital Special Zone (Saigon - Gia Dinh) also belongs to the military region.
  • Corp IV has 16 provinces.

Military provinces are sub-regions and districts are sub-regions.

See also

Notes

  1. Rottman and Bujeiro, Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-75 (2010), p. 7.

References

  • Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad, US Army Special Forces 1952-84, Elite series 4, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. ISBN 9780850456103
  • Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad, Vietnam Airborne, Elite Series 29, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1990. ISBN 0-85045-941-9
  • Gordon L. Rottman and Ramiro Bujeiro, Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-75, Men-at-arms series 458, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2010. ISBN 978-1-84908-182-5
  • Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, South-East Asian Special Forces, Elite series 33, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991. ISBN 9781855321069
  • Lee E. Russell and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War (2), Men-at-arms series 143, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1983. ISBN 0-85045-514-6.
  • Leroy Thompson, Michael Chappell, Malcolm McGregor and Ken MacSwan, Uniforms of the Indo-China and Vietnam Wars, Blandford Press, London 1984. ASIN B001VO7QSI
  • Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell, The French Indochina War 1946-54, Men-at-arms series 322, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1998. ISBN 978-1-85532-789-4
  • Phillip Katcher and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War 1962-1975, Men-at-arms series 104, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1980. ISBN 978-0-85045-360-7

Further reading

  • Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh, South Wind Changing, Graywolf Press, Minnesota 1994. ASIN B01FIW8BJG
  • Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. 2009. ISBN 978-0521757638, 0521757630
  • Neil L. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, The Regents of the University of California press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California 1995. ASIN B00749ZBRC
  • Nguyen Cao Ky, How we lost the Vietnam War, Stein & Day Pub 1979. ISBN 978-0812860160, 0812860160
  • Tran Van Don, Our Endless War: Inside Vietnam, Presidio Press, Novato, California 1978. ISBN 978-0891410195, 0891410198
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