The ARVN dressed in cut-down US uniforms, boots or sandals made from rubber tyres and American
steel-pots that were too big. They carried US weapons and rode in US choppers. They were trained
and armed by the US, but the ARVN faced a crisis when they took on the Viet Cong.
The politicians said the ARVN were winning the war, but the US advisors knew differently. Although
the ARVN always outnumbered the enemy, they were continually being defeated by the Viet Cong companies.
Why was this the case?
DISILLUSIONMENT
For 20 years they had been at war. They had fought the French. They had fought the Japanese. They had
fought the Viet Cong. And now they were fighting the NVA, the hardcore troops infiltrated in from the North.
Although they were drafted for a three year period, they were essentially in for the duration of the war
with 60-90 days at a stretch in the field.
By and large, the men in the ARVN were peasant farmers and may even have had a brother in the VC or NVA. Some
may have been anti-communists, but they probably were not pro-government. They saw the government using the ARVN
simply as a political pawn. And they were dissillusioned.
CONDITIONS
There was certainly enough to get discouraged about. Conditions of service were poor. Their diet consisted of rice, dried fish and vegetable soup. However, often the troops went hungry, as local warlords sold the rice that should have gone to the frontline soldiers. An ARVN trooper was lucky to clear 1600 piasters - about $8 - a month, slightly more if he was married. If he was married, his family had to follow him round from base to base, squatting in the mud or living in makeshift huts. Desertion rates were appallingly high. During 1966 over 115,000 ARVN deserted - more than 1 in 5.
But the real problems went much deeper. The ARVN lacked strong leadership at every level. Corruption was rife and promotions did not depend on performance in battle, only on who you knew and who you could bribe. The soldiers knew if they were killed, their families would not get a pension and they would starve. So the troops would not risk their lives. Patrols sometimes played radios on search and destroy missions to warn the enemy away. Sometimes they wouldn't even go to the help of other units under fire. The defeatist mentality was made worse when the US main-force units arrived. They could now do the fighting for them.
RELATIONSHIP WITH AMERICAN TROOPS
The relationship between the American troops and the ARVN was ambivalent. Though some Americans admired ARVN troops for their individual courage, most referred to them with rascist contempt - they were 'inscrutable, slanty-eye gooks', almost indistinguishable from the enemy. The Americans also resented the ARVN. They believed if they were doing their job correctly, there would have been no need to call in American troops. And while the ARVN were grateful to Americans for doing the fighting for them, they envied their equipment and their wealth. They hated the effect they were having on their country and saw them as 'just another bunch of foreign invaders'.
© 1997 hewittchris@hotmail.com
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