Reassessing the ARVN

[Leg]

Has anybody read Lewis Sorley's (Author: A BETTER WAR) in the current (February) issue of VIETNAM MAGAZINE on "Reassessing The ARVN"?

[SuperScout]

Will get the copy this weekend.
Scouts Out!!

[39mto39g]

Didn't work much with the ARVN (thank goodness) The time that we did work with them pretty much sucked. Couldn't tell where the enemy left off and the Arvn started.

Ron

[Leg]

Your opinion of the ARVN is a commonly held one and might be a good reason for you and others to read the article. I think that is why Sorley wrote it. It has a very significant bearing on what happened over there.

[ArtySgt]

The few times we had to deal with the ARVN left a lasting impression, not a good one. I wondered how such little people could fire and hit anything with our heavy old M-1 rifles. Just a rambling thought.

[Leg]

The perception of the ARVN performance really depends upon the time frame that is being talked about. Sorely makes no excuses for their poor performance during Westmorelands watch. However, after Abrams took over, there was a marked improvement.

One of the significant things that Abrams did was to change the emphasis from Search and Destroy to Clear and hold. Large unit operations were canned in favor of small unit operations; ambushes, patrols, and the screening of the population from the enemy. There was also the inception of the Phoenix Program to clean out the VCI. Where Westmoreland had pretty much ignored the key aspects of pacification and improvement of the SVN forces while executing his strategy of a war of attrition, Abrams stressed "one war" of combat operations, pacification, and upgrading of the SVN.

The HESS program (population secured) replaced the "body count" as the key indicator of success.

I saw much of this 1st hand as a MAT Team Leader, accompanying the SVN on their operations. Charlie wasn't pacified, but they were having a world of hurt being put on them by the SVN. Going through hamlets and villages, I could see the people and (at least where I was located), their positive and pro-government attitude.

There was substantial success in all of this, and (according to Sorely), since American troops were being progressively withdrawn, it was the ARVN and other SVN forces who were achieving this success.

[SuperScout]

... of Leg. On Tour #2, I worked with several good units of ARVN; also provided assistance to the Phoenix program, which despite its undeserved bad press, did a magnificient job of targeting and fixing the VC infrastructure.

Sad to say that Westmoreland was locked in the "World War II.4" mindset, and couldn't spell counterinsurgency, much less understand it. Only reason he stuck around as long as he did was that LBJ (also known as the Lying Braying Jackass) needed a pretty face to offset his own homeliness. Westmoreland looked good for the press, but was denser than a rock. Sorry to get so personal here, but these two a**holes must bear much of the blame for our scars.