The Army of the Republic of Vietnam | General Overview

~ THE ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM OVERVIEW DESCRIPTION:

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) is the conventional ground force of the Republic Vietnam. Unfortunately, much of what is generally known about the ARVN is reduced to stereotypes, built from anecdotal accounts. To have a more well-rounded, nuanced understanding of the Vietnam War, a foundational overview of South Vietnam’s armed forces is desperately needed. This video is a high-level overview of the ARVN which summarizes its history and general organization.

While the ARVN definitely had its flaws, the fact that it is simply dismissed or minimized from the general narratives of the war causes a severe mischaracterization of the war. The South Vietnamese ground forces is the force that did the majority of the fighting, and took the majority of the casualties as a result. While the fighting may not have been in set-piece battles like American operations, and therefore not newsworthy to the American public, the fighting was constant and steady, which produced the constant and steady casualties throughout the war. National Liberation Front and People’s Army forces typically elected to fight South Vietnamese ground forces first due to their older equipment and lessened fire support prioritization.

The ARVN would eventually grow to replace withdrawing American forces, facing the conventional, combined-arms invasion of 1972 with its American advisors. After these advisors withdrew in 1973, South Vietnam’s Armed Forced fought many more unknown battles until its defeat in 1975.

Timeline:
00:00 Intro
00:58 History of the ARVN
05:04 Joint General Staff Overview
06:31 South Vietnam’s 4 Military Regions
07:50 Military Region 1 and I Corps
09:13 Military Region 2 and II Corps
10:26 Military Region 3 and III Corps
11:42 Military Region 4 and IV Corps
12:42 The ARVN Rangers
13:37 The ARVN Armour
14:38 The ARVN Artillery
15:27 The Strategic Reserve
15:40 The ARVN Airborne
16:51 The ARVN Marines
17:52 Overview of the Territorial Forces
19:50 Outro

~ BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dong Van Khuyen. The RVNAF. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1980.

Collins, James. The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1975.

Spector, Ronald. Advice and Support: The Early Years; The U.S. Army in Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1985.

Clarke, Jeffrey. Advice and Support: The Final Years; The U.S. Army in Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1988.

Rottman, Gordon. Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-75. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2010.

Ha Mai Viet. Steel and Blood: South Vietnamese Armor and the War for Southeast Asia. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2008.

Ngo Quang Truong. Territorial Forces. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1983.

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