American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 20

Calvin Mehlert

Accords, the communists were supposed to evacuate their guerrilla
troops north while the French Army evacuated south. There was
an obvious need for the South Vietnamese to extend government
into areas formerly under communist control. The only institution
available for this purpose was the South Vietnamese army which
had never conducted independent operations under the French
in less than battalion size, was demoralized with many desertions
and whose chief of staff was spending his time during most of
1954 plotting a coup against the newly arrived Prime Minister,
Ngo Dinh Diem.

prevailed. The population’s initial fear and indifference turned
into active support as the local people began identifying arms
caches left behind by the Vietminh (the existence of these caches
clearly indicated they intended to return), as well as fingering active
Vietminh stay-behind cadre.
After Lansdale left in 1956, the Vietnamese Army was taken out
of its territorial security role to be organized and trained as regular
infantry divisions to oppose an overt North Vietnamese invasion
over the 17th parallel. This left a security vacuum in the rural areas
which was supposed to be filled by provincial Civil Guard units,
but they were ill-trained and ill-equipped. At the village level a
self defense corps was recruited, but received little training while
owning even worse weapons (an occasional pistol and shotgun
along with a few old French rifles). When the North Vietnamese
reignited the insurgency in South Vietnam in 1959-1960, the South
Vietnamese armed forces (the
army, the civil guard and the selfdefense corps) were not
organized or prepared to ensure
population security while taking
on the newly labeled Vietcong
(Vietnamese communists). Thus
the insurgency thrived.

By the end of 1954, coup plotting was foiled so the army could
begin seriously considering its pacification assignment. No one
knew whether the Vietminh might reinitiate active resistance with
stay-behind cadre in the zones they were evacuating