Word: arvn
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ground, concedes ARVN Major General Ngo Dzu, "the maneuvers have been conventional, more like the European wars than the guerrilla war in South Viet Nam. If you contact the enemy you can destroy him. I like that -it's much easier to make war." Only once, however, has an ARVN force made significant contact. Early last month a pincer movement of 18,000 troops trapped about 4,000 Viet Cong in the Parrot's Beak; some 1,200 Communists died in the one-sided, two-day fight...
...troops are still not very enthusiastic, but they fight better in Cambodia than Viet Nam." One important reason is that they know there is little danger of booby traps, sniper fire or determined opposition from the retreating Communists. Still, U.S. officers have nothing but praise for units like the ARVN 9th Division, which has been tracking down Communists and picking up new confidence in Cambodia's southern reaches. "Cambodia has been a bonanza for ARVN," says Major General Hal D. McCowan, top U.S. adviser in the Delta region. "Nothing helps like kicking the hell out of the other...
Over the past two years, efforts to improve ARVN have produced steady, gradual progress, though no one claims any miracles. Reports TIME'S Saigon Bureau Chief Marsh Clark, "Certainly compared with a ragtag Cambodian army and a Communist enemy that has been for the most part desperately eluding and evading, ARVN has taken on a new and refreshing look. But ARVN has changed only by comparison. By any measure, it has not suddenly changed from a marginally efficient overall force to a superarmy...
...Astonishingly, Saigon did not get around to general mobilization until mid-1968; since then, its forces have grown from 775,000 to 950,000 men. Of the total, 484,000 belong to the Regional Forces and Popular Forces, the keystones of the pacification effort. The 387,000 troops of ARVN's twelve regular divisions, plus 31,000 navy, 35,000 air force and 13,000 marine personnel, account for the rest...
Mandarin Generals. In South Viet Nam itself, many units are still apt to strike live-and-let-live bargains with the Communists in their areas. But ARVN is much better led than it was before Thieu began replacing the old mandarin generals with battle-seasoned officers and the products of improved training academies. One grim sign of a new aggressiveness on the platoon and company level is the soaring casualty rate among lieutenants and captains...