Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces (Vietnamese:"Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt" or "LLDB") were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam). Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956. During the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, the Special Forces were run by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu until both were assassinated in November 1963 in a coup. The Special Forces were disbanded in 1975 when South Vietnam ceased to exist after the Fall of Saigon.

Early years

The Special Forces came into being at Nha Trang in February 1956 under the designation of the First Observation Battalion/Group (FOG). By 1960, most Special Forces units were involved in the FOG program. At Long Thanh, they were trained in intelligence gathering, sabotage and psychological operations (PSYOP). The main duties of the Special Forces entailed the recruitment and training of teams of between one to four on intelligence, sabotage and psychological warfare missions. The success of these missions was poor. Although minor sabotage and unrest was fomented, Hanoi declared that all agents were to be killed or captured. Those that were captured were interrogated before being executed.

In 1961, the Special Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1st Infantry Division based in the northernmost area of South Vietnam, conducted a joint operation against communist infiltrators in northern Quang Tri Province. In the autumn of 1961, Special Forces units began Operation Eagle at Binh Hung with a night parachute assaultIn September 1962, United States Special Forces personnel assumed responsibility of the CIA’s border surveillance and Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) programs and began working with the ARVN Special Forces. The Special Forces continued to expand and began to increasingly operate with the CIDG.

Diem era

During the rule of President Ngo Dinh Diem, the Special Forces were used mainly for repressing dissidents. Despite the fact that South Vietnam was struggling against the communist insurgency of the Vietcong in the rural areas, the Special Forces were mostly kept in the capital Saigon, where they were used to prevent coups or harass regime opponents. Under Diem, the Special Forces were headed by Colonel Le Quang Tung. Tung had been trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States and commanded some 1840 men under the direction of Nhu.

Tung's most notable military activity was leading a group run by the CIA, in which ARVN personnel of northern origin were sent into North Vietnam posing as locals, in order to gather intelligence as well as sabotaging communist infrastructure and communications. They were trained in bases at Nha Trang, Da Nang and sometimes offshore in Taiwan, Guam and Okinawa. Of the eighty groups of operatives, numbering six or seven per group, that were deployed in 1963 via parachute drops or night time sampan journeys, nearly all were captured or killed. Those who were captured were often used for propaganda by communist broadcasting authorities. Tung was heavily criticised for his management of the operations.

Buddhist crisis

In 1963, South Vietnam faced civil unrest in the face of Buddhist protests against discrimination by the Catholic oriented Diem regime. In the wake of the shootings of nine Buddhist protesters on the birthday of Gautama Buddha for defying a ban on the Buddhist flag, mass protests calling for religious equality erupted around the country. With the opposition to Diem growing, Nhu plotted an attack against Xa Loi Pagoda, the largest Buddhist centre in Saigon, where the movement was organising its activities. Tung's special forces under Nhu's orders were responsible for the raid on August 21, 1963, in which 1,400 monks were arrested and hundreds were estimated to have been killed, as well as extensive property damage. These attacks were replicated across the country in a synchronised manner. Following the attacks, U.S. officials threatened to withhold aid to the Special Forces unless they were used in fighting communists, rather than attacking dissidents.

Another notable religious attack was perpetrated by Tùng's men in 1963. In a small pond near the central city of Đà Nẵng, a hugely oversized carp was found swimming. Local Buddhists began to believe that the fish was a reincarnation of one of Gautama Buddha’s disciples. As pilgrimages to the pond grew larger and more frequent, so did disquiet among the district chief and his officials, who answered to Ngô Đình Cẩn, younger brother of Diệm. The pond was mined, but the fish swam on unhindered. After raking the pond with machine gun fire, the fish still lived. To deal with the problem, Tùng's forces were called in. The pond was grenaded, killing the carp. The incident generated more publicity as newspapers across the world ran stories about the miraculous fish. South Vietnamese army helicopters began landing at the site, with ARVN paratroopers filling their bottles with water which they believed had magical powers.

Tung was reported to have been planning an operation at the request of Nhu to stage a government organised student demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy. In this plan, Tung's men would assassinate ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., other key officials and the Buddhist leader, Thich Tri Quang, who had been given asylum there after being targeted in the pagoda raids. Then Tùng's men would have burned down the embassy.

On November 1, 1963, a "coup" was launched by the ARVN against Diem. Knowing that Tung was a loyalist who would order his Special Forces to defend Diem, the generals invited him to ARVN Joint General Staff headquarters on the pretext of a routine meeting. He was arrested and later executed along with his deputy and younger brother Le Quang Trieu. Diem and Nhu were also executed after being captured at the end of the successful coup and the ARVN's leadership consequently changed.

After Diem

In 1964, the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group was officially assigned to Vietnam. The LLDB worked closely with the U.S. command and although the Americans funded the CIDG camps, the LLDB assumed ultimate responsibility. These camps were commanded by the ARVN Special Forces, supplemented by U.S. Special Forces advisors. From June 24 to July 1, 1964 under Project DELTA, LLDB teams performed five parachute drops into Laos to gather intelligence. By 1965, LLDB personnel were working with the ARVN in recruiting and training as well as sending groups into communist areas in South Vietnam to gather information.

In March 1970, aware of the impending withdrawal of U.S. Special Forces from Vietnam as part of a general withdrawal and with the failure of the CIDG program due to fraud and corruption, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) agreed to convert CIDG camps into ARVN Ranger camps. The LLDB were no longer needed and subsequently disbanded. Some former LLDB personnel were formed into a new clandestine unit, the Vietnamese Special Mission Service (SMS). Approximately 5,000 personnel served in the Special Forces during the Vietnam War. After the Fall of Saigon, those who did not escape were sent to reeducation camps.

References

*