The U S Naval Advisory Effort In Vietnam

An advisor to the South Vietnamese Navy Mobile Riverine Forces in 1970-1971, U.S. Navy Commander Richard Kirtley was tasked with helping implement Nixon's policy of "Vietnamization"--the rapid drawdown of U.S. troops to bring an abortive end to the Vietnam War. The program called for the turnover of arms and equipment to South Vietnamese forces, while U.S. personnel trained their counterparts to continue fighting the war alone. The U.S. Navy's supporting effort, Accelerated Turnover to the Vietnamese (ACTOV), emphasized "Accelerated." Kirtley's account gives an up-close look at the futility and frustration of the advisory effort during the withdrawal, the implementation of both programs--doomed to failure yet hyped to cover a lost-cause retreat--and their disastrous outcomes.

U.S. Marines as advisors have a long history, from Presley O'Bannon atTripoli through Iraq and Afghanistan via Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Vietnam. While most Marines think of the Vietnamese Marine Corps as the primary advisory experience during that conflict, others served with various other advisory programs with the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Joint Special Operations, and U.S. Civil Operations and Rural Development Support. One of these is the subject of this study: Marine advisors with the Vietnamese Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs). This narrative is a combination of experience, research, and reflection. While other journalistic or academic accounts have been published, this is a narrative of participants. Many historians consider the two most effective counterinsurgency organizations employed during the Vietnam War to have been the PRU and USMC Combined Action Platoons (CAP)

NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT-- OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price The period after World War II saw a number of associated Marine Corps formed in the republics of China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. They had been founded, with the help of foreign military aid, to fight the various conflicts to contain communist expansion in the region. Also present at various times were other Marines from the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain. The beginnings of the Cold War witnessed this proliferation of amphibious forces in Asia, in part because of the reputation the U.S. Marines had earned in the cross Pacific drive against Japan and in other postwar confrontations. This publication is about one of these, the Vietnamese Marine Corps or Thuy Quan Luc Chien (TQLC). This occasional paper provides documents on the topics of the Vietnamese Marines and the U.S. Marine Advisory Unit from this period. Marine Corps History Division Occasional Paper. Prepared by the U.S. Marine Advisory Unit, Naval Advisory Group. Compiled and edited by Charles D. Melson and Wanda J. Renfrow. Related products: Mounted Combat in Vietnam is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00574-3 Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 (Paperback) is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00508-5 Military Communications: A Test for Technology (Paperbound) is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-020-01035-9 Other products produced by the United States (U.S.) Marine Corps (USMC) can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/922 "

This is the fourth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. This volume concentrates on the ground was in I Corps and III MAF's perspective of the Vietnam War as an entity. It also covers the Marine Corps participation in the advisory effort, the operations of the two Special Landing Forces of the U. S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, and the services of Marines with the staff of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. There are additional chapters on supporting arms and logistics, and a discussion of the Marine role in Vietnam in relation to the overall American effort.

The United States (US) has a long history of employing military advisors, from the American military occupation of the Philippines throughout the 19th century, and the Korea War in the 1950s, the Vietnam War 1950 to 1973, El Salvador 1984 to 1992, to current efforts in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). A strong Iraqi military is needed to support the future democratic government of Iraq. This will allow the US to disengage a large portion of its combat units from Iraq. The US must train the present Iraqi military to successfully take over responsibility for Iraq’s security and combat the current insurgency. The US Army and Marine Corps combat advisors will play a key role in ensuring the Iraqi military is properly organized, trained, and equipped to provide for a secure Iraq. There are lessons learned from training and advising the Republic of South Vietnam’s Armed Forces (RVNAF) during the Vietnam War 1950 to 1973 that could be applied in the ongoing advisory effort in Iraq. The focus of this thesis is to determine the lessons learned from selecting, training, and the organization of US Army and Marine Corps advisors during the Vietnam War.