Arvn Military
Friday, February 5th, 2010Are there any Vietnam War veterans here?
What is your opinions the South Vietnamese military and its soldiers. I once had an American Vietnam War vet speak at my school. He said that most ARVN troops were mostly cowards who whenever possible would avoid combat and let the Americans fight their battles. I thought that this was kind of offensive since my dad is vet, he was in the ARVN. I served for a few years, and then was sent to a reeducation camp after the war. He told me that the ARVN fought 75% of the war. The Americans mostly defended their bases.
One thing to remember is that soldiers in the ARVN did not just serve for a year or two in Vietnam. They fought until the war was over. We could go home after putting in our time in. The ARVN troops were in it "for the duration".
Some ARVN soldiers were great. Others weren't so hot. But you can say the same thing of American GIs.
I remember an ARVN ranger battalion that kicked the stuffings out of the NVA one Tet. The rangers pretended to get drunk and acted careless, encouraging the NVA to attack. When the NVA did that night, the rangers were ready for them and gave them a very big surprise! 
I was in northern II Corps, after the American troops supposedly had turned the area over to the ARVN. In reality, the infantry withdrew but they left behind my battalion. As combat engineers, we could defend ourselves and go about keeping the roads open and maintaining the airfield. The ARVN infantry went out looking for the NVA, and I remember seeing ARVN military funerals far too often from their encounters.
If your dad is thinking of that, yes - the ARVN went out to fight, since that's what infantry did. We usually didn't go looking for a fight, since it wasn't our job. Still, the fight often came to us and we took some heavy casualties too. But before the US infantry pulled back, the GIs did most of the fighting there.
The ARVN were never really thought to be strong enough to defeat the NVA by themselves. The idea behind the cease fire accords was that Hanoi would leave the South alone. Then the ARVN would be strong enough to handle the local Viet Cong. Of course, that didn't happen and Hanoi's entire armed forces invaded the South in 1975. The US Congress refused to get involved and the South lost. I'm still disgusted with the US government for that. They got 50,000 Americans killed in the war - and then just sort of lost interest.
Say hello to your dad, and tell him this VN vet remembers the ARVN as good guys. If he was in the 42d ARVN, I may have seem him around at times.