Strategy and Tactics

Col. Hoang Ngoc Lung

• Publisher: Normanby Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781786254559
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Includes over 10 maps and illustrations
This monograph forms part of the Indochina Monograph series written by senior military personnel from the former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who served against the northern communist invasion.
"During the war years, the Republic of Vietnam and the United States pursued a common goal; their armed forces fought against the same enemy, under the same campaign plan, with the same weapon systems, and in the same environment.
The strategic approaches to fighting this war, however, evolved through several stages depending on the enemy's kind of warfare and force structure; so did the tactics designed to counter his large-unit and guerrilla activities. This monograph endeavors, therefore, to trace back and evaluate our strategic alternatives at each stage of the war and the evolving tactics employed, with particular emphasis on the period of American withdrawal and reduced support.
In the preparation of this monograph, I have expressly confined my discussions of strategy to its military aspect. While this conforms to the limited scope of a military subject, the encompassing nature of strategy, especially one conceived to face the enemy's approach to total war, implies that for a better understanding of military strategy, the interplay of social, political, and economic factors should also be brought in as a backdrop. Therefore, wherever appropriate, I have found it necessary to place strategic discussions in the total war context."-Author's Introduction.

CHAPTER I—INTRODUCTION

North Vietnam’s National Objectives and Basic Strategy

The Geneva Accords concluded on 20 July 1954 divided Vietnam into two zones clearly demarcated along the 17th parallel. The North adopted a single-party, totalitarian, socialist regime while the South had a nationalist government in which pluralism and free enterprise were encouraged. The war that lasted from 1946 to 1954 had come to an end, and the political solution provided for by the Geneva Accords called for a general election to be held two years later to reunify the country.

Peace was necessary for North Vietnam to rebuild its society and heal the wounds of war; in the preceding years the North was the scene of the heaviest fighting of the war. The economy was a shambles; agricultural production fell short of the people’s requirements (the annual shortage amounted to approximately 250 thousand tons of rice) and created a need for imports. Highways, bridges and railroads were in bad condition. Light industries, still in their infancy, were dispersed throughout the country. North Vietnam’s military forces, which had so decisively defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu, were strong but in urgent need of reorganization; they had been expanded greatly but irregularly during the war.

The task of rebuilding the country and consolidating its political power required more than two years for the northern leadership to accomplish. This is why South Vietnam’s rejection of the 1956 general election occasioned only a diplomatic, though strong, protest from the north.{1} North Vietnam’s strategy during this period put emphasis on strengthening the society of the North rather than on taking action in the South. On Tet (New Year) 1957, Ho Chi Minh explained this strategy to cadres that had been regrouped from the South:

“To build a long-lasting building, we must lay a solid foundation. The North is the foundation, the taproot of the struggle to liberate and reunify our country. Therefore, what we are doing in the North is for the purpose of strengthening both North and South. Thus, our work here is like the struggle in the South, for the South, and for all of Vietnam.”

Meanwhile, the situation was deteriorating day by day for the Communists in South Vietnam. Out of 50,000 Communist cadres left behind in the South, only 10,000 members were still active by 1959. The remaining 40,000 either rallied to the South Vietnamese government or simply vanished; that is, moved away and quietly stopped operating for the Communists. It came to a point where a district level Communist cadre for example, had to serve both as District and Village Commissar. Sometimes there were no officers at all.

The growing South Vietnamese strength eventually forced the North to reexamine its strategy. In May 1959 at a general meeting of its Central Executive Committee, the Workers’ (Communist) Party of North Vietnam decided upon the liberation of South Vietnam. The first step would be to infiltrate the South with cadres that had gone north in 1954. In order to do this, a logistics system would be required. Consequently, the North Vietnamese Army established Group 559 with the mission of directing and supporting the infiltration of men, weapons, ammunition and explosives into the South.

In September 1960, during its third General Assembly, North Vietnam’s Workers’ Party officially decided that the twofold strategic goal of the North would be (1) to carry on the building of socialism in the North and (2) to start the revolutionary war of liberation in the South. The liberation of the South was perceived as a long-term, arduous struggle at all levels. The aim was to establish, strengthen, and develop a popular front in the South that gave the appearance of a spontaneous movement by the people to overthrow the government. For that purpose, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam officially came into being on 20 December 1960.

The military strategy devised by North Vietnam called for a people’s war to be fought through three stages: the stage of contention; the stage of equilibrium; and the general counteroffensive. In the stage of contention the strategy is defensive during which violent attacks on government installations are followed by immediate withdrawals to prepared positions. Guerrilla warfare is the dominant characteristic. In the stage of equilibrium, the insurgents have become as powerful as the government force, but remain on the strategic defensive while preparing for the stage of the general counteroffensive by making constant attacks to wear down the enemy and retake lost positions. In the final stage, the counteroffensive, the enemy is forced to defend and retreat in the face of mobile warfare, supported by the guerrillas who themselves are gradually transformed into mobile, regular formations.{2}

With this three-stage strategy as the framework, the Northern leadership promulgated a five-step plan in 1959 for the execution of the war against the South. (There was a doctrinal preference among the Communist ideologues to express all important endeavors in terms of five steps, as in five year economic plans, etc.) Step one provided for propaganda activity to lay the groundwork for the struggle. Step two was the organization of guerrilla forces and the establishment of base areas. In stage three the guerrilla units begin their local attacks. Stage four called for more vigorous attacks and for the organization of regular forces. Finally, stage five was the large-scale counteroffensive by the regular forces.

The leaders and soldiers who were to carry out the strategy in the South were former Communist cadres and soldiers who had gone north in 1954. Travelling in small groups of 40 to 50, and later in larger groups of 300 to 500, they began infiltrating in 1959 following land routes leading from North Vietnam’s Military Region 4 through lower Laos into Quang Tri and Quang Nam in the First Military Region and Kontum in the Second Military Region of the Republic of Vietnam.

Sea routes were utilized only by cadres on special missions in the South, such as intelligence personnel, and for transporting arms, ammunition and explosives. The fifteen vessels intercepted by the South in 1963 provided a general picture of the level of sea infiltration.

Once in the South, these infiltrators were sent to Communist-organized areas in accordance with needs and priorities, where they began to assemble regular armed units. In time these units grew from company size to battalions, and in 1961 the first two Communist regiments were organized in South Vietnam. At the same time, Communist guerrillas and their supporting infrastructure were developed, reaching a strength of personnel in 1961. By 1963 nearly all of the Southern cadres had been returned to the South and North Vietnam began to infiltrate Northern cadres and troops.

At the end of 1964, taking advantage of the deterioration of the military and security situation caused by a period of political turmoil in the South, North Vietnam dispatched entire main force regiments southward. These regular units retained their unit integrity and the war had already been advanced from stage two to stage three. During the battle of Plei Me in the highlands of the Second Military Region in October 1965, the 325th North Vietnamese Division was involved.

South Vietnamese National Objectives and Basic Strategy

Although North Vietnam in the post-Geneva era encountered numerous difficulties, South Vietnam was beset with even greater political problems as internal struggles wrecked the country. The situation was serious enough to prompt foreign observers to predict the demise of South Vietnam within two years after Geneva.

The Nationalist Army of Vietnam was in the hands of a Chief of the General Staff, Major General Nguyen Van Hinh, who was in open and hostile opposition to the government. The military units of the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai religious sects, as well as the National Police Force which was controlled by the Binh Xuyen, carved out their own fiefdoms and enjoyed near autonomy in their regions.{3}

After restoring the authority of the government and regaining control of the armed forces (Major General Hinh was replaced by Major General Le Van Ty) the government of Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed the founding of the First Republic of South Vietnam on 26 October 1955. President Diem espoused the doctrine of personalism as a response to Communist dogma and embarked on a reorganization of the forces to meet the threat of invasion from the North.

In addition to internal strife, the new South Vietnamese regime was faced with tough problems of nation-building and the ever-present threat of North Vietnamese aggression. This threat weighed heavily on the minds of South Vietnamese leaders especially after President Diem flatly refused reunification through general elections. The fact was the defense posture of the South was so weak and its geographical position so vulnerable that North Vietnam had all the chances of success if it decided to strike.

South Vietnam borders on North Vietnam to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and the South China Sea to the east. It extends 920 km from the 17th parallel to the north to Cape Ca Mau in the South. At its narrowest it is only 59 km wide; at its widest, 460 km. There are 2,400 km of coastline. Two thirds of South Vietnam consist of high plateaus with mountains rising to 2,841 meters; dense jungles offer concealment to invading forces. Plains take up the remaining one-third of the land area, the best known being the Mekong Delta, the water-logged rice basket of the South. Waterways navigable to sampans cover 2,080 km while 14,400 km of highways and 1,440 km of railroad form the main arteries of the transportation network. These geographical aspects meant that only a defense in depth was a feasible strategy for South Vietnam, and such a defense would require a large force with superior mobility.

The South’s population in 1954 of over 14 million included about 70,000 people from 20 ethnic tribes living in the highlands, 900,000 Chinese concentrated mainly in Cholon, and 400,000 Cambodians in the Mekong Delta.

One significant characteristic of the South’s population was the great differences in material well-being and political attitudes between the country people and the city dwellers. Leading a poverty-stricken life, peasants had no choice but to adopt a passive attitude toward the war and submit to the direct control of the winning side, be it Nationalist or Communist. This fact was an extremely important factor in shaping the South’s strategic defensive thinking, which included building and maintaining area defenses through a network of military fortifications and outposts.

National authority resides in the dual concept of territory and people. The jungles, although part of the territory, harbor little or no population, and therefore command less interest than populated areas and administrative units such as hamlets, villages, districts, and provinces. This explain why during the general offensive of the summer of 1972, the South was determined to recapture the provincial capital of Quang Tri, although it had then been reduced to a huge pile of rubble.

The concept of territorial protection and area defense became a strategic goal in the South’s determination to withstand the North’s aggressive military designs, to eliminate subversive activities within the South, and to build the republic. In other words, the objectives were survival and independence. In every political situation these remained the two most important objectives of the South.

The South’s national goals and strategy were based on the assumption that full American support would be available until proven unnecessary. This assistance was perceived as being part of the United States strategy which followed the end of World War II with respect to the containment of Communism in Asia as well as in Europe. The South regarded itself as a bastion of the Free World in its effort to resist the Communists.

To carry out the national defense effort, the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam were organized, trained and operated along conventional lines. This conventional form of the armed forces was apparent when the first South Vietnamese Army was established on 11 May 1950 with a strength of 60,000 men, half of whom were in the regular forces and the other half in auxiliary forces.

The first military officers were trained in local military schools and from 1950 on at the National Military Academy at Dalat. In 1951 the first classes of reserve officers began training in Nam Dinh and Thu Duc. The program of instruction was based on French training methodology and. tactical doctrine. Organization of the military units as well as their armaments and equipment were also French. The inevitable result was that this conventional character of the armed forces had a profound influence on the subsequent conduct of the war since its military leaders were trained in conventional tactics. When the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) was established in 1956 it continued the French practice of training the regular forces for conventional warfare. The tactics and techniques that American advisors passed on to Vietnamese officers were those that had been learned during World War II or in the Korean Conflict and were thus confined to conventional warfare. Although many Vietnamese officers had fought the Viet Minh, which required the use of unconventional methods, the doctrine upon which all training and operations were based in Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) continued to be that of conventional war. Even though the battlefield conditions seemed to demand a doctrinal change, this was never accomplished because the security situation—the press of daily operational requirements—never gave the RVNAF time to work out a more suitable doctrine.

While the period from 1954 to 1959 was sufficient for the North to strengthen its internal political system and armed forces, the same period saw the South torn by dissention and weakened by political instability. The aborted coup of 11 November 1960, attempted by three paratroop battalions, set a precedent for the repeated use of the armed forces to seize power. Such attempts were successful twice—during the revolution of 11 November 1963 and the coup of 30 January 1964—and forced South Vietnamese leaders to keep a close watch over the armed forces, to personally appoint and supervise the commanders of elite general reserve units such as the Airborne and Marine Divisions as well as the commanders of the key infantry divisions stationed in the Third and Fourth Military Regions.

The fear of coups affected the attitudes and methods of control used by all presidents and chiefs-of-state (except for the civilian Chief-of-State Phan Khac Suu who enjoyed no real authority); they insisted on the power to appoint commanders of corps and divisions mainly on the basis of personal loyalty, and required that direct orders from the Independence Palace were necessary for any significant deployments of units, especially those from the general reserve and those stationed around the City of Saigon.

The pervasive presidential distrust of the military eroded the armed forces’ efficiency and created factionalism in the RVNAF. Military leaders at all levels were frequently preoccupied with internal problems and consequently had little time to study the enemy situation. Politics invaded the military and it was not the kind of beneficial, political consciousness that all patriotic soldiers should have, but the politics of survival of the particular regime in power at the time. The true mission of the armed forces, to defeat Communist aggression, was repeatedly neglected in favor of the unspoken concern to prevent an overthrow of the government.

Building political strength through motivating the people’s participation in national defense, originated during the First Republic, was pursued as a national goal by every subsequent South Vietnamese administration. The concept of popular self-defense, aided by military and paramilitary forces, was aimed at establishing and maintaining security, which was the basic condition for realizing political, economic and social objectives. This concept, the implementation of which kept changing with new experiences and increased American support, emerged under various guises: Strategic Hamlets, New Life Hamlets, Pacification, and Rural Construction and Development. But the end always remained popular participation in and support of the national policy to confront the Communists in the military, political, economic, and social areas; to confront the enemy in two fundamental aspects of the people’s war waged in the South by the Communists: a popular war and a total war.

The people’s self-defense capability was an essential complement to the military strategy which relied increasingly on firepower and movement, and the tactics desig...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PREFACE
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER II-EARLY STRATEGIES
• CHAPTER III-STRATEGY DURING THE PERIOD OF U.S. PARTICIPATION
• CHAPTER IV-UNITED STATES’ INFLUENCE ON REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM’S STRATEGY
• CHAPTER V-THE TACTICS OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM ARMED FORCES
• CHAPTER VI-SPECIAL U.S. COMBAT TECHNIQUES
• CHAPTER VII-STRATEGIES AND TACTICS OF NORTH VIETNAM
• CHAPTER VIII-OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
• GLOSSARY