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South Vietnam - Operational Tempo

Casualties, a prime barometer of activity, indicated the degree of combat responsibility assumed by the South Vietnamese forces. They were carrying a burden of the fighting so heavy that they had lost twice as many men killed in the 15 months since Tet as had all the allied forces put together -- forces from six free world nations totaling nearly 625,000 men. According to President Nguyen Van Thieu, from January 1968 through March 1969 the South Vietnamese troops lost 39,307 to the allies' 19,433 men killed. Since 1960 the Vietnamese armed forces have lost 108,500 men killed in action. "We have made great sacrifices," said President Thieu on April 19 as he marked the 14th anniversary of the Vietnamese Air Force. A professional army man with the rank of lieutenant general, the commander-in-chief added: 'We will continue to make even greater sacrifices."

Increased aggressiveness was shown in battlefield statistics. Each day the ARVN mounted from 40 to 60 battalion-size or larger operations, and the "kill ratio" has improved from 1:2.9 in 1965 to one ARVN killed for every 5.9 of the enemy slain in 1969. The daily battalions-in-combat statistics also were significant. During 1967 an average of 101 ARVN battalions were engaged in combat operations each day. The number rose 16 percent during 1968 to 118 battalions. Weekly tactical sorties by the Vietnamese Air Force, which by 1969 flew one out of every five missions throughout the country, rose from 2,242 in 1967 to 3,510 during the first 11 weeks of 1969. Vietnamese Navy missions rose from 2,428 per week in early 1968 to 2,860 in the same period of 1969.

In a typical small-unit operation, one of scores going on across the country simultaneously, the Hau Nghia province chief in Bao Trai, an ARVN colonel, learned from the National Police sub-station that a column of Viet Cong has been seen filing down a country road eight kilometers west of Bao Trai. The province chief had already sent his RF companies to various district chiefs for local operations or pacification campaigns, so he called 25th ARVN Infantry Division headquarters at Duc Hoa and borrowed a platoon of the 25th encamped near Bao Trai. Then, through his Senior Province Adviser, a U.S. Army colonel, he contacted 25th U.S. Infantry Division headquarters at Cu Chi and borrowed the helicopters needed to lift the ARVN platoon to the scene of the intelligence report. Troops and choppers converged quickly on the province chief's helipad, the choppers roared off at treetop level and land the troops in fields adjacent to the road. Results: one Viet Cong killed, one wounded, seven suspects rounded up, one ARVN wounded.

Or the operation can be as big as the classic "soft cordon" operation conducted September 1968 to rid Viet Cong troops and the VC infrastructure from Vinh Loc island east of Hue. The 10-day operation utilized every regular military, territorial, paramilitary, naval, police, psychological warfare and intelligence capability in the area. A combined S-3 military operations command was set up including the province chief's security staff, the 54th Regiment of the First ARVN Division, the Second Brigade of the 101st U.S. Airborne Division, the Vinh Loc district chief and his military, intelligence and advisory personnel. Results: the VCI shattered, 116 VCI captured, 154 VC soldiers killed, 254 captured, 56 VC rallied to the government's side, and 12,000 Vinh Loc refugees returned to their now-pacified hamlets.Friendly casualties: One APT member and one policeman killed; seven ARVN, two Ruff Puffs, two U.S. Army and one U.S. Navy man wounded; two island residents wounded; three grass huts destroyed.