VNMC - 1954-1973 - US Marine Advisors
The Viet Nam Marine Corps was almost wholly a creation of the United States. 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.
Between 1954 and 1962 the US Marines provided a small advisory group to work with the South Vietnamese Marine Corps. Headquartered in Saigon and under the operational control of MACV Naval Advisory Group, the Marine Advisory Unit consisted of 19 officers and one enlisted man at the beginning of 1965.
From the beginning of the Vietnamese Marine Corps in 1954, U.S. Marines, starting with Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Croizat, served as advisors with its units. By January 1966, the U.S. Marine Advisory Unit, headed by Colonel John A. MacNeil, consisted of 25 officers and five enlisted men. The Marine Advisory Unit was part of the U.S. Naval Advisory Group; Colonel MacNeil as the senior advisor reported directly to Rear Admiral Norvell G. Ward, Chief of the U.S. Naval Advisory Group, who, in turn, was responsible to General Westmoreland.
The senior USMC Marine advisor and his staff advised the Commandant of the Vietnamese Marine Corps in all matters pertaining to the organization and employment of the South Vietnamese Marines. Complementary to this function was the senior Marine advisor's responsibility for coordinating the planning for the projected growth of the Vietnamese Marine Corps with Admiral Ward and the South Vietnamese.
Although all of the senior Marine advisors had worked toward the development of a larger independent, self sufficient Vietnamese Marine Corps, the exigencies of the war forestalled many necessary but ancillary activities. For example, the continuous need for infantry advisors in late 1965 and early 1966 prevented the assignment of the U.S. Marine operations and training advisor to his primary staff function until March 1966.
In the spring of 1966, Colonel MacNeil undertook a long delayed review of South Vietnamese Marine mission, organization, and objectives. In June, he submitted a Force Structure Plan for the Vietnamese Marine Corps to Admiral Ward. The plan was eventually incorporated into the MACV Joint Strategic Objectives Plan for 1972 (JSOP). JSOP is a mid range objectives plan which translated United States national objectives and policies for the time frame five to eight years into the future, into terms of military objectives and strategic concepts and defined basic undertakings for cold, limited, and general war which might be accomplished with the projected force levels. The MACV JSOP was for five years, thus the fiscal year 1972 JSOP was prepared in 1966.
MacNeil visualized the expansion of the Vietnamese Marine Corps from a brigade to a division. Specifically, the plan called for the growth of the Vietnamese Marine Corps from a strength of approximately 7,000 men organized into five infantry battalions and support elements in 1966 to a strength of approximately 11,700 men organized into nine infantry battalions and support units by 1970.
In addition to adding to the number of infantry battalions, the Force Structure Plan restructured the Vietnamese headquarters and support elements. In 1968, a headquarters battalion was to be established containing a brigade /division headquarters, a headquarters and service company, a signal company, a reconnaissance company, and a military police company. The amphibious support battalion, which provided most of these services in 1966, was to be dissolved, while two new support battalions, a service battalion and a medical battalion, were to be established. The artillery battalion was to remain basically the same, with the exception of the addition of a 105mm battery by 1968 or 1969; then Vietnamese Marine artillery would consist of three 105mm batteries and two 75mm pack howitzer batteries.
With the cease-fire and withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam in 1973, Marine Advisory Unit logistical and advisory functions were turned over to the Vietnamese Marine Corps Logistics Support Branch of the Navy Division of the Defense Attaché Office. This marked the end of an era of advisory efforts to the Vietnamese Marines.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
