Republic of Vietnam Military Forces

Republic of Vietnam Military Forces 'Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa'
War Flag.
Flag of RVNMF
Founded	30 December 1955
Disbanded	30 April 1975
Service branches	Army of the Republic of Vietnam Republic of Vietnam Air Force Republic of Vietnam Navy
Headquarters	Saigon
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Ngo Dinh Diem (1955 - 1963), Nguyen Van Thieu (1967 - 1975)
Commander	Unknown
Manpower
Active personnel	586,838
Deployed personnel	1,000,000 in 1972
Industry
Foreign suppliers	United States  Australia  France Iran  Japan  New Zealand  Philippines  South Korea Spain  Taiwan  Thailand
Related articles
History	Military history of Vietnam

The Republic of Vietnam Military Forces or RVNMF (Vietnamese: Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa – QLVNCH), were the official armed defense forces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), a state that existed from 1955 to 1975 in the southern half of what is now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The QLVNCH was responsible for the defense of South Vietnam since its independence from France in October 1955.

Branches

The QLVNCH was formally established on December 30, 1955 by the Strongman and republican first President of the Republic of Vietnam (known simply as ‘South Vietnam’) Ngo Dinh Diem, which he declared on 26 October that year after winning a rigged referendum^[1] for either making South Vietnam a constitutional monarchy, or a presidential republic. Created out from ex-French Union Army colonial Indochinese auxiliary units (French: Supplétifs), gathered earlier on July 1951 into the French-led Vietnamese National Army – VNA (Vietnamese: Quân Đội Quốc Gia Việt Nam – QĐQGVN), Armée Nationale Vietnamiènne (ANV) in French, the armed forces of the new state consisted in the mid-1950s of ground, air, and naval branches of service, respectively:

• Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)
• Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF)
• Republic of Vietnam Navy (VNN)

Their roles were defined as follows: to protect the sovereignty of the free Vietnamese nation and that of the Republic; to maintain the political and social order and the rule of law by providing internal security; to defend the newly independent Republic of Vietnam from external (and internal) threats; and ultimately, to help reunify Vietnam – divided since the Geneva Accords in July 1955 into two transitional states, one at the north ruled by Ho Chi Minh’s Marxist Lao Dong Party regime and the other in the south under Diem’s anti-communist government.

Command structure

Regional Commands

See also

• Republic of Vietnam Air Force
• Republic of Vietnam Navy
• Republic of Vietnam National Police
• Republic of Vietnam Marine Division
• Vietnam People's Army (NVA)
• Vietnamese National Army (ANV)
• First Indochina War
• Vietnam War
• Cambodian Civil War
• Laotian Civil War
• Khmer National Armed Forces
• Royal Lao Armed Forces
• Weapons of the Vietnam War

Notes

1. Rottman and Bujeiro, Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-75 (2010), p. 7.

References

• Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad, US Army Special Forces 1952-84, Elite series 4, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. ISBN 9780850456103
• Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad, Vietnam Airborne, Elite Series 29, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1990. ISBN 0-85045-941-9
• Gordon L. Rottman and Ramiro Bujeiro, Army of the Republic of Vietnam 1955-75, Men-at-arms series 458, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2010. ISBN 978-1-84908-182-5
• Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, South-East Asian Special Forces, Elite series 33, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991. ISBN 9781855321069
• Lee E. Russell and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War 2, Men-at-arms series 143, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1983. ISBN 0-85045-514-6.
• L. Thompson and Mike Chappell, Uniforms of the Indo-China and Vietnam Wars, Blandford Press, London 1984.
• Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell, The French Indochina War 1946-54, Men-at-arms series 322, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1998. ISBN 978-1-85532-789-4
• Phillip Katcher and Mike Chappell, Armies of the Vietnam War 1962-1975, Men-at-arms series 104, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1980. ISBN 978-0-85045-360-7

Further reading

• Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh, South Wind Changing, Graywolf Press, Minnesota 1994.
• Mark Moyar, "Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, U.K., 2006
• Neil L. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, The Regents of the University of California press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California 1993.
• Nguyen Cao Ky, How we lost the Vietnam War, 1984.
• Tran Van Don, Our Endless War, Presidio Press, Novato, CA.1978.