ARVN
Army of the Republic of Vietnam – The ARVN was born out of the Army of the Associated State of Vietnam, which was part of the French Union Forces that fought the
Viet Minh in the first Indochina war. The South Vietnamese Army, which grew to over 400,000 regulars by 1972, was trained, advised and equipped by the U.S. throughout the Vietnam War, but was not under the command of
MACV.
Following the arrival of American ground troops in 1965 ARVN units became more and more focused on the
pacification aspect of the war. However, this was reversed by the introduction of President Nixon’s
Vietnamization policy in 1969, which assigned them increasing combat responsibility.
See
MAAG,
Ruff Puffs,
RVNAF,
TRIM,