|
US Special Forces In The Vietnam War -
The Vietnam war presented a new set of challenges to the United States armed forces. The terrain, the lack of
a conventional enemy and guerrilla fighting techniques forces the various brnaches of the US armed services to
adapt new fighting concepts. The days of fighting between two uniformed, conventional armies were gone.
The 1st Special Service Force of World War II is considered the antecedent of the present U.S. Army Special
Forces. In the spring of 1942 the British Chief of Combined Operations, Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten,
introduced to U.S. Army Chief of Staff a project conceived by an English civilian, Geoffrey N. Pike, for the
development of special equipment to be used in snow-covered mountain terrain.
The use of special forces continued into the Korean war. On 20 June 1952 the first of the Special Forces groups,
the 10th Special Forces Group, was activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; it became the center of the Special
Warfare Center, at Fort Bragg.
The early days of the Vietnam conflict started with the use of special forces in the capacity of advisors.
By July 1954 the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, numbered 342. In October of that year
President Dwight D. Eisenhower promised direct aid to the government of South Vietnam.
U.S. Special Forces troops actually worked in Vietnam for the first time in 1957. On 24 June 1957 the 1st Special
Forces Group was activated on Okinawa. They trained fifty-eight men of the Vietnamese Army at the Commando
Training Center in Nha Trang. The trainees would later become instrumental in the development of the first
Vietnamese Special Forces units.
This section of the website is dedicated to the study of the uniforms, equipment and inssignia
of the US Special Forces in Vietnam.
|
