| Cảnh sát Quốc gia Việt Nam Cộng hòa | |
 Flag of the Republic of Vietnam National Police | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1955 |
| Dissolved | 1975 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | National |
| Headquarters | Saigon |
| Motto | Tổ quốc, Công minh, Liêm chính (Fatherland, Justice, Integrity) |
| Employees | 130,000 agents (at height in 1973) |
| Annual budget | 7,000,000 piastres |
| Agency executive |
|
TheRepublic of Vietnam National Police – RVNP (Vietnamese:Cảnh sát Quốc gia Việt Nam Cộng hòa),Police Nationale de la République du Vietnam orPolice Nationale for short (Vietnamese:Cảnh sát Quốc gia –CSQG) inFrench,[1] was the official South Vietnamese national police force from 1962 to 1975, operating closely with theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) during theVietnam War.
The Republic of Vietnam National Police was officially created by PresidentNgô Đình Diệm's national decree in June 1962, integrating all the existing internal security and paramilitary agencies raised by theFrench Union authorities during theFirst Indochina War between 1946 and 1954, into a single National Police Force who answered to the Directorate General of National Police (Vietnamese:Tổng cục cảnh sát quốc gia – TCCSQG). These included the Vietnamese section of the indochineseSûreté Générale secret police, the Saigon Municipal Police (French:Police municipale de Saïgon, orCông an thành phố Sài Gòn inVietnamese), elements of the colonialNational Guard of South Vietnam (French:Garde Nationale du Viet Nam Sud – GNVS, orVệ binh quốc gia Nam Việt Nam – VBNV inVietnamese), a ruralGendarmerie force or'Civil Guard' (French:Garde Civile, orCảnh Sát Dân Sự – CSDS inVietnamese), the Combat Police (French:Police de Combat, orCảnh Sát Chiến Dấu – CSCD inVietnamese) and various provincial militia forces made of irregular auxiliaries (French:Supplétifs).
Transferred to South Vietnamese control in 1955, all the aforementioned security units were integrated in the early 1960s into a new national police force with the exception of theCivil Guard, which was placed under the authority of the Ministry of Defence. The CSQG had an initial strength of only 16,000 uniformed and plainclothes agents, being essentially an urban constabulary with no rural Gendarmerie component to counter the threat posed by the increasingViet Cong (VC) insurgency in the countryside.[2]
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Even before the official creation of the National Police, President Diệm was quick to employ the security forces inherited from the French in repressing both internal political dissent and organized crime. Throughout the late 1950s and into 1960, they helped theVietnamese National Army (VNA) in suppressing theHòa Hảo andCao Đài militant religious and political sects, with approximately 25,000 armed militiamen, and the smaller but better organizedBình XuyênSaigon-based gangster group.[3]
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In February 1965 the new South Vietnamese government removed the popular and effective National Police chief, Colonel Ben, and replaced him with ColonelPhan Van Lieu, who was described by a US advisor as a man who "doesn't know the difference between a pair of handcuffs and aspittoon." Col. Lieu immediately removed numerous subordinates, seriously undermining the morale of the agency that was supposed to be leading the battle against theViet Cong's subversive infrastructure.[4]
By mid-1965 the force had met the American recommended goal of having three police officers for every 1,000 people, a rate higher than the 1.8 officers per 1,000 in the US.[5]
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The CSQG strength peaked inFebruary 1971 at 103,859 personnel – including 3,144 female agents, mostly engaged in clerical work[6] –, 4,450 vehicles and some 830 motorcycles of various types. However, out of this total only 27,565 officers and enlisted men were of career status, the remainder being on contract, daily paid or floating assimilated.[7] Plans were drawn late that year to further expand the Police to 124,050 and later to 160,000, though the actual authorized strength in 1973 stood at about 130,000 men and women.
The CSQG was organized at national level with logistical and administrative support from Saigon, but individual police departments were under the operational control of the provincial police chiefs. All components of the Police system were administered directly by theDirectorate General of National Police (TCCSQG) at the National Police Headquarters inSaigon, which also provided technical or combat support for law-enforcement and other internal security duties throughout the Country. The Directorate General was headed by Sub-Brigadier generalNguyễn Ngọc Loan, who led a staff comprising a deputy director and six assistant directors for administration, personnel and training, intelligence, operations, Field Forces and scientific police. By the late 1960s, the Vietnamese National Police was organized into nine major specialized departments or 'branches', which were:
All instruction and management of training facilities fell upon the Personnel and Training Directorate (Vietnamese:Ban nhân sự và đào tạo) at National Police headquarters inSaigon. Recruits first underwent the basic 12-week course, which consisted primarily of weapons handling, tactics,Taekwondo and drill, ministered at the mainCSQG Training Centre (Vietnamese:Trung tâm đào tạo CSQG) located atRach Dua, nearVũng Tàu. After finishing the course, the best-qualified students were selected to be sent for officer training to theNational Police Academy (Vietnamese:Học viện cảnh sát quốc gia) atSaigon, where they attended advanced instruction programs at all levels, which comprised:
Those recruits with lower qualifications went instead to the Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) School run by the ARVN at its Combat Training Centre (Vietnamese:Trung tâm huấn luyện chiến đấu) inDa Lat, co-located to the namesakeSouth Vietnamese Armed Forces Military Academy, where they received special training that would enable them to graduate as Police NCOs.
Specialists such as field policemen, patrol boat crewmen, vehicle drivers (this category includedsquad car,armoured car andJeep drivers, andmotorcyclists), radio operators, medics, mechanics, and clerks were trained in various other National Police and Armed Forces' schools. More specialized training was also provided to selected male and female personnel assigned to the other CSQG branches. River and Coastal Police boat crews were trained at theMarine Police Training Centre (Vietnamese:Trung tâm huấn luyện cảnh sát biển) co-located at theirPhú Xuân HQ, nearHuế.[8] Field Police personnel – including officers and NCOs – underwent eight weeks' of training in paramilitary skills at the police training Centres ofMalaysia and thePhilippines. Instruction covered subjects such asjungle warfare,intelligence-gathering operations,law-enforcement andriot control techniques. To upgrade their capabilities, squads and platoons were returned periodically to these training centers for six weeks of unit refresher training, but for most CSDC companies and battalions posted in the provinces their refresher course actually took place in-country at the regional training centers.
Additional military "on the job" training was provided to Field Police units in the field by U.S. Mobile Training Teams[9] or by Australian advisors from theAustralian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV).[10] Selected officer students attended specialized courses at theInternational Police Academy inWashington, D.C. while other students were sent to theRoyal Malaysian PoliceField Force Special Training Centre (Malay:Sekolah Latihan Pasukan Polis Hutan; SLPPH) atKentonmen, Ulu Kinta,Perak inMalaysia to attend advanced specialized police and instructor's courses. After graduation, some of these new National Police officers upon returning toSouth Vietnam would them be posted as Field Police instructors at the Police training centres to pass on their skills to CSDC recruits.[11]
The CSQG was lightly armed by military standards, but heavily armed by conventional police standards. Initially, most of its weaponry was surplus French and U.S. World War II/Korean War-vintage. From 1969, rifles, carbines and submachine guns began to be replaced by assault rifles and although the latter became the CSQG's primary weapon, it never displaced entirely the earlier weaponry.[12] Police units had no crew-served weapon systems such as mortars or any other indirect fire weapons.
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TheTraffic Control Police agents were given an all-white cotton service uniform consisting of a long-sleeved shirt and trousers, worn with a matching white peaked cap; the shirt had dark blue removable shoulder boards and badges and other insignia were in silvered metal.[32]
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Field Police troopers were given a black beret, worn French-style pulled to the left with the National Police cap badge placed above the right eye.[33]
A US M-1 Helmet liner painted in shiny black, marked with white-and-red stripes at the sides and the initials "TC" (Vietnamese:Tuần Cảnh – patrol) was worn by National Police constables assigned patrol duties or riot control in urban areas.[34]
Black leather low laced shoes were perscribed to wear by uniformed Police agents assigned patrol duties on urban areas. Black leather combat boots were provided by the Americans who issued both the early U.S. Army M-1962 'McNamara' model and the M-1967 model with DMS 'ripple' pattern rubber sole, standard issue in the ARVN.[35] Field policemen generally wore the highly prized U.S. ArmyJungle boot and black canvas-and-rubber Japanese-produced Indigenous Combat Boots or green canvas-and-rubber Vietnamese-produced "Goalong" tropical boots, replaced by commercial plastic or rubberflip-flops and leatherpeasant sandals while in garrison. Some individuals had zippers put into the insides of their Jungle boots so that they could be laced permanently in a fancy 'airborne' pattern, while the wearer could get into and out of his boots quickly and easily by using the zipper.[36][37]
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Regarding the placement of insignia, the Field Police (CSDC) had a system of its own, originally adapted from their dress uniform. Most CSDC troopers wore no insignia on their field camouflage uniforms while on operations, or sometimes just their Company patch in either cloth or metal versions in a pocket hanger following the French model suspended from the right shirt pocket.[38] Special Recon Teams were issued a round embroidered black patch edged red, with red 'CSQG' and 'TSDB' lettering and winged sword-bayonet pointed down.[39]
