| U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam | |
|---|---|
 U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam shoulder sleeve insignia | |
| Active | 1962–1973 |
| Country | United States of America |
| Part of | United States Pacific Command |
| Garrison/HQ | Tan Son Nhut Airport,South Vietnam |
| Nickname(s) | "MACV" |
| Decorations | Gallantry Cross (Vietnam) with Palm[1]: 3 |
| Battle honours | Vietnam[1]: 4
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Paul D. Harkins William C. Westmoreland Creighton W. Abrams Frederick C. Weyand |
TheU.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was a joint-servicecommand of theUnited States Department of Defense, composed of forces from theUnited States Army,United States Navy, andUnited States Air Force, as well as their respective special operations forces.
MACV was created on 8 February 1962, in response to the increase in United States military assistance to South Vietnam. MACV was implemented to assist and oversee theMilitary Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) Vietnam while theViet Cong insurgency was under way. It was reorganized on 15 May 1964 and absorbed MAAG Vietnam when the deployment of combat units became too large for the advisory group to control.[2]
GeneralPaul D. Harkins was the first commanding general of MACV (COMUSMACV), and was previously the commander of MAAG Vietnam. After reorganization he was succeeded by GeneralWilliam Westmoreland in June 1964, followed by GeneralCreighton W. Abrams (July 1968) and GeneralFrederick C. Weyand (June 1972).[2]
MACV was disestablished on 29 March 1973 and replaced by theDefense Attaché Office (DAO), Saigon. The DAO performed many of the same roles of MACV within the restrictions imposed by theParis Peace Accords until theFall of Saigon.[2]
Admiral Harry D. Felt,Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, established the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, on 8 February 1962, as a subordinate unified command under his control.[3]: 27–8 Lieutenant GeneralPaul D. Harkins, the Deputy Commander in Chief,U.S. Army, Pacific, who, as the commander-designate for the task force headquarters (HQ) in the event of operations in Southeast Asia, had participated in the planning for such operations, was appointed commander and promoted to general.
Harkins became the senior U.S. military commander in South Vietnam and responsible for U.S. military policy, operations and assistance there. Harkins had the task of advising the South Vietnamese government on security, organization, and employment of their military and paramilitary forces. As provided for in the organization of the task force headquarters in the contingency plans, MACV's commander was also his own Army component commander. With an initial authorized strength of 216 men (113 Army), MACV was envisaged as a temporary HQ that would be withdrawn once theViet Cong insurgency was brought under control. In that event, theMilitary Assistance Advisory Group would be restored to its former position as the principal U.S. headquarters in South Vietnam. For this reason, the MAAG was retained as a separate headquarters.
In March 1962 Headquarters,United States Army Pacific, removed the "provisional" designation from the U.S. Army Support Group, Vietnam, attached it toUnited States Army Ryukyu Islands for administrative and logistical support, and made its commanding officer the deputy Army component commander under MACV. All U.S. Army units in South Vietnam, excluding advisory attachments, were assigned to the Army Support Group for administrative and logistical needs. Over the course of 1962 U.S. military strength in South Vietnam rose from about 1,000 to over 11,000 personnel. Each service continued to provide its own logistical support.
Throughout 1963 the duties of the U.S. Army Support Group steadily increased, particularly regarding to combat support activities and logistics. During the year, the U.S. buildup continued, especially in aviation, communications, intelligence, special warfare and logistic units, reaching a total of 17,068 men, of which 10,916 were Army. Because of this expansion, the commanding general, GeneralJoseph Warren Stilwell Jr. late in 1963 proposed that the name of the support group be changed to U.S. Army Support Command, Vietnam. Harkins concurred and GeneralJames Francis Collins, commander of United States Army, Pacific and Admiral Felt approved the redesignation. The new designation went into effect on 1 March 1964.[3]: 37
MACV was reorganized on 15 May 1964, and absorbed MAAG Vietnam within it, when combat unit deployment became too large for advisory group control. A Naval Advisory Group was established and the Commanding General,2nd Air Division, became MACV's Air Force component commander.[3]: 41 That year the U.S. strength in Vietnam grew from about 16,000 men (10,716 Army) to about 23,300 (16,000 Army) in 1964. Logistic support operations were highly fragmented. As a result, the1st Logistics Command was established.[3]: 43–5
Large scale combat deployments began when the9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade was deployed in theDa Nang area from March 1965. When theIII Marine Amphibious Force moved to Da Nang on 6 May 1965, its commanding general, Major GeneralWilliam R. Collins, was designated MACV's naval component commander.[3]: 45 In May 1965, the Army's173d Airborne Brigade from Okinawa arrived. In July 1965, in response to the growing size of U.S. Army forces in the country,United States Army, Vietnam was established, and both the 2nd Brigade,1st Infantry Division as well as the 1st Brigade,101st Airborne Division, deployed from the United States.[4]: 323
The brigade from the 101st Airborne Division was originally planned to replace the 173d Airborne Brigade but, with the need for additional combat forces, both brigades remained in South Vietnam. Two months later, the1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), recently reorganized from an infantry formation, reported in country, and the rest of the 1st Infantry Division arrived in October.
Two corps-level HQs were established in 1965-66, Task Force Alpha (soon to becomeI Field Force, Vietnam) for U.S. forces in theII Corps Tactical Zone andII Field Force, Vietnam, for U.S. Army forces in theIII Corps Tactical Zone. The5th Special Forces Group was also established in-country by 1965. A brigade of the25th Infantry Division arrived in late 1965, with the4th Infantry Division deploying between August and November 1966.[4]: 327 The11th Armored Cavalry Regiment was alerted for assignment to Southeast Asia on 11 March 1966.
In April 1967, General Westmoreland, who had arrived in June 1964 as Commander of MACV, organized a division-sized blocking force along the border between North and South Vietnam.[4]: 330–1 The deployment of a division-sized U.S. Army force would allow the1st Marine Division to move north, to provide greater support for the3rd Marine Division in the northern portion of theI Corps Tactical Zone. Designated asTask Force Oregon, it included the196th Infantry Brigade; the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division atChu Lai Base Area; and the 1st Brigade, 10lst Airborne Division. On 25 September 1967 the23rd Infantry (Americal) Division) was activated to control the blocking force, replacing the provisional task force HQ. With the elapse of five months, all the three same brigades remained in the new division, but the brigade at Chu Lai was now named the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, after a responsibility swap that had occurred in August.
In April 1966, all Army communications-electronics resources in South Vietnam were combined in a single formation, the1st Signal Brigade.[3]: 60–1 It supported the combat signal battalions of the divisions and field forces in each corps area. The 1st Signal Brigade operated the many elements of the Defense Communications System in South Vietnam. To improve co-ordination and management of communications-electronics assets, the brigade commander served as the U.S. Army, Vietnam, staff adviser on all matters pertaining to Army communications-electronics.
On 24 January 1968, General Westmoreland "cabled to Admiral Sharp a recommendation that the Commander in Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC), and MACV begin contingency planning for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in northern Quang Tri if necessary to prevent a major defeat. He noted that in the uninhabited mountains around Khe Sanh, such weapons could be used with great effect and with “negligible” civilian casualties. Sharp on the thirtieth accepted Westmoreland’s proposal and ordered planners from MACV and CINCPAC’s component commands to meet on Okinawa on 1 February. Assigning the project the code-name Fracture Jaw, Sharp told all concerned to “bear in mind the very sensitive nature” of the planning and to restrict knowledge of it to as few people as possible on an “absolutely essential need to know basis.”[5] Planning began in January 1968 to move nuclear weapons intoSouth Vietnam so that they could be used on short notice against North Vietnamese troops.[6] However planning quickly ceased after the effort became public in the United States in February.
In contrast to the carrier, amphibious, and naval gunfire support forces and, at least during early 1965, the coastal patrol force, which Commander Seventh Fleet directed, the Navy's forces within South Vietnam were operationally controlled by COMUSMACV.[7] Initially, Westmoreland exercised this command through the Chief, Naval Advisory Group. However, the increasing demands of the war required a distinct operational rather than an advisory headquarters for naval units. As a result, on 1 April 1966,Naval Forces Vietnam, was established to control the Navy's units in the II, III and IV Corps Tactical Zones. This eventually included the major combat formations: Coastal Surveillance Force (Task Force 115), River Patrol Force (Task Force 116) and Riverine Assault Force (Task Force 117). The latter unit formed the naval component of the joint Army-NavyMobile Riverine Force.[8]: 1–5
Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam (COMNAVFORV) also controlled theNaval Support Activity Saigon (NSA Saigon), which supplied naval forces in the II, III and IV Corps areas.[8]: 2 Naval Support Activity Danang (NSA Danang), provided logistic support to all American forces in I Corps, where the predominant Marine presence demanded a naval supply establishment. NSA Danang was under the operational control of Commander III Marine Amphibious Force.[8]: 4–5
Major component commands of MACV were:[9]
The "Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam" was known by the abbreviation COMUSMACV (/ˌkɒm.juːɛsˌmækˈviː/ "com-U.S.-mack-vee").[10] COMUSMACV was in one sense the top person in charge of the U.S. military on theIndochinese peninsula; however, in reality, theCINCPAC and the U.S. ambassadors toVietnam, Laos, and Cambodia also had "top person in charge" status with regard to various aspects of the war's strategy.
| GeneralPaul D. Harkins | 1962–64 |
| GeneralWilliam C. Westmoreland | 1964–68 |
| GeneralCreighton Abrams | 1968–72 |
| GeneralFrederick C. Weyand | 1972–73 |
The original MACV Headquarters were colocated with MAAG at 606 Trần Hưng Đạo,Cholon. In May 1962 it moved to 137 Pasteur Street (10°46′58.25″N106°41′35.94″E / 10.7828472°N 106.6933167°E /10.7828472; 106.6933167 (pre-1967 MACV, Saigon)) in centralSaigon. The Trần Hưng Đạo site subsequently became the headquarters ofRepublic of Korea armed forces in Vietnam.
As the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam grew, MACV quickly outgrew the Pasteur Street quarters and expanded into a proliferating number of buildings throughout downtown Saigon. This added to the command’s existing security vulnerabilities and communications difficulties. In March 1965, Westmoreland began a search for a new location large enough to accommodate the entire headquarters. He initially tried to obtain a site between the ARVNJoint General Staff compound andTan Son Nhut Airport, desirable from the standpoint of removing Americans from central Saigon and placing MACV conveniently close to its Vietnamese counterpart.[11]
The Vietnamese government refused to turn over the most suitable location, a soccer field (10°48′45.62″N106°39′57.49″E / 10.8126722°N 106.6659694°E /10.8126722; 106.6659694 (post-1967 MACV, Saigon)) near the civilian air terminal, allegedly because PremierNguyễn Cao Kỳ wanted to keep the property for a postwar tourist hotel. In late April 1966, with the Saigon regime locked in a tenseconfrontation with Buddhist and ARVN rebels in I Corps, AmbassadorHenry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Westmoreland reopened the effort to acquire the Tan Son Nhut soccer field. Under their combined pressure, Kỳ gave way.[11]
On 2 July 1966 the construction of a purpose-built building began. It was designed and constructed under the supervision of the U.S. NavyOfficer in Charge of Construction RVN. The construction contractor wasRMK-BRJ, at a cost of $25 million. MACV occupied its new headquarters early in August 1967. The new complex soon earned the nickname "Pentagon East."[12]
The air-conditioned complex of two-story prefabricated buildings, a little more than a third the size of its Washington namesake, included twelve acres of enclosed office space. In addition to the headquarters offices, the complex included a barracks, a mess hall, a refrigerated storage building and its own power plant and telephone exchange. Inside, according to one staff officer, "the well-waxed corridors had the fluorescent feel of an airport terminal." A cyclone fence, topped with barbed wire and with watch towers at intervals, provided close-in protection.[12]
Following the closure of MACV and the establishment of the DAO, the MACV Headquarters became the DAO Compound.
Under the terms of theParis Peace Accords MACV and all American and third country forces had to be withdrawn from South Vietnam within 60 days of the ceasefire. A small U.S. military headquarters was needed to continue the military assistance program for the southernRepublic of Vietnam Military Forces and supervise the technical assistance still required to complete the goals ofVietnamization. This headquarters became theDefense Attaché Office, Saigon. That headquarters also reported operational and military intelligence through military channels to DOD authorities.[13]
A multi-service organization was required to plan for the application of U.S. air and naval power intoNorth or South Vietnam,Cambodia orLaos, should this be required and ordered. Called theUnited States Support Activities Group &7th Air Force (USSAG/7th AF), it was located atNakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in northeastThailand.[13]: 18
The advance echelon of USSAG/7AF moved fromTan Son Nhut Air Base to Nakhon Phanom on 29 January 1973. Transfer of the main body, drawn largely from the operations and intelligence sections of MACV and Seventh Air Force, began on 10 February. USSAG was activated on 11 February 1973 under the command of commander of MACV. At 08:00 on 15 February, USAF GeneralJohn W. Vogt Jr., as USSAG/7AF commander, took over from MACV control of American air operations.[14][15]: 48 U.S. air support operations into Cambodia continued under USSAG/7th AF until August 1973.[13]: 18
The DAO was established as a subsidiary command of MACV and remained under the command of commander of MACV until the deactivation of MACV on 27 March 1973. Command then passed to the Commander USSAG/Seventh Air Force at Nakhon Phanom.[15]: 52 The DAO was activated on 28 January 1973 withUnited States ArmyMajor GeneralJohn E. Murray, formerly MACV director of logistics, as the Defense Attaché andUnited States Air ForceBrigadier General Ralph J. Maglione, formerly the MACV J-1 (Director for Manpower and Personnel), as deputy Defense Attaché.[13]: 18–9
By 29 March, the only American military personnel left in South Vietnam were the U.S. delegates to the Four-Party Joint Military Commission established under the Paris Peace Accords to oversee the ceasefire, themselves in the process of winding up work and departing; the fifty man DAO military contingent; and a 143-manMarine Security Guard. At 11:00 on the 29th, in a simple ceremony, General Weyand furled the colors of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, and formally inactivated it.[16]
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