Republic of Vietnam Military Forces

The QLVNCH was formally established on December 30, 1955 by the strongman and republican first South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, which he declared on October 26 that year after winning a rigged referendum[1] on the future of the State of Vietnam. 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)
• Republic of Vietnam Marine Division (RVNMD)

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 regime.

• Cambodian Civil War
• First Indochina War
• Khmer National Armed Forces
• Laotian Civil War
• Royal Lao Armed Forces
• Republic of Vietnam Air Force
• Republic of Vietnam Navy
• Republic of Vietnam National Police
• Republic of Vietnam Marine Division
• Provincial Reconnaissance Unit
• South Vietnamese military ranks and insignia
• People's Army of Vietnam
• Vietnamese National Army
• Vietnam War
• Weapons of the Vietnam War

• 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.
• Leroy Thompson, Michael Chappell, Malcolm McGregor and Ken MacSwan, Uniforms of the Indo-China and Vietnam Wars, Blandford Press, London 1984. ASIN: B001VO7QSI
• 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