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2 A War Transformed Battle, Politics, and the Americanization of the War, 1963–1966 IT WAS A heady time to be a leader of men in South Vietnam, and, even as they faced their first tests in battle, Dinh and Hue also became swept up in some of the most important political events of their time. In the coming years, the onset of governmental chaos and discord at the highest levels shook the ARVN to its very core and left the survival of the nation in doubt. In the wake of the cacophony of political intrigue and change, the United States chose to make the war in Vietnam an American war and devoted U.S. combat forces to the fray, which fundamentally altered the nature of the entire conflict. The next four years were formative to the wartime experiences of Dinh and Hue and taught them the reality of South Vietnam at war while the conflict itself became nearly unrecognizable as small-unit guerrilla war gave way to an ever-increasing number of American and North Vietnamese troops engaged in pitched battle. As their world changed around them, both Dinh and Hue retained their optimism and believed that, with the continued help of its American allies, South Vietnam would emerge victorious from a war transformed. Training At the age of twenty-four, Dinh began his military training and became part of “Class 9” of the Thu Duc Reserve Officers School in 1961.1 The school, based on the U.S. Army’s Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, produced more than 65 percent of the officers who served in the ARVN. Dinh and the other officer candidates went through nine months of training and received a reserve commission in the ARVN at the rank of aspirant, one level below second 31 lieutenant.2 Trained by both Vietnamese officers and U.S. advisers, Dinh quickly mastered the art of small-unit command, graduated in the top ten of his class, and learned that being a good officer meant more than understanding tactics. It meant earning the respect of those under his command and leading by example—a lesson often only poorly learned in the ARVN. After graduation from Thu Duc, Dinh spent a short stint as a mortar platoon leader in the 3rd Regiment of the 1st ARVN Division. The war as Dinh first experienced it was an insurgency in its early stages, and much of Dinh’s sector south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), later famed as the single most dangerous place in South Vietnam, remained in a state of relative calm. As a result, Dinh’s first command did not involve combat, and in January 1962 he attended the South Vietnamese Ranger School. The demanding physical regimen of the program lasted for three months and focused on jungle warfare and counterinsurgency techniques. After graduating fifth in his class, Dinh underwent additional training in the Jungle Warfare School in Malaya, where he learned British techniques of counterinsurgency.3 After completing his advanced training, Dinh received an assignment to the Phu Bai Training Center, where he worked to transform ARVN draftees into effective soldiers. However, faced with a growing insurgency and an expanding war, the ARVN as a whole had little time to devote to unit training. Indeed, U.S. military advisers often cited “poor training, or its complete absence,”4 as one of the critical weak points of the ARVN. Of special concern was a worrisome lack of unit training. For example, in 1964, fifteen ARVN battalions had received no formal unit training whatsoever, and had to learn their military craft through the crucible of “on-the-job training” in battle.5 Dinh’s stint at Phu Bai, though, was something of an exception in that it occurred during a period of relative calm in his area of operations. During most of 1962 and 1963, Dinh remained at Phu Bai, working with training companies of some sixty men, each for a three-month period. Dinh immersed himself in the lives of his trainees, overseeing everything from their weapons training to their physical fitness— whatever it took to prepare raw recruits for the rigors of battle. In Dinh’s mind, his charges left Phu Bai as trained and competent soldiers , but he was aware of a grave training deficiency—one that the Americans did not readily notice. Even at this early stage of his career, Dinh realized that the ARVN 32 A War Transformed [18.191.181.231] Project MUSE...

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