In Buddha's Company: Thai Soldiers in the Vietnam War

Notes

noteS IntroDuCtIon 1 the Free World Military assistance Forces was the military organization of allied countries fighting to defend and maintain a viable national entity in south Vietnam. this group included the united states, south Vietnam, thailand, the Philippines, the republic of china (taiwan), new Zealand, australia, and spain. the term “Free World Forces” is capitalized as a proper noun throughout this study because specific offices within the Military assistance command–Vietnam (MacV) bore that name. 2 the royal thai air Force had only a small detachment in south Vietnam during the war. it consisted of a unit of a few dozen pilots and support personnel who flew c-123 and c-47 aircraft. its official name in english was the Victory Wing unit. the royal thai navy’s contribution was the seahorse task element. the small unit provided transportation and security in coastal waters near thailand’s area of operations. 3 the official english translated name of the contingent is “Queen’s cobra Volunteer unit.” i have elected to refer to it as the Queen’s cobra regiment because most english-language sources, as well as many of the thai veterans, use that term. 4 i have used the popular term Viet cong to describe the military forces of the national Front for the liberation of Vietnam, or national liberation Front (nlF). i have opted for Viet cong over the more precise People’s liberation armed Forces (PlaF) because of its widespread acceptance. i realize that for some scholars Viet cong—a contraction of cong san Viet Nam (Vietnamese communist)—is pejorative; however, my own experiences talking to former southern communist guerrillas in Vietnam has convinced me otherwise. their proud use of the term in identifying themselves assured me of its present neutrality and acceptability in an english-language study. as for the frequency of combat, fighting was heavier in the early phases of thai involvement. the first phase of the Black Panther division, for example, recorded 328 engagements with the Viet cong in its first year. Prawatikanrop khong thahan thai nai songkhram wiet nam (the history of battle of the thai military in the Vietnam War) (Bangkok: amarin Printing and Publishing, 1998), 202. 228 : notes to Pages 1–5 5 “‘chong ang suk’ tham chu nai wiet nam kha wiet kong thung 51 sop wetmolaen chomchoei” (“Queen’s cobras” make a name for themselves in Vietnam; kill 51 Viet cong; earn Westmoreland’s praise), Siam Rath, 22 december 1967, 1. the us ninth infantry division called these first thai troops “tough little men” in one of its field films made in south Vietnam in 1967. see The 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam, video (escondido, ca: traditions Military history Videos, 2000); “the royal thai army Volunteer Force in Vietnam War [sic] by general Michael s. davison, cinc, us army europe,” Kongphon thahan asasamat plak thi 3 wietnam k.kh. 13–k.ph. 15, n.p. 6 the Queen’s cobra unit had 2,000 troops—a small regiment—in south Vietnam from september 1967 to august 1968. the Black Panther division deployed 6,000 troops to south Vietnam in august 1968 and added another 5,000 in January 1969. the royal thai army Volunteer Force maintained a full division of 11,000 soldiers until the beginning of 1971, when it withdrew 6,000 of those troops. By august 1971 almost all of the volunteer forces had returned from south Vietnam. 7 the unit’s name in english was later changed to the Black leopard division to avoid confusion with the militant african american political organization using that name. a unit of the israeli special Forces also claimed that name in the 1960s. 8 the official thai tally is 539 dead. the royal thai army suffered 532 deaths; the royal thai navy, 5; and the royal thai air Force, 2. in some american sources, the number of thai deaths is lower. historian James e. Westheider, for example, lists the number of thais killed as 351. the higher thai figures may be a result of the thai military’s counting all fatalities that occurred in south Vietnam—combat deaths as well as those from accidents and disease. the lower figure in non-thai sources might represent only combat deaths. For official thai figures, see “history of Battle of the thai Military in the Vietnam War,” 428; for lower figures, see James e. Westheider, The Vietnam War (Westport, ct: greenwood Press, 2007), 142. 9 only one protest addressed the issue of thailand...