There used to be a special relationship between the US Army Special Forces and CIA. Considering the background of both organizations, it is quite understandable. During World War Two, the primary U.S. intelligence organization was what was known as the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. The OSS, unlike the CIA of today, was a paramilitary organization, their field officers mostly held commissions in the US Army, although there were notable officers from the Marines and the Navy. Shortly after World War Two, the OSS was disbanded and in 1947, a new civilian organization called the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA was formed. Essentially, the CIA was formed with the civilian component of the old OSS. Of course new employees were hired and the CIA still retained a component that was paramilitary. But the paramilitary part was very small, much smaller than it was during OSS days. The military component of OSS was handed over to the US Army. Most of the veterans of the OSS either became civilians or if they stayed in the military, scattered to various units.
During Korean War, it was quickly discovered that something like the old OSS, an unconventional unit was desperately needed. At first an Army Airborne Ranger unit was mobilized. However, it was a conventional unit and did not fill the need. The Airborne Rangers were demobilized and a new army unit was formed, the Special Forces. The infant Special Forces participated in the closing days of the Korean War, training guerrilla units and conducting unconventional warfare under the auspices of the 8th Army as the Army Unit 8240. The young CIA was heavily involved in the operation of the Army Unit 8240.
Quite naturally, when we became involved in Vietnam, the first U.S. military units there were the Army Special Forces, and, of course, CIA was very much in presence. It was only a natural progression for CIA to employ the Special Forces for various projects. After all, it had been less than 20 years since as OSS, they were all working together, and only a couple of years since the Korean War! The CIA had been employing Nungs as body guards before Special Forces started doing the same. The CIA had also employed the Nungs in military formations, company sized units that were used to infiltrate into Cambodia and Laos. In order to train the Nungs, CIA used Special Forces soldiers as cadre. So, the Special Forces started using Nungs as body guards first, but quickly expanded their use to other military needs.
Because Special Forces A teams were always in isolated areas, surrounded by native Vietnamese or hill tribesmen, if they needed assistance when attacked by a large enemy force, it was very difficult to get that help! Military bureaucracy made things very cumbersome and a unit had to get special permission from headquarters, etc., before they could dispatch help to a besieged Special Forces camp. Sometimes, that permission never came! That is what happened at Long Vei Special Forces camp near Khe Sanh. They were overrun by North Vietnamese before any help could reach them. So, a special Mobile Strike Force, Mike Force, was formed with Nungs. This Mike Force was used to help besieged Special Forces camps in the area. The program was so successful that it was expanded to five large Mobile Strike Forces, located in five military zones in Vietnam. These were large units, some almost regimental size, made of Nungs in some areas, but with Montagnards in others. There were also smaller company and battalion sized Mike Forces scattered throughout.
Along with Mike Forces, there were the Mobile Guerrilla Forces, the MGFs. These were units specifically formed and trained to fight as guerrillas in enemy territory. Because of the weird political nature of Vietnam War, we were not allowed to go into Laos and Cambodia after the North Vietnamese who used those countries as sanctuaries. So, we used Mobile Guerrilla Forces, made up of Chinese Nungs, various Montagnard tribesmen, Cambodians, and Laotians. After all, they were not Americans, so we weren't breaking any "rules." Of course the US Special Forces soldiers that led these units had to be very careful not to get captured! They dressed exactly like the MGF members, and generally were indistinguishable from other members of the Mobile Guerrilla Forces, except that they were usually much taller. But that's another story!
We learned quickly that the Nungs were by far the best. The Montagnards were as brave and loyal, but they lacked the military know how, despite training, since anything modern did not come naturally to them. But that will be discussed later. The Cambodians and Laotians were iffy at best. Some were good, others not so good. In case of the incident at Long Vei, the closest Mike Force was a Laotian unit led by U.S. Special Forces NCOs. The Laotians balked at fighting a superior North Vietnamese force and as a result, of the two Americans that led the force, one was killed and another captured. That would not have happened if that Mike Force was made up of Nungs!
When the so-called Vietnam-ization took place, all these irregular units were turned over to the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese insisted that they handle all the pay and other responsibilities. Everyone knew what was going to happen. The Nungs (as well as the Montagnards) refused to work for the Vietnamese. The Nungs left en mass! Some of the Nungs were airlifted by CIA to other regions, most notably to the Golden Triangle region of Burma, Thailand, and China. Some of the Nungs had come from that region in their younger days. In 1949, some Koumintang (Nationalist Chinese Army) units settled in the Golden Triangle region and were engaged in the opium trade. No doubt there were Nungs in that group. Eventually the Chinese either moved out or were absorbed by the people in the region, namely the Shan people. So, the fact that some of them chose to return to that area is not surprising.
There were many CIA officers as well as Special Forces soldiers who worked desperately to get the Nungs out of Vietnam. Some managed to get out. Others managed to escape later, pretending to be simply ethnic Chinese of Vietnam. There always was a large ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam, the large and popular Cholon district of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) is Chinese! So, there are Nungs in America. However, sadly, the vast majority that fought so bravely and loyally for Americans all those years, have disappeared. The North Vietnamese possibly hated the Nungs even more than the South Vietnamese, so no doubt any Nung who worked for Americans was shot. I don't think they wasted any time with Nungs trying to re-educate them in camps!
The Chinese Nungs, a proud people with a distinguished history of bravery and loyalty in battle. Perhaps some day they will resurface again. You cannot squash or eliminate people like that. They somehow always manage to survive.
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