officials threatened to withhold aid to the Special Forces unless they were used in fighting communists, rather than attacking dissidents. These attacks were replicated across the country in a synchronised manner. Tung's Special Forces under Nhu's orders were responsible for the raid on 21 August 1963, in which 1,400 monks were arrested and hundreds were estimated to have been killed, as well as extensive property damage. With opposition to Diệm growing, Nhu plotted an attack against Xá Lợi Pagoda, the largest Buddhist centre in Saigon, where the movement was organizing its activities. In the wake of the shootings of nine Buddhist protesters on the birthday of Gautama Buddha for defying a ban on the Buddhist flag, mass protests calling for religious equality erupted around the country. In 1963, South Vietnam faced civil unrest in the face of Buddhist protests against discrimination by the Catholic-oriented Diệm regime. See also: Buddhist crisis and Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm
Tung was heavily criticised for his management of the operations. Those who were captured were often used for propaganda by the North Vietnamese. Of the eighty groups of operatives, numbering six or seven per group, that were deployed in 1963 via parachute drops or night time sampan journeys, nearly all were captured or killed. They were trained in bases at Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng and sometimes offshore in Taiwan, Guam and Okinawa. Tung's most notable military activity was leading a group run by the CIA, in which ARVN personnel of northern origin were sent into North Vietnam, posing as locals, in order to gather intelligence as well as sabotaging communist infrastructure and communications. Under Diệm, the Special Forces were headed by Colonel Lê Quang Tung, who had been trained by the CIA in the United States and commanded some 1,840 men under the direction of Nhu. Despite the fact that South Vietnam was struggling against the communist insurgency of the Viet Cong in the rural areas, the Special Forces were mostly kept in the capital Saigon, where they were used to prevent coups or harass regime opponents. Diệm era ĭuring the rule of President Ngô Đình Diệm, the Special Forces were used mainly for repressing dissidents. The Special Forces continued to expand and began to increasingly operate with the CIDG. In September 1962, United States Special Forces personnel assumed responsibility of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s border surveillance and Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) programs and began working with the ARVN Special Forces. In the autumn of 1961, Special Forces units began Operation Eagle at Bình Hưng with a night parachute assault. In 1961, the Special Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 1st Infantry Division, based in the northernmost area of South Vietnam, conducted a joint operation against Communist infiltrators in northern Quảng Trị Province. Those who were captured were interrogated and executed. The success of these missions was poor.Īlthough minor sabotage and unrest was fomented, Hanoi declared that all agents were to be killed or captured. The main duties of the Special Forces entailed the recruitment and training of one-to-four man teams in intelligence, sabotage, and psychological warfare missions in North Vietnam. At Long Thành, they were trained in intelligence gathering, sabotage and psychological operations (PSYOP). By 1960, most Special Forces units were involved in the FOG program. The Special Forces came into being at Nha Trang in February 1956 under the designation of the First Observation Battalion/Group (FOG). The Special Forces were disbanded in 1975 when South Vietnam ceased to exist after the Fall of Saigon. During the rule of Ngô Đình Diệm, the Special Forces were run by his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, until both were assassinated in November 1963 in a coup.
Following the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as South Vietnam) in October 1955, the Special Forces were formed at Nha Trang in February 1956. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces ( Vietnamese: Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa or LLDB) were the elite military units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).
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