Reverse Vietnamization, I say!
Coinciding with the drawdown of U.S. ground troops from South Vietnam in 1969, the Nixon administration, with Kissinger in the seat, introduced the policy of “Vietnamization,” a program designed to shift the responsibility of the war from the U.S. to the RVN.
As noted by the State Department, “Although this process was not successful, the United States negotiated a peace agreement in 1973 and withdrew from South Vietnam, which soon fell to the communist regime in the north.”
The hardware transferred in 1972 alone included 234 F-5A and A-37 jet fighter planes, 32 C-130 transports, 277 UH-1H Hueys, 72 M48A3 tanks, 117 M113 armored personnel carriers, and 1,726 trucks in addition to boatloads of artillery pieces, small arms, radios, etc– most of which would be sampled by Moscow post-1975 after the Saigon government fell.
Carrying red and gold Vietnam People’s Air Force roundels and standard 4-digit MiG style numbers, many of these aircraft saw lots of service with the VPAF over Cambodia and against the Chinese in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Because nobody ever reads the history books, “Afghanization” likewise copied the same play with the same outcome in 2020, because possibly, just possibly, propping up corrupt regimes during a civil war in which 90 percent of the population has checked out from either side, just doesn’t work no matter how much cash and guns you leave behind.
But history is cyclical, of course, and everything comes back around.
Case in point, last week, at Phan Thiet Air Base in Southwestern Vietnam, (formerly the U.S. Army’s Firebase Betty, formerly the French Army’s Phan Thiết airfield), PACAF commander, Gen. Kevin Schneider, oversaw the “historic delivery of the first three T-6C Texan IIs to the Vietnam Air Defence force.”
The delivery signifies a milestone for the U.S. Air Force and the Vietnam ADAF, with the full complement of 12 T-6Cs scheduled for delivery by 2025.
The released photos make pains to have folks standing in front of the red and gold communist national flashes on the aircraft.
U.S. PACAF Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider and a T6-C pilot disembark a T6-C training aircraft in Phan Thiet, Vietnam, on Nov. 20, 2024. General Schneider landed the first of five T6-C aircraft. Seven more training aircraft will be delivered to the Vietnamese Air Defence Air Force by 2025.
U.S. PACAF Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider, Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Hien, Commander of the Vietnam Air Defence Air Force, and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper stand by a T6-C training aircraft in Phan Thiet, Vietnam, on Nov. 20, 2024. The Vietnamese Air Defence Air Force will use these training aircraft for pilot training.
Of note, the Navy has already been handing over small contractor-made coastal patrol boats to the Vietnam Coast Guard going back to 2017, a force whose largest OPVs, CSB 8020 and CSB 8021 are formerly the USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722) and USCGC John Midgett (WHEC-726), respectively.
Ex-U.S. Coast Guard Cutter John Midgett leaving Puget Sound as Vietnam Coast Guard 8021, June 5 2021
I say, since we are passing on scratch and dent gear to the Vietnamese once again, that they give back some of the old stuff we gave them in the 1960s and 70s for use as gate guards, museum pieces, and CMP surplus rifle assets.
All these seen in Vietnamese stores in the past few years:
Thank you. Just finishing up Sir Max Hastings Vietnam: 1945-1975. Excellent reading on how it all came about as well as fell apart under Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who sought a “Peace with Honor,” exit from Vietnam, leaving South Vietnam to wither under the vine and die. Although several ARVN units fought well in the last days, most, discarded their uniforms, weapons and went back home. Until their new rulers, identified them for years of “re-education camp enslavement. Excellent book. Thank you friend, always good stories.
Jim Sullivan, M.A.:)
I know there is a lot to discuss about the end of the US involvement in Vietnam and I am certainly no expert in it. But it does give me some happiness to know that some of this equipment was ultimately used against the Khmer Rouge in order to oust that truly evil regime. Maybe that is the silver lining to all of this.
Several F-5s were sent to the Soviet Union for testing and the pilots enjoyed them I guess. Reliable, easy to handle, maneuverable. According to one pilot, the F-5 beat the MiG-21 and MiG-23 in every dogfight they did and influenced the future planes of the Soviet Union/Russia.
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/soviet-pilot-who-test-flew-captured-f-5-against-mig-21-mig-23-explains-why-the-tiger-beat-the-fishbed-flogger-in-every-engagement/