Disbanded 30 April 1975 Deployed personnel 1,000,000 in 1972 Headquarters Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Active personnel 586,838 Founded 30 December 1955 | |
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Commander-in-Chief Ngo Dinh Diem (1955 - 1963), Nguyen Van Thieu (1967 - 1975) Foreign suppliers United States
Australia
China
France
Iran
Japan
New Zealand
Philippines
South Korea
Spain
Thailand History Military history of Vietnam Ranks South Vietnamese military ranks and insignia Commanders in chief Ngo Dinh Diem (1955–1963), Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1967–1975) Service branches Army of the Republic of Vietnam, South Vietnam Air Force, Republic of Vietnam Navy Similar Republic of Vietnam Marine Di, Vietnamese Rangers, Republic of Vietnam Navy, South Vietnam Air Force, General Staff of the Vietnam | ||
The Republic of Vietnam Military Forces or RVNMF (Vietnamese: Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa – QLVNCH), were the official armed defense forces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), a state that existed from 1955 to 1975 in the southern half of what is now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The QLVNCH was responsible for the defense of South Vietnam since its independence from France in October 1955.
Branches
The QLVNCH was formally established on December 30, 1955 by the Strongman and republican first President of the Republic of Vietnam (known simply as ‘South Vietnam’) Ngo Dinh Diem, which he declared on October 26 that year after winning a rigged referendum for either making South Vietnam a constitutional monarchy, or a presidential republic. Created out from ex-French Union Army colonial Indochinese auxiliary units (French: Supplétifs), gathered earlier on July 1951 into the French-led Vietnamese National Army – VNA (Vietnamese: Quân Đội Quốc Gia Việt Nam – QĐQGVN), Armée Nationale Vietnamiènne (ANV) in French, the armed forces of the new state consisted in the mid-1950s of ground, air, and naval branches of service, respectively:
Their roles were defined as follows: to protect the sovereignty of the free Vietnamese nation and that of the Republic; to maintain the political and social order and the rule of law by providing internal security; to defend the newly independent Republic of Vietnam from external (and internal) threats; and ultimately, to help reunify Vietnam – divided since the Geneva Accords in July 1955 into two transitional states, one at the north ruled by Ho Chi Minh’s Marxist Lao Dong Party regime and the other in the south under Diem’s anti-communist government.