Following are the names of ARVN Generals who are graduates of US Army Command and General Staff College.

General Vinh Loc remarked in his book entitled Thư Gửi người Bạn Mỹ (Letters to US Advisors), 1998, page71: " The terrain and the location of our country, in terms of search and destroy the enemy operation, do not provide the opportunity to deploy simultaneously three Regiments together with support units. Looking back from the day the Division was created to the Highlands' debacle, no Military Tactical Region had launched an operation that used a whole division, that is, all 3 Infantry Regiments, with Artillery, Engineer and Armored Cavalry Battalions, etc. Even if one would like to, one did not have enough space which would allow the deployment of a whole Division, not to mention that very few commanders underwent proper training in Large Unit command".

General Vinh Loc undoubtedly referred to the following corps and division commanders at the period when Saigon collapsed in 1975 (the bold characters indicate the very few commanders underwent proper training in Large Unit command; one can count 9 out of 25):

- Lieutenant General Ngo Quang Truong, I Corps; Lieutenant General Lam Quang Thi, Deputy I Corps; Brigadier General Nguyen Van Diem, 1st Division; Brigadier General Tran Van Nhut, 2nd Division; Major General Nguyen Duy Hinh, 3rd Division;

- Major General Pham Van Phu, II Corps; Brigadier General Tran Van Cam, Deputy II Corps; Brigadier General Phan Dinh Niem, 22nd Division; Brigadier General Le Trung Tuong, 23rd Division;

- Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Toan, III Corps; Major General Nguyen Van Hieu, Deputy III Corps; Brigadier General Le Nguyen Vy, 5th Division; Brigadier General Le Minh Dao, 18th Division; Brigadier General Ly Tong Ba, 25th Division; Brigadier General Tran Quang Khoi, 3rd Armor Brigade;

- Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Minh, Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Military Zone; Brigadier General Ly Ba Hy , Deputy Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Military Zone;

- Major General Nguyen Khoa Nam, IV Corps; Brigadier General Le Van Hung, Deputy IV Corps; Brigadier General Tran Van Hai, 7th Division; Brigadier General Huynh Van Lac, 9th Division; Brigadier General Mach Van Truong, 21st Division;

- Brigadier General Le Quang Luong, Airborne Division;

- Brigadier General Bui The Lan, Marine Corps Division;

- Major General Do Ke Giai, Ranger Division.

Furthermore, it is worthwhile noting that Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Thieu, Commander in Chief of the Vietnamese Armed Forces, did not graduate the USACGSC. For this reason, it is not surprising that General Thieu was able to order the withdrawal of II Corps and I Corps against all odds without taking into consideration any military principles, to the point of utmost ignorance and stupidity, causing the collapse of the entire South Vietnam in a blinking of an eye. (In his curriculum vitae published in Who's Who In Vietnam - Vietnam Press, Saigon 1967, General Thieu lied about having graduated the USACGSC in 1958!)

This list of USACGSC graduates also shows that when assigning generals to key positions, President Thieu did not use as criteria ability and high level military training, and only focused on those he knew would not turn against him and would obey him subserviently.

Nguyen Van Tin
12 January 2009

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