Formation of the South Vietnamese People’s Self-Defense Force

June 19, 1968

Girl volunteers of the People's Self-Defense Force of Kien Dien, a hamlet of Ben Cat district 50 kil

Overview

As part of an effort to mobilize more of the population in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, the South Vietnamese government announces the formation of the People’s Self-Defense Force (PSDF). Those men not eligible for the military draft are required to join the PSDF. This primarily includes 16- and 17-year-olds and men between 39 and 50. Teenagers under 16, men over 50, and women are encouraged to serve in noncombat support roles.

This defense force becomes an important part of MACV’s pacification and security program after 1968. The PSDF is a part-time militia that uses guerrilla tactics to defend local villages. As many as four million South Vietnamese are enrolled in the PSDF in either combat or support units. Wherever the program is well-implemented, local security noticeably improves, but in general PSDF performance is uneven.¹

¹James Lawton Collins, Jr., The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army, 1950–1972, Vietnam Studies (Washington D.C.: Center of Military History, 1975), 86, 91 (for “4 million” estimate see p. 91); Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 892 (for low end estimate of 3.5 million PSDF, see this source); Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 118; Phillip B. Davidson, Vietnam At War: The History, 1946–1975 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 634 says “1.4 million” were in the PSDF.