Vietnamization, a Photo Story

Vietnamization

For Americans, the word has a comforting sound —it means Them fighting, instead of Us. For theSouth Vietnamese soldier, it’s a little different.From the beginning, the South Vietnamese Armyhas suffered from high rates of absenteeism anddesertion — largely because of soldiers’ anxietyabout their own families and hamlets. With“Vietnamization” has come a new stress on specialforces recruited from the local population ona part-time, emergency basis: rather on the orderof a volunteer fire department in a small Americantown. In these remarkable pictures is the story ofone mission by a unit of such soldiers.

Featured Tags

Vietnamization

For Americans, the word has a comforting sound —it means Them fighting, instead of Us. For theSouth Vietnamese soldier, it’s a little different.From the beginning, the South Vietnamese Armyhas suffered from high rates of absenteeism anddesertion — largely because of soldiers’ anxietyabout their own families and hamlets. With“Vietnamization” has come a new stress on specialforces recruited from the local population ona part-time, emergency basis: rather on the orderof a volunteer fire department in a small Americantown. In these remarkable pictures is the story ofone mission by a unit of such soldiers.