World: Building Up the ARVN

Though the battle headlines—and of late the casualty figures—emphasize the role of U.S. fighting men in Viet Nam, the largest body of troops on either side of the war is still the Army of the Republic of South Viet Nam, some 608,000 soldiers strong. For a small country (pop. 16 million), this is a remarkably large force; it is as if the U.S. (pop. 199 million) had 8,000,000 men in uniform (instead of 3,000,000 in all services). More than 30% of the men aged 16 to 45 in South Viet Nam are in uniform,...

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