Republic of Vietnam Military Forces
The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF; Vietnamese: Quân lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa – QLVNCH), were the official armed defence forces of the defunct Republic of Vietnam and were responsible for the defence of the state and the republican regime since its independence from France on 26 October 1955 to its collapse from its northern communist counterparts and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) on 30 April 1975. The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces day is celebrated in June 19th every years since 1965.
Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces
"Tổ Quốc – Danh Dự – Trách Nhiệm"
("Homeland – Honour – Duty")
30 December 1955
30 April 1975
Saigon, Central-South region of Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem (1955–1963)
Nguyen Van Thieu (1967–1975)
See list
586,838
1,000,000 in 1972
The QLVNCH (also known as the RVNAF) was formally established on December 30, 1955, by the strongman and republican first South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, which he declared on October 26 that year after winning a rigged referendum[1] on the future of the State of Vietnam. Created out from ex-French Union Army colonial Indochinese auxiliary units (French: Supplétifs), gathered earlier in July 1951 into the French-led Vietnamese National Army or 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,the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces day is also celebrated (mostly by the overseas Vietnamese people) every years in 19 June
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 regime.