The Luc Luong Dac Biet (LLDB) or Special Forces, was formed on 15 March 1963.
The LLDB after President Ngo Dinh Diem, in the wake of the coup the Presidential
Liaison Office, was dissolved and its function assumed by the ARVN. The LLDB was
put under the control of the Joint General Staff and given the mission of
raising paramilitary border and village defense forces with the United States
Special Forces (USSF). External operations were given to the newly formed
Liaison Service, also under the JGS. The Liaison Service, commanded by a
Colonel, was headquartered in Saigon adjacent to the JGS. It was divided into
Task Force 1, 2 and 3, each initially composed of only a small cadre of
commandos. In 1964 the JGS also formed the Technical Service (So Ky Thuat), a
covert unit tasked with longer duration agent operations into North Vietnam.
Commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel, the Technical Service comprised Group 11
(Doan 11), oriented toward agent operations in Laos and eastern North Vietnam;
Group 68 (Doan 68 Thang Long), another infiltration unit; and the Coastal
Security Service, a maritime commando group at Da Nang attached to the Technical
service with its own contingent of PT boats for seaborne infiltration. The post
Diem LLDB was restructured for its proper role as a source of counter insurgency
instructors for paramilitary forces. By February 1964, 31 Group had finished
training and was posted to Camp Lam Son south of Nha Trang. In May the Group
became responsible for all LLDB detachments in I and II Corps. A second
reorganization occured in September when 31 Group was renamed III Group and
given responsibility for the Special Operations Training Center at Camp Lam Son.
Now 77 Group, headquartered at Camp Hung Vuong in Saigon, became 301 Group. In
addition, 91 Airborne Ranger Battalion, a three company fast reaction
paratrooper unit, was raised under LLDB auspices in November. Total LLDB force
strength stood at 333 officers, 1270 non commissioned officers and 1270 men. The
LLDB command at Nha Trang was assumed by Brig. Gen. Doan Van Quang in August
1965. By 1965 the LLDB had become almost a mirror image of the USSF. LLDB
Headquarters at Nha Trang ran the nearby Special Forces Training Center at Camp
Dong Ba Thin. LLDB 'C' Teams, designated A through D Company, were posted to
each of South Vietnam's four Military Regions; each 'C' Team had three 'B'
Teams, which controlled operational detachments at the sub regional level; 'B'
Teams ran 10 to 11 'A' Teams. 'A' Teams were colocated with USSF 'A' Teams at
camps concentrated along the South Vietnamese border, where they focused on
training Civilian Irregular Defense Force (CIDG) personnel. In addition, the
LLDB Command directly controlled the Delta Operations Center with its Delta
teams and the four company 91st Airborne Ranger Battalion, both were used by
Project Delta, a special reconnaissance unit of the US Military Assistance
Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG), which operated deep in VC/NVA
sanctuaries. On 30 January 1968 the Communists launched their TET general
offensive across South Vietnam. Caught celebrating the lunar New Year, the
Saigon government was initially ill prepared to counter the VC/NVA attacks. When
Nha Trang was hit on the first day the LLDB Headquarters was protected by 91st
Airborne Ranger Battalion, recently returned from one of its Project Delta
assignments. At only 60 percent strength the Airborne Rangers turned in an
excellent performance, pushing the major Communist elements out of Nha Trang in
less than a day. The battle, however, cost the life of the battalion commander
and wounded the four company commanders. After a four month retraining in Nha
Trang three companies from 91st Airborne Ranger Battalion were brought together
with six Delta teams and renamed 81st Airborne Ranger Battalion. In early June
the new battalion prepared for urban operations in Saigon after a second surge
of Communist attacks pushed government forces out of the capital's northern
suburbs. On 7 June the Airborne Rangers were shuttled into Saigon and began
advancing toward VC held sectors around the Duc Tin Military School. After a
week of bloody street fighting, much of it at night, the Airborne Rangers pushed
the enemy out of the city. Following the Tet Offensive 81st Airborne Ranger
Battalion was increased to six companies, and continued to be used as the main
reaction force for Project Delta; four companies were normally assigned Delta
missions while two remained in reserve at LLDB Headquarters.
From the book: SPIES AND COMMANDOS, How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam, (Modern War Studies) by Kenneth J. Comboy and Dale Andrade.