COMMUNIST COMBAT STRENGTH AND LOGISTICAL REQUIREMENTS BY VC MILITARY REGION UNDER THE CURRENT SCALE OF COMBAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78S02149R000200100019-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 2, 2002
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: March 11, 1966
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2002/01/29 CIA-RDP78SO2149R000200100019-8 N 3.
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COMMUNIST COMBAT STRENGTH AND LOGISTICAL REQUIREMEN'T'S BY
VC MILITARY REGION UNDER THE CURRENT SCALE OF COMBAT
The current Communist combat force in South Vietnam is estimated to total
72,300 men. This force is comprised of 43,000' VC troops, 12,500** NVN troops,
and 16,800 local forces. VC/NVN combat elements require a total of 71 tons of
supplies per day, 59 tons obtained from internal sources, and 12 tons obtained from
abroad. The 16,800 man local force needs 20 tons per day, all of which is procured
from indigenous sources. Total requirements for the 72,300 Communist man force
equal about 91 tons.
Communist forces in South Vietnam are organized territorially into 5 major
military regions numbered 5-9 from north to south. By far the most important of
these regions is military region 5 which extends from Quang Tri province in the
far north to Darlac and Khanh Hoa in South Vietnam's central area, and contains
12 of the country's i3 provinces. Located within this area are 39% of the total
Communist combat force, numbering 28,000 men, who require in excess of 35 tons
of supplies each day. Six of the 8 confirmed NVN regiments in South Vietnam are
located in this military region, probably comprising over 1/3 of the total combat
force within the area. Five of the six regiments are concentrated in two prov-
inces within the region.*
There is a fairly uniform distribution of forces within the other four mili-
tary regions, MR 5 thru 9. Personnel strength in each of the four regions ranges
between 10,000-12,000; altogether these four regions account for about 60% of the
The equivalent of 86 battalions of 500 men each.
4 The equivalent of 25 battalions of 500 men each.
The Quyet Tam and 18th regiments in Binh Dinh and the 66, 33, and 32 regiments
in Pleiku.
ED EI N DISSEM
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 Approved For Release. 2002/01/29 CIA-RDP78SO2149R000200100019-8
total Communist combat force in South Vietnam, and 60% of the total logistical
requirements. Less than 1?%o of the total Communist combat force is located in
the Saigon/Cholon/Gia Dinh special region. On a lbs. per man per day basis, the
requirements in each region amount to slightly over 2 lbs. per man per day for
supplies from indigenous sources, and,3 lbs. per man per day for externally pro-
vided supplies.
Binh Dinh province with 7,750 combat troops and Pleiku province with 5,525
fighting men account for 46%0 of the total requirements in the 12 province MR 5
area. This rather high proportion of total requirements reflects a heavy concen-
tration of NVN forces (5 regiments) within these two provinces. In military re-
gion 6 Quang Duc province accounts for 31% of the total Communist force within
that region, a percentage which is directly attributable to the presence of two
confirmed NVlregiments in that province. Phuoc Long province, also in MR 6,
accounts for 51% of the total Communist combat strength in the region, and corre-
spondingly 51% of the region's total logistical requirements. There are no NVN
elements reported to be in Phuoc Long province, but with a total force of 5,450
men, Phuoc Long has the highest concentration of VC forces of any province in South
Vietnam.
Phuoc Tuy and Binh Duong, together account for 72% of the total logistical re-
quirements (15.4 tons) in the six province area of Military region 7. Hau Nghia,
Dinh Tuong, and Kien Hoa comprise over 60% of the total combat force and require-
ments in MR 8 and An Xuyen and Chuong Thien together account for 38% of the total
combat force and total logistical requirements in MR 9.
Approved For Release 2002/01/29 : CIA-RDP78SO2149R000200100019-8