ABSTRACT
The Civil Guard episode is worth considering for four reasons. First, the paramilitary force became the subject of an intense controversy between Diem and US civilian officials, and between American civilian and military advisors. Vietnam scholars have identified competing US conceptions about the direction of the Civil Guard as the source of that conflict.2 Exploring the Eisenhower administration’s assistance to the guard during the 1955-61 period confirms that claim. Second, examining the episode reinforces the argument that American police advisors sought to impose a de-politicized and theoretical solution to South Vietnam’s rural security problems. The third reason is related to the second. The struggle over the guard demonstrated the difficulty in convincing a Third World ally to accept US nostrums about internal security. ‘American sway over Diem was always ephemeral’, as Stanley Karnow has observed, and nowhere was this more true than in the case of the Civil Guard.3 Fourth, the Civil Guard incident revealed the pitfalls of engaging an American university to address what one observer termed ‘abnormal law and order requirements in a revolutionary situation’.4 The Michigan State University (MSUG) advisors were hardworking, with a strong background in US law enforcement administration and a genuine commitment to helping South Vietnam.5 Ultimately, however, they were overwhelmed by the Vietnamese and by their bureaucratic adversaries in the US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG).
