ABSTRACT
The American ground combat troops arrived in Vietnam in March 1965 and were given the responsibility of defending US bases and crucial installations within South Vietnam. This was known as the base defence strategy. The counterinsurgency concept was supposedly central to America’s early military role in Vietnam. Whatever criticism may be directed at US conduct in Vietnam, their allies, the South Vietnamese Armed Forces (RVNAF), were guilty of far greater abuses and a significantly higher degree of incompetence. Criticism was levelled at the division of command between the US military and the RVNAF, and calls for a greater subordination of the services of each nation to the control of a single commander were frequently voiced. International treaties on the law of war bind all states which have ratified them and the United States and North and South Vietnam all confirmed the Geneva Convention.
