Luc Luong Dac Biet

Template:TOC-right The Lac Luong Dac Biet (LLDB) were Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, originally a paramilitary organization reporting to the office of President Ngo Dinh Diem. After Diem's overthrow and death in the Vietnam War, Buddhist crisis and military coup of 1963, it was brought under miltary authority, where it first had a variety of covert action, reconnaissance, and unconventional warfare roles. Its functions were then narrowed to be a counterpart to the main United States Army Special Forces role in the Vietnam War, in organizing the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups. Some LLDB personnel later became involved in the Vietnamese counterpart to the MACV-SOG U.S. special reconnaissance and covert action organization, the Strategic Technical Directorate.

Precursors

In 1957, the 300-man 1st Observation Group was formed, trained by United States Army Special Forces for special reconnaissance and unconventional warfare. While it was under the office of the President, it was originally based in Nha Trang, and perhaps was comparable to the paramilitary side of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Role under Diem

A year after its formation, it was slightly increased in size, but moved to Saigon to be more responsive to Diem. While it did take on some border reconnaissance, it was primarily a presidential guard and paramilitary unit. It was used to carry out paramilitary missions against border infiltrators between 1960 and 1962.

To reflect the USASF lineage, it was renamed 77 Special Forces Group (Airborne) on November 1, 1963. 77 SFG (A) was the original U.S. group, the 5th Group (A) was activated in South Vietnam in late 1964.

In 1962 and 1963, under an informal command structure between the Central Intelligence Agency and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, it cooperated in organizing the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups. Shortly before the coup, it split into a 31st and 775h Group under an LLDB headquarters.

Under COL Le Quang Tung, it participated in the 1963 raids against Buddhist pagodas. Shortly after Diem's overthrow, Tung was executed.

Under military control

Under the Joint General Staff, it first then a combination of a counterpart to United States Army Special Forces and a clandestine human-source intelligence and covert action organization, starting January 3, 1964. The 31st SFG (A), headquartered in Dong Ba thin, was responsible for I Corps tactical zone and II Corps tactical zones; the 77th, based outside Saigon, had responsibiliy for III Corps Tactical Zone and IV Corps tactical zone.

Focus on counterpart operations

Its "black functions" split off into the Special Exploitation Service, an early ARVN counterpart to MACV-SOG on 1 April 1964. The remaining units, principally a counterpart organization to the USASF in running the Civil Irregular Defense Guard, a program originally set up by the CIA directing USASF.

By late 1965, the LLDB reorganized into a Special Forces Command closely modeled after a U.S. Special Forces Group, or, given it also had two Ranger battalions as strike forces, as a Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force. With additional reorganizations, it had one Ranger battalion that did not report to ARVN Ranger Headquarters, and a C-team attached to each CTZ.

There was an LLDB assigned to each of the USASF non-CIDG units:

• Detachment B-52, II CTZ, Project DELTA
• Detachment B-56, Project SIGMA
• Detachment B-57, Project GAMMA

Detachment B-52 led the LLDB rangers on the relief of Plei Me during the Battle of the Ia Drang. In general, the USASF commanded tactically and the LLDB ran administration.

Spinoffs

Some LLDB personnel went into the Strategic Technical Directorate, corresponding roughly to MACV-SOG.