The People's Army of Vietnam Special Forces Arms ( Chữ Hán: 兵種特工, 軍隊人民越南), officially the Special Operation Force Arms or Special Operation Arms, is the elite combat armed service of the People's Army of Vietnam, led by the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army. It is uniquely organized, equipped, and trained with special fighting skills, bravery and heroism, resourcefulness and boldness to attack and destroy key enemy’s targets.
The SOF has the task of focusing on researching and advising the Ministry of Defence to build and develop Vietnamese special forces capabilities.
History
Pre-history
In the 13th century, during the Mongol invasions of Vietnam, the Trần army developed a way of ambushing with small, elite forces, good at fighting on land, on rivers, and at sea. Trần Quốc Tuấn has directed: "Being reckless on the boat is not as good as stabbing under the boat, destroying the enemy's army is not as good as destroying the enemy's boat". Implementing that direction, General Yết Kiêu organized and trained Trạo Nhi teams consisting of strong and good swimmers who specialized in destroying the enemy's naval base. In many battles, the Trạo Nhi team secretly entered the naval base, burned the boat with flammable substances and dived into the muddy water, destroyed many Mongol troops in Chương Dương, Phả Lại, and Chí Linh and once captured them live the enemy general.
In 1410, Trần Nguyên Hãn utilized the doctrine of "Quân cốt tinh, không cốt nhiều" ("The core of an army is its quality, not quantity") and organized a famous battle with nearly 200 insurgents, stripped naked and camouflaged, and secretly infiltrated the Xương Giang citadel, Việt Trì to attack the Ming army in the citadel.
First Indochina War
On the Southern battlefield, France strengthened the construction of a system of posts around towns and cities and on important roads in order to encircle, separate and hinder the Viet Minh armed forces. Through many successful trials, especially the battle to destroy Bà Kiên bridge post in the night of March 18 and early morning, March 19, 1948, opened a new possibility to defeat the enemy in a solid entrenched position.
In November 1949, Military Region 7 command held a symposium on fighting the watchtower with the participation of officers and soldiers who had participated in fighting the watchtower and proposed a new way of fighting the watchtower. With the FT wall-breaking weapon (Trái phá FT), on the night of March 21 to the morning of March 23, 1950, on the battlefield of Biên Hòa, 50 battle groups simultaneously used FT to attack 50 watchtowers, causing great confusion for the enemy. From this battle, the Biên Hòa Provincial Army and the General Staff of Military Region 7 held a conference to learn from experience and use commando tactics.
The South focused on research and development, constantly perfecting commando tactics. Stemming from the combat mission and the enemy's goals, units in the South had a new development with an increasingly large scale. A commando battle is organized with 3 components: ground commando, water commando, and mobile special forces with the common organizational scale of team, battalion, standing at the base across strategic locations.
During the last period of the First Indochina War and during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Viet Minh developed on the battlefields, had a knack for fighting in the enemy's rear, initially gained experience in synergistic warfare in the area. campaigns. The special forces fought the enemy on both front and rear. Some typical battles of the commando troops such as Phú Thọ bombing, Tân An bomb depot, Cát Bi airport, Gia Lam Airport.
Vietnam War
After the 1954 Geneva Conference was signed, the Communist Party of Vietnam and army selected and sent special forces from the North to the South to build up forces and fight. In June 1958, the Southeast Command was established and the Eastern armed forces had a special commando company with the code name 60th Company. This was the first commando company in the South. Company 60, along with special commando groups and groups in the localities, began to attack Republic of Vietnam government buildings and posts.
In September 1962, specialized commando teams began to enter the southern battlefields, supplementing combat units in military zones and provinces. In the two years 1961 - 1962, 10 specialized commando companies, 1 mobile battalion with 1,122 men were reinforced for zone 5 and the South. The birth and rapid development of mobile and specialized commando forces in the North marked a new development in the organization of special forces troops.