Ngô Quang Trưởng

Ngô Quang Trưởng (13 December 1929 — 22 January 2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

Trưởng was born in 1929 to a wealthy family in the Mekong Delta province of Kiến Hòa (now Bến Tre Province).

At the time, Vietnam was part of French Indochina.

Trưởng gained his commission in the Vietnamese National Army in 1954 and moved up the ranks over the next decade, mostly in the Airborne Brigade.

After graduating from Mỹ Tho College, a French colonial-run school in the Mekong Delta provincial town of Mỹ Tho, Trưởng attended the reserve officer school at Thủ Đức in Saigon, and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Vietnamese National Army in 1954.

Upon graduation from Thủ Đức, Trưởng went immediately on to airborne school at the Command and Staff School of the Vietnamese National Military Academy at Đà Lạt.

He served in the elite airborne brigade the next 12 years.

His first posting was as commander of 1st Company, 5th Airborne Battalion.

After graduating from Đà Lạt, he soon saw action in a 1955 operation to eliminate the Bình Xuyên river pirates who were vying with President Diệm's government for control of Saigon and the surrounding area.

In recognition of his performance against the Bình Xuyên, Trưởng was promoted to first lieutenant.

When the Republic of Vietnam was created in 1955, the VNA became the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

In 1964, Trưởng was promoted to major and made commander of the 5th Airborne Battalion.

He led a heliborne assault into Đỗ Xá Secret Zone in Minh Long District, Quảng Ngãi Province, in central Vietnam.

This attack destroyed the base area of the Việt Cộng's (VC) B-1 Front Headquarters.

In 1965, Trưởng led the 5th Airborne Battalion on a helicopter assault into the Hát Dịch Secret Zone in the vicinity of the Ong Trinh Mountain in Phước Tuy Province southeast of Saigon, the base area of the VC 7th Division.

In two days of fighting, Trưởng's 5th Battalion inflicted heavy casualties on two VC regiments, and he was awarded a battlefield promotion to lieutenant colonel and the National Defense Medal, Fourth Class.

After the battle, Trưởng became chief of staff of the Airborne Brigade and then became chief of staff of the division later in the year.

His reputation for valour and fairness gained the attention of the senior generals in Saigon.

General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the Joint General Staff from 1965 to 1975, later described Trưởng as "one of the best commanders at every echelon the Airborne Division ever had."

In 1966, Trưởng commanded a division for the first time after he was given command of the 1st Division after helping to quell the Buddhist Uprising.

He rebuilt the unit after this divisive period and used it to reclaim the city of Huế after weeks of bitter street fighting during the Tết Offensive.

In 1966, the Buddhist Uprising broke out in central Vietnam with Buddhists protested military control of the government.

Trưởng was asked to quell the rebellious 1st Division in Huế, which had decided to stop military operations against the VC in solidarity with the Buddhist protest movement.

A Buddhist, Trưởng, was uncomfortable with his mission, but he carried out his orders.

In 1967, Trưởng's 1st Division assaulted and dismantled the VC infrastructure and a large part of their fighters from the Luong Co-Dong Xuyen-My Xa Front in Hương Trà District in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.

Trưởng was rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general.

In 1972, he was made the commander of I Corps after incompetent leadership by General Hoàng Xuân Lãm resulted in a South Vietnamese collapse in the face of the Easter Offensive, a massive conventional invasion by North Vietnam.

He stabilized the ARVN forces before turning back the communists.

In 1975, the communists attacked again.

This time, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu gave contradictory orders to Trưởng as to whether he should stand and fight or give up some territory and consolidate.

This led to the demoralization of I Corps and its collapse, allowing the communists to gather momentum and overrun South Vietnam within two months.

Trưởng fled South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon and settled in Virginia in the United States.

On 18 June, he commanded three airborne battalions that entered the city and restored order within two days and he put the 1st Division under government control.

As a result of his efficient display, Saigon made Trưởng's appointment as 1st Division commander permanent.

With his hands-on leadership, Trưởng quickly moulded the unit, which had a poor reputation prior to his arrival, and had been heavily weakened by the infighting of the past year, into one of the best units in the ARVN.

Trưởng handpicked his leading subordinate officers and put his battalions in the hands of majors who had many years of combat experience.

Unlike most, he eschewed politics in choosing his officers, and implemented new training programs to improve the capability of his troops and Regional (RF) and Popular Forces (PF) that augmented them.

Trưởng's dedication to his unit and leadership significantly raised the morale of his subordinates.

As part of his strategy of better integrating the territorial forces with the regular army, Trưởng had his battalion commanders act as district chiefs, who normally worked only with the territorial forces.

As a result, the regulars began to coordinate their pacification campaigns more effectively with the paramilitary forces.