The complete chronological history of the extraordinary and
highly-classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations
Group, told for the first time
During the Vietnam War, MACVSOG was a highly-classified,
US joint-service organisation that
consisted of personnel from Army Special Forces, the Air Force, Navy SEALs,
Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance units, and the CIA. This secret organisation
was committed to action in Southeast Asia even before the major build-up of
US forces in 1965 and also fielded an
element of South Vietnamese military personnel, indigenous Montagnards, ethnic
Chinese Nungs, and Taiwanese pilots in its varied reconnaissance, naval, air,
and agent operations.
MACVSOG was without doubt the most elite U.S. unit to participate in
the Vietnam War, since its operational mandate authorised its missions to take
place “over the fence” in North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where most other
American units were forbidden to go. During its nine-year existence it managed
to participate in most of the significant operations and incidents of the
conflict. MACVSOG was there during the Gulf of Tonkin incidents, during air operations over
North Vietnam, the Tet
Offensive, the secret bombing of and ground incursion into Cambodia,
Operation Lam Son 719, the Green Beret murder case, the Easter Invasion, the
Phoenix Program, and the Son Tay POW Raid.
