Republic of Vietnam National Police

The Republic of Vietnam National Police – RVNP (Vietnamese: Cảnh lực Quốc gia Việt Nam Cộng hòa) or Police Nationale de la République du Vietnam (Police Nationale, Vietnamese: Cảnh sát Quốc gia – CSQG for short) in French, was the official South Vietnamese national police force from 1962 to 1975, operating closely with the ARVN during the Vietnam War.

History
The Republic of Vietnam National Police was officially created by President Ngo Dinh Diem’s national decree in June 1962 from a conglomerate of smaller internal security agencies formed by the French Union authorities during the First Indochina War between 1946 to 1954. These included the Vietnamese Sureté, Saigon Municipal Police, elements of the colonial Gendarmerie or ‘Indigenous Guard’ (French: Garde Indigéne), a rural constabulary force or ‘Civil Guard’ (French: Garde Civile), the combat police and various provincial militia forces made of irregular auxiliaries (French: Supplétifs). Transferred to South Vietnamese control in 1955, all the aforementioned security units were combined in the early 1960s into a new national police force with the exception of the Civil Guard, which was placed under the Ministry of Defence. The CSQG had an initial strength of only 16,000 uniformed and plainclothes agents, being essentially a urban constabulary with no rural Gendarmerie component to counter the threat posed by the raising Vietcong (VC) insurgency in the countryside.

The National Police under Diem
Even before the official creation of the National Police, President Diem was quick to employ the security forces inherited from the French in repressing both internal political dissent and organized crime. Though the late 1950s and into 1960, they helped the newly-created Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in suppressing the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai militant religious and political sects, with approximately 25,000 armed militiamen, and the smaller but better organized Bình Xuyên Saigon-based gangster group.

Structure
Subordinated to the South Vietnamese Interior Ministry, all components of the Police system were administered directly by the CSQG Command at the National Police Headquarters in Saigon, which also provided technical or combat support for law-enforcement and other internal security duties throughout the Country. By the late 1960s, the Vietnamese National Police was organized into eight major specialized departements or ‘branches’, which were:


 * River and Coastal Police
 * Traffic Control Police
 * Judiciary Police
 * Special Police
 * Police Medical Service
 * Administration Service
 * VIP Protection Service
 * Field Police

Training facilities
All instruction and management of training facilities fell upon the Personnel and Training Directorate at National Police headquarters in Saigon. Recruits first underwent the basic 12-week course, which consisted primarily of weapons handling, tactics, Taekwondo and drill, ministered at the main CSQG Training Centre located at Rach Dua, near Vung Tau. After finishing the course, the best-qualified students were selected to be sent for officer training to the National Police Academy at Hoc Viên, where they attended advanced instruction programs at all levels, which comprised:


 * Officer promotion courses up to and including the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel;
 * Administrative and staff training;
 * Senior officer seminars;
 * Judicial Police training for officers and NCOs;
 * Instructors’ courses at both officer and lower rank levels.

Those recruits with lower qualifications went instead to the Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) School run by the ARVN at its Combat Training Centre in Da Lat, co-located to the namesake South Vietnamese Armed Forces Military Academy, where they received special training that would allow them to graduate as Police NCOs.

More specialized training was also provided to selected male and female personnel assigned to the other CSQG branches. Specialists such as field policemen, patrol boat crewmen, vehicle drivers (this category included squad car, armoured car and Jeep drivers, and motorcyclists), radio operators, medics, mechanics, and clerks were trained in various other National Police and Armed Forces’ schools.

List of National Police Director-Generals

 * Lại Văn Sang
 * Mai Hữu Xuân
 * Nguyễn Ngọc Lễ
 * Nguyễn Văn Tôn
 * Trần Vĩnh Ðắt
 * Trần Bá Thành
 * Nguyễn Chữ
 * Nguyễn Văn Hay
 * Trần Văn Tư
 * Nguyễn Văn Là
 * Nguyễn Ngọc Loan
 * Phạm Văn Chiểu
 * Ðàm Trung Mộc
 * Nguyễn Văn Y

Uniforms and insignia
Field Police troopers were given a black beret, worn French-style pulled to the left with the National Police cap badge placed above the right eye.

A US M-1 Helmet liner painted in shiny black, marked with white-and-red stripes at the sides and the initials “TC” (Vietnamese: Tuan Chan – patrol) was worn by National Police constables assigned patrol duties or riot control in urban areas.

1955–1962 ranks

 * Cảnh sát viên – Patrolman/Patrolwoman
 * Thẩm sát viên – Inspector
 * Biên tập viên – Redactor
 * Quận trưởng – Commissioner
 * Kiểm tra – Controller
 * Tổng kiểm tra – Controller General

1962–1971 ranks

 * Cảnh sát viên – Patrolman/Patrolwoman
 * Phó thẩm sát viên công nhựt – Sub-Inspector Temporary
 * Phó thẩm sát viên – Sub-Inspector
 * Phó thẩm sát viên thượng hạng – Sub-Inspector High-grade
 * Thẩm sát viên công nhựt – Inspector Temporary
 * Thẩm sát viên – Inspector
 * Thẩm sát viên thượng hạng – Inspector High-grade
 * Biên tập viên công nhựt – Redactor Temporary
 * Biên tập viên – Redactor
 * Biên tập viên thượng hạng – Redactor High-grade
 * Quận trưởng – Commissioner
 * Quận trưởng thượng hạng – Commissioner High-grade
 * Kiểm tra – Controller
 * Tổng kiểm tra – Controller General

1971–1975 ranks

 * Cảnh sát viên – Patrolman/Patrolwoman
 * Trung sĩ nhất – Sergeant First Class
 * Thượng sĩ – Master Sergeant
 * Thượng sĩ nhất – First Sergeant
 * Thiếu úy – Second Lieutenant
 * Trung úy – First Lieutenant
 * Đại úy – Captain
 * Thiếu tá – Major
 * Trung tá – Lieutenant Colonel
 * Đại tá – Colonel
 * Chuẩn tướng – Brigadier-General
 * Thiếu tướng – Major-General
 * Trung tướng – Lieutenant-General/Deputy Director-General
 * Đại tướng – General/Director-General