PAVN / NLF
Northern army plus southern front -- a dual structure that confused US categories of "insurgency".
PAVN became a conventional army that still used the trail. ARVN was large, uneven, and aid-dependent. MACV was a US headquarters running a coalition with ROK and Australian slices.
Air mobility and firepower were real; they did not substitute for a southern political compact.
Systems
ARVN and militia
A large US-equipped southern force whose 1975 collapse was political as well as military.
MACV and US services
An advisory command that became a field army headquarters.
Allied contingents
ROK, Australia, NZ, Thailand, Philippines -- real combat, thin US-film memory.
Air and riverines
Historical employment of aircraft and brown-water units -- described, not taught.
Trail logistics
A state-built corridor through Laos and Cambodia.
Meters
US cultural memory
90
Duration of fighting
82
Civilian share
80
Coalition (allies)
55
Air-war weight
78
Legal clarity
40
Hotspots
I Corps / DMZ
Northernmost South Vietnam; Khe Sanh, Hue.
Central Highlands
Ia Drang to the 1975 Ban Me Thuot break.
Saigon / III Corps
Tet's embassy image; 1975 tank at Independence Palace.
Ho Chi Minh trail
Laos and Cambodia as logistic theatres.
Hanoi / Haiphong
Linebacker targets; Christmas 1972 bombing in memory.
Materials
Rice and land
Agrarian revolution and landlord politics as the southern war's core.
Herbicides
Recorded as ecological and medical aftermath, not as a technique.
Fuel for the trail
Bicycles, porters, then trucks -- a logistic evolution.
Aid dollars
US support as the ARVN's oxygen; Congress turned the tap.
This is not a study of how to fight a counterinsurgency. It is a record of who was on the map.
ROK Tiger, White Horse and Blue Dragon units are part of the force picture for a Korean audience.