Mobile Riverine Force with the goal of seizing the initiative from the communist Viet Cong.ĭefined as joint Army-Navy operations reliant on conventional ground support, riverine forces were designed to take advantage of the inland waterways. By 1967 the American military, sensing an opportunity, had designed a unique organization known as the U. But with fragmented troops and artillery, the SVA’s defense of widely separated population centers was ineffective. The South Vietnamese Army (SVA) attempted to protect this maze of marshy land, swamps, canals, and rivers from the enemy. Poor road infrastructure made overland communications and movement difficult. Numerous distributaries of the Mekong River cut through the delta, which was heavily populated and vital in its production of rice and other essentials.

This exceptionally difficult terrain presented operational challenges to the Americans and their South Vietnamese Allies.

The Viet Cong used the natural geography of the country to their advantage, including the Mekong River Delta in southwestern Vietnam. In the jungles of Vietnam, American forces battled the North Vietnamese Army and their Allies, the Viet Cong, an unrelenting enemy with both regular army units and guerilla forces. Barely 20 years after the end of World War II, the United States found itself embroiled in a very different kind of conflict.

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