The Kit Carson Scouts belonged to a special program initially created by the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War involving the use of former Viet Cong and combatants as intelligence scouts for American infantry units. VC and People's Army of Vietnam cadre and combatants who defected and rallied to become aligned with the South Vietnamese government were known as Chiêu Hồi or Hồi Chánh Viên, the latter being a term loosely translated as "members who have returned to the righteous side". Only a very small number of these Chiêu Hồi were selected, trained, and deployed with U.S. infantry units as Kit Carson Scouts.
Program origins
The concept of using soldiers and cadre who had previously fought on the enemy side in this way originated in late 1966 with the 5th Counterintelligence Team, which had counterintelligence tasks within the Danang Chiêu Hồi Center as one responsibility. Most Hồi Chánh Viên recruited into the fledgling Kit Carson Scout program had defected to Saigon's side in the war because they suffered either from malaria or grave wounds beyond what could be medically treated with the rudimentary medical care available on the VC/PACN side. Those Chieu Hoi who volunteered for selection and training as Kit Carson Scouts had, during their service with the enemy, little or no contact with anyone speaking English. Few had any knowledge at all of the English language, creating a communication challenge as they were deployed with American units. A further complication was that almost all Hồi Chánh Viên had a distrust of Vietnamese soldiers and interpreters because of the degree to which friendly forces had been infiltrated by enemy agents. Major General Herman Nickerson Jr., commanding the 1st Marine Division at the time, named them Kit Carson Scouts after Kit Carson the American frontiersman. The first six Kit Carson Scouts were placed in the field with the 1st and 9th Marine Regiments as part of a trial program in October, 1966. All but one of the original group of six would later be killed in action. The VC defectors initially recruited to work as intelligence scouts with U.S. Marine infantry units were paid by the U.S. and were treated as staff non-commissioned officers with a nominal rank of staff sergeant.
History
From October to December 1966III Marine Amphibious Force credited Kit Carson Scouts with killing 47 VC, capturing 16 weapons and discovering 18 mines and tunnels. By the end of 1966 19 Kit Carson Scouts were serving with the 1st Marine Division. In February 1968 General Lewis William Walt ordered the program to be adopted throughout III MAF and a Kit Carson training center was established at Danang to standardize training. By the end of 1967 132 scouts served with the Marines in I Corps and were credited with killing 58 VC, capturing 37 and 82 weapons. On 29 April 1967, the Intelligence Section of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam published a procedural document detailing the expansion of the Kit Carson Scout Program for all active U.S. Army units in country, including the scout's terms of service and wages. As the program evolved, recruitment of non-military VC cadre and defecting PAVN officers were added, and these Kit Carson Scouts also became valuable sources of intelligence in the conduct of the war. General Westmoreland issued an order in September 1967 directing all infantry divisions in Vietnam, including U.S. Army units, to begin using Kit Carson Scouts in conjunction with friendly operations. He directed that a minimum of 100 scouts per division was necessary to ensure effectiveness with a target of 1,500 scouts by the end of 1968. In 1968 the number of scouts increased from 132 to 476 with 102 serving with the 1st Marine Division, 106 with the 3rd Marine Division, 153 with the 101st Airborne Division and 115 with the 23rd Infantry Division with a further 22 undergoing training. Throughout the year scouts were credited with killing 312 VC/PAVN, apprehending 851 suspects and locating 720 tunnels and supply caches and over 1300 booby-traps. During 1969 the number of scouts working with III MAF grew from 476 to 597 despite the redeployment of the 3rd Marine Division during the year. The scouts were credited with killing 191 VC/PAVN, capturing 539 and 195 weapons and locating 143 tunnels and caches and 518 booby-traps. In January 1969 scouts began being assigned to Allied forces starting with the 1st Australian Task Force, followed by the Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division in August 1969 and South Korean forces in December 1970. A report given to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February, 1970 listed 230 Kit Carson Scouts killed in action and 716 wounded. At the beginning of 1970 over 2,300 scouts served with U.S. forces, with 165 serving in III MAF. III MAF recruited potential scouts from Chiêu Hồi centers in Danang and Hoi An. An experienced Marine NCO investigated the background of motivation of each potential recruit and those who passed would then go to a training center west of Danang for 28 days of training and evaluation. Class sizes were small, usually consisting of no more than eight men. Training including fieldcraft, field sketching, use of sensors and basic English. As the Marines redeployed from South Vietnam the number of scouts serving with III MAF dropped to 111 in July and 95 in December. During 1970 III MAF scouts were credited with killing 43 VC and capturing 313 and 96 weapons. In June 1970 as part of the Vietnamization program, the Kit Carson Program name was changed to Lực Lượng 66, but scout numbers declined as U.S. forces withdrew from South Vietnam with only 400 scouts serving by the end of 1970.
