Provincial Reconstruction Teams

Secretary of Defense McNamara, in a 1966 letter to the President, emphasized that in spite of United States (US) and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) victories against the Viet Cong (VC) rural insurgency, "full security exist[ed] nowhere...; in the countryside, the enemy almost completely control[led] the night (PPIV, 348)." This security could only be provided by '"vigorously conducted and adequately prolonged clearing operations by military troops, who will "stay" in the area."'2 Rural security, in turn, was the prerequisite to strategic victory through the pacification effort, which "would, in the long run, determine the fate of South Vietnam."3 In other words, long-term strategic victory in Vietnam depended equally on major military combat operations and on strengthening Vietnam's government and economy.