Abbreviations and Terms

  • A–1 Skyraider, a propeller-driven attack aircraft that carried out close air support for U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and for the South Vietnamese Air Force
  • A–6 Intruder, twin jet-engine, mid-wing attack aircraft
  • ABF, attack by fire
  • AC–130 Spectre, heavily armed U.S. aircraft that provided close air support, air interdiction, and force protection
  • AF, Air Force
  • AID, Agency for International Development
  • Amb, Ambassador
  • ARC LIGHT, code name for U.S. B–52 bombing missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
  • ARVN, Army of the Republic of (South) Vietnam
  • Avenue Kléber, shorthand for the public plenary talks held at the International Conference Center on Avenue Kléber in Paris
  • B–52 Stratofortress, a heavy bomber used for both strategic and tactical bombing
  • BARREL ROLL, U.S. air campaign in Laos to support Royal Lao Government forces in operations against the Communist Pathet Lao near Long Tieng and the Plain of Jars
  • BDA, bomb damage assessment
  • BE Number, Basic Encyclopedia Number, a target identifier system used by the Department of Defense
  • Binh Tram, military way station on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
  • BN, battalion
  • Buffalo hunter, unmanned drone aircraft that conducted reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam
  • C–130, see AC–130
  • CAS, Controlled American Source
  • CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System
  • CBU, cluster bomb unit, small explosive device, also called a bomblet, placed inside a canister with other CBUs; when canister is dropped from an aircraft it opens before reaching the ground; the bomblets can be configured to explode on contact with the ground, when stepped on, or after a certain amount of time has passed, and to carry a variety of payloads
  • Chaff, radar confusion reflectors, consisting of thin, narrow, metallic strips of various lengths and frequency responses, which are used to reflect echoes for confusion purposes and to cause enemy radar guided missiles to lock on to it instead of the real aircraft
  • CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
  • CINCPAC, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command
  • CINCPACAF, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Air Force
  • CINCPACFLT, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet
  • CINCSAC, Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Air Command
  • CINCUSARPAC, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Pacific
  • CJCS, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • CL, classified
  • CMD, Capital Military District
  • CNO, Chief of Naval Operations
  • CNCR, Committee of National Concord and Reconciliation, variant of NCNRC
  • CNR, Committee of National Reconciliation
  • COM, Commander
  • COMINT, communications intelligence
  • Component Commander, senior military officer responsible to the commander for a specific component (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy) in a unified or subordinate unified command
  • COMUSMACV, Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
  • CONUS, Continental United States
  • CORDS, Civil Operations and Revolutionary (later Rural) Development Support
  • COSVN, Central Office of South Vietnam, Communist political and military headquarters for the southern half of South Vietnam
  • CVT, Confederation Vietnamienne des Travalleurs (Vietnamese Confederation of Labor)
  • DCI, Director of Central Intelligence
  • DCM, Deputy Chief of Mission
  • DD, destroyer
  • DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency
  • Dikes, Red River Delta, an intricate, centuries-old system of dikes that controlled irrigation in the low-lying areas of the Red River Delta of North Vietnam and protected those who lived and worked there
  • DJSM, Director, Joint Staff, Memorandum
  • DMZ, demilitarized zone, established roughly at Vietnam’s 17th parallel to a width not more than five kilometers each side of the demilitarized zone line
  • DOD, Department of Defense
  • DOD/ISA, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
  • DOS, Department of State
  • DRV, Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
  • EA, Executive Assistant, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • EAP, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Department of State
  • EO, electro optical
  • EOB, Executive Office Building
  • Exdis, exclusive distribution
  • F–4 Phantom, an all-weather jet fighter-bomber used by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy in Vietnam
  • F–111, a U.S. Air Force heavy fighter-bomber without an official name; nicknamed “Aardvark”
  • FAC, forward air controller
  • FANK, Forces Armées Nationales Khmères (Khmer Republic Armed Forces [Cambodia])
  • FAR, Forces Armées Royales (Royal Armed Forces [Laos])
  • FARK, Forces Armées Royales Khmères (Royal Khmer Armed Forces [Cambodia])
  • FBIS, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
  • Flash, precedence indicator for an extremely urgent message which requires instant action by the addressee regardless of the time of day or night
  • FLT, fleet
  • FonMin, Foreign Minister
  • FRC, Federal Records Center
  • FSO, Foreign Service Officer
  • GAC, George A. Carver
  • GKR, Government of Khmer Republic (Cambodia)
  • GVN, Government of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
  • HAK, Henry A. Kissinger
  • HES, Hamlet Evaluation System, begun in 1967 to rate individual villages in South Vietnam according to six criteria of how secure they were
  • Hmong, ethnic minority in Laotian hill country
  • Hue, major city in northern South Vietnam and capital of former Vietnamese empire
  • ICC, International Control Commission, established under the 1954 Geneva Accords and incorporated into the 1962 Geneva agreement on Laos
  • ICCS, International Commission of Control and Supervision
  • ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross
  • JCS, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • JGS, Joint General Staff, Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces
  • JMC, Joint Military Commission
  • JRC, Joint Reconnaissance Command
  • KC, Khmer (Cambodian) Communist
  • KHR, Khmer Republic (Cambodia)
  • KI, Khmer insurgent
  • KIA, killed in action
  • Komar, Soviet-built missile boat used by North Vietnamese in coastal waters
  • Kontum, a province in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands opposite Laos
  • Lao Dong Party, Dang Lao Dong Viet Nam (Vietnamese Workers’ Party), Communist Party of North Vietnam
  • LDX, long distance xerography
  • LGB, laser guided bomb, also called a “smart bomb”
  • LINEBACKER I, code name for U.S. air interdiction campaign against North Vietnam, May 10–October 23, 1972
  • LINEBACKER II, code name for U.S. strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam, December 18–29, 1972
  • LOC, line of communication
  • LORAN, long-range navigation system for air and marine travel
  • LOU, limited official use
  • LPF, Lao Patriotic Front, political arm of the Pathet Lao
  • MACV, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
  • MAP, Military Assistance Program
  • MASF, military assistance service-funded
  • MAT, Mobile Advisory Team
  • MEDTC, Military Equipment Delivery Team, Cambodia
  • Meo, see Hmong
  • MIG–21, fighter aircraft provided by Soviet Union to North Vietnam
  • mm, millimeter
  • MR, Military Region; Government of Vietnam divided the country into four zones for military and administrative purposes; MR1 contained the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, MR2 included provinces in the central and north central sections, MR3 was made up of the south central part of the country and included Saigon, and MR4 in the Mekong Delta held the rest of the country; sometimes an MR was also called a Corps Tactical Zone
  • MSO, minesweepers, ocean
  • mtg, meeting
  • Muong, see Hmong
  • NCNRC, National Council for National Reconciliation and Concord
  • NCO, non-commissioned officer
  • NCRC, National Council for Reconciliation and Concord, variant of NCNRC
  • NGF, naval gunfire
  • NGFS, naval gunfire support
  • NIC, Naval Intelligence Command; National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence Agency
  • NIE, National Intelligence Estimate
  • NLF, National Liberation Front
  • nm, nautical mile
  • NMCC, National Military Command Center
  • Nodis, no distribution
  • Noforn, no dissemination to foreign nationals
  • NSA, National Security Agency
  • NSAM, National Security Action Memorandum
  • NSC, National Security Council
  • NSDF, National Social Democratic Front
  • NSDM, National Security Decision Memorandum
  • NSSM, National Security Study Memorandum
  • NVA, North Vietnamese Army, also PAVN
  • NVN, North Vietnam
  • ONE, Office of National Estimates
  • OP, observation post
  • OSA, Office of the Special Assistant to the Ambassador
  • OSD, Office of the Secretary of Defense
  • PAC, Pacific Command
  • PAO, Public Affairs Office
  • PACFLT, Pacific Fleet
  • Paris Peace Talks, public talks between U.S. and GVN on one side and the DRV and PRG (NLF) on the other; also known as Plenary or Avenue Kléber talks
  • PAVN, People’s Army of Vietnam, also NVA
  • PF, see RF/PF
  • PNM, Progressive Nationalist Movement
  • POCKET MONEY, Operation, plan to mine major North Vietnamese ports
  • POL, petroleum, oil, lubricants
  • POW, prisoner of war
  • PPOG, Psychological Pressure Operations Group
  • PR, public relations
  • PRC, People’s Republic of (Communist) China
  • PRG, Provisional Revolutionary Government, political wing of the South Vietnamese Communist movement, replaced the NLF, but terms often used interchangeably
  • Protocol, implementing instrument to a treaty, frequently detailed and technical
  • PSDF, People’s Self Defense Force
  • PX, Post exchange
  • RD, Revolutionary Development
  • RDV, Revolutionary Dai Viet Party
  • Recce, reconnaissance or reconnoiter
  • Reftel, reference telegram
  • RF/PF, Regional Forces/Popular Forces, South Vietnamese provincial and district security (militia) forces, respectively
  • RG, Record Group
  • ROK, Republic of Korea
  • ROKV, Republic of Korea Forces, Vietnam
  • RP, route package, target areas for airstrikes against North Vietnam, numbered 1 through 6, south to north, from the DMZ to a bugger zone near the Chinese border
  • RLG, Royal Lao Government
  • RN, Richard Nixon
  • RSC, Regional Supply Center
  • RTG, Royal Thai Government
  • RVN, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
  • RVNAF, Republic of (South) Vietnam Armed Forces
  • S/S, Executive Secretariat, Department of State
  • SA–2, missile
  • SAC, Strategic Air Command
  • SAM, surface-to-air missile
  • SAR, search and rescue
  • SALT, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
  • SAVA, Special Assistant for Vietnamese Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency
  • SDO, Special Development Office, Defense Intelligence Agency
  • SEA, Southeast Asia
  • SEAsia, Southeast Asia
  • SecDef, Secretary of Defense
  • SecState, Secretary of State
  • Septel, separate telegram
  • SGU, Special Guerrilla Unit
  • SIOP, Single Integrated Operational Plan, the U.S. contingency plan for nuclear war
  • SNIE, Special National Intelligence Estimate
  • Sortie, one attack by a single military aircraft
  • Sparrow, a medium-range, air-to-air missile used by U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps fighter aircraft
  • Specat, special category
  • SR–71, a long-range, high-altitude, strategic reconnaissance aircraft
  • SRG, Senior Review Group
  • Subj, subject
  • SVN, South Vietnam
  • Tacair, tactical air support
  • Telcon, telecon, telephone conversation
  • TPP, thermal power plant
  • TS, Top Secret
  • U, unclassified
  • UH, utility helicopter
  • UPI, United Press International
  • USA, United States Army
  • USAF, United States Air Force
  • USG, United States Government
  • USIA, United States Information Agency
  • USN, United States Navy
  • USSAG, United States Support Activities Group
  • USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
  • U Tapao, Royal Thai Air Force Base from which USAF B–52s carried out missions over Vietnam
  • VC, Viet Cong
  • Viet Minh, Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam), a Communist-led coalition, formed in 1941, that fought the Japanese in World War II and the French in the First Indochina War
  • VNAF, (South) Vietnamese Air Force
  • VNN, (South) Vietnamese Navy
  • VOA, Voice of America
  • VSSG, Vietnam Special Studies Group
  • WH, White House
  • WSAG, Washington Special Actions Group
  • Yankee Station, South China Sea location of U.S. aircraft carrier or carriers from which Navy conducted air operations against North Vietnam
  • Z, Zulu, time designator on White House, Departments of State and Defense messages/cables based on Greenwich Mean, aka Coordinated Universal, Time