1955 The
Republic of South Vietnam is proclaimed under Ngo Dinh Diem.
These were the
Republic of South Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Some 740 miles south of this border was Saigon, still the country's biggest city and then the capital of the
Republic of South Vietnam. When Saigon fell to the Communist North Vietnamese the Republic ceased to exist and its old capital was renamed Ho Chi Minh after the Vietnamese leader who had died six years before his long struggle to impose a unified and Communist Vietnam was completed.
Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent
republic of South Vietnam from 1955--75.
Nguyen Hu'u Cau (born in 1945), poet, musician, composer and a captain in the army of the
Republic of South Vietnam. He was one of the longest serving political prisoners in Vietnam, following the seizure of power by the communists in 1975.
He is appointed the Declared Agent to the Consulate General and Director of Air Operations of Air America for Military Region 2, II Corps, Nha Trang,
Republic of South Vietnam. Force 784 is a little known branch of the CIA that was the beginnings of the very first Delta Force Teams that were comprised of Air Commandos and Green Berets and would soon recruit the best soldiers from all branches of the Special Forces and operators and pilots from the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Under the old name, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later the independent
republic of South Vietnam from 1955-75.
In this short but absorbing book, Anthony Tambini (author of Douglas Jumbo's: The Globemaster) provides a fascinating look and chronology of the F-5's wartime service with the air forces of both the United States and the former
Republic of South Vietnam from its operational debut in 1965 to the fall of Saigon ten years later.
He served in the United States Air Force as an Airmem 2nd class and served a tour of duty in the
Republic of South Vietnam during the war.