Central Highlands (Victoria)

Operation Montagnard (Vietnam War; Special Forces in Central Highlands) 1964 US Army

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• published: 26 May 2015
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more at http://news.quickfound.net/intl/vietnam_news.html "This film examines how the Montagnards (a primitive tribe living in the Vietnamese central highlands) were trained by the U.S. to defend their territories against the Viet Cong. The film illustrates the methods used by Army Special Forces to win over these tribesmen to the South Vietnam cause." "The Big Picture" episode TV-607 Vietnam War playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF7FC7A2D880623F7 Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degar The Degar, also known as the Montagnard, are the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The term Montagnard means "mountain people" in French and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term người Thượng (Highlanders) — this term now can also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam or Người dân tộc thiếu số (literally, "minority people"). Earlier they were referred to pejoratively as the mọi... Before the Vietnam War, the population of the Central Highlands, estimated at between three and three-and-a-half million, was almost exclusively Degar. Today, the population is approximately four million, of whom about one million are Degars. The 30 or so Degar tribes in the Central Highlands comprise more than six different ethnic groups who speak languages drawn primarily from the Malayo-Polynesian, Tai, and Mon--Khmer language families. The main tribes, in order of population, are the Jarai, Rhade, Bahnar, Koho, Mnong, and Stieng. Originally inhabitants of the coastal areas of the region, they were driven to the uninhabited mountainous areas by invading Vietnamese and Cambodians beginning prior to the 9th century... As the Vietnam War began to loom on the horizon, both South Vietnamese and American policy makers sought to begin training troops from minority groups in the Vietnamese populace. The U.S. Mission to Saigon sponsored the training of the Degar in unconventional warfare by American Special Forces. These newly trained Degar were seen as a potential ally in the Central Highlands area to stop Viet Cong activity in the region and a means of preventing further spread of Viet Cong sympathy. Later, their participation would become much more important as the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North Vietnamese supply line for Viet Cong forces in the south, grew. The U.S. military, particularly the U.S. Army's Special Forces, developed base camps in the area and recruited the Degar, roughly 40,000 of whom fought alongside American soldiers and became a major part of the U.S. military effort in the Highlands. In 1967, the Viet Cong slaughtered 252 Degar in the village of Dak Son, home to 2000 Highlanders, known as the Dak Son Massacre, in revenge for the Degar's support and allegiance with the Republic of Vietnam. Thousands of Degar fled to Cambodia after the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army, fearing that the new government would launch reprisals against them because they had aided the U.S. Army. The U.S. military resettled some Degar in the United States, primarily in North Carolina, but these evacuees numbered less than two thousand. In addition, the Vietnamese government has steadily displaced thousands of villagers from Vietnam's central highlands, to use the fertile land for coffee plantations. Outside of southeast Asia, the largest community of Montagnards in the world is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA...