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CIA reports on the growing strength of North Vietnamese army forces in South Vietnam. Miscellaneous. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. TOP SECRET. Issue Date: Mar 26, 1968. Date Declassified: Jul 05, 1984. Sanitized. Complete. 3 page(s).
4. The above tabulation shows that the relative strength of NVA forces probably increased from 50 percent of total Main and Local force strength on 1 November 1967 to 63 percent as of late March 1968. The relative strength of NVA forces is even groator when these figures are adjusted for the extraordinary casualties of the Tot offensive (30 January-21 February 1968). We have made a very rough and preliminary estimate that the bulk of these casualties were sustained by VC Main and Local forces (including guerrillas upgraded and attach?? Local force units.) We estimate tentatively that the infiltration of NVA fillers has been more than adequate to maintain NVA force levels at their pre-Tet level of some 100,000 troops. VC Main and Local force strength has probably declined to a level of about 45,000-50,000 troops. 5. Thus, we estimate that today there may be nearly two times as many North Vietnamese regular army soldiers in South Vietnam as there are VC regular (i.e., Main and Local force) soldiers. In the I Corps area. NVA units account for 80 percent of the enemy forces. On a country-wide basis North Vietnam now has nine divisions, consisting of 26 regiments, plus an additional 16 independent regimental equivalents deployed in South Vietnam. This compares to a VC Main and Local force strength of two divisions of three regiments each and an additional 22 regimental equivalents. Perhaps a third of what we carry as the "VC" force is actually composed of North Vietnamese Army personnel. 6. 7. 8. - 2 - TOP SECRET TOP SECRET SC No. 05497-68 Copy No. 1 COPY LBJ LIBRARY 33
CIA reports on the growing strength of North Vietnamese army forces in South Vietnam. Miscellaneous. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. TOP SECRET. Issue Date: Mar 26, 1968. Date Declassified: Jul 05, 1984. Sanitized. Complete. 3 page(s). Reproduced in Declassified Documents Reference System. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
Document Number: CK3100205805
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