Preface

This report presents the verbatim responses of a sample of U.S. Marines who served in Vietnam as advisors during the war years (1954 to 1973). The advisors were asked to respond to a series of questions involving their goals, their accomplishments, their difficulties, and their recommendations with regard to the future role of advisory or other cross-cultural missions.

This volume also includes "critical incident" narrations describing actual experiences in which an advisory operation succeeded or failed, with emphasis on the process that led to the outcome. The results will provide Advisors in the field access to a quick resource of anecdotal solutions to use in consideration of a particular situation.

This study is the third of a series of reports that focuses on Marine Corps Advisors to the Vietnamese Marine Corps. Volume I, conducted in 1972 during the Easter Offensive, compared the personality characteristics of the Marine Advisors with a sample of Vietnamese counterparts. The results provided insight into the characteristics of each culture that could result in conflict in communication when interacting to meet a common challenge or to accomplish a unified mission. Volume II addresses the same issues as the current study, but did not include "critical incident" responses.

The purpose of this research project is to gain insight into the problems and effectiveness of advisory missions and to make recommendations based on the responses of experienced advisors for the development of training programs designed to enhance preparedness. Furthermore, the results of the study will help to establish firm organizational goals for advisory programs and other cross-cultural operations.

This volume is offered as an ongoing study for Vietnam Era Marine Advisors, known by their counterparts as "COVAN" (translated as "trusted friend"). The survey is available at www.irism.com/covan for direct input and included in Appendix C for use by Marine Advisors who want to participate, and for those contributors who wish to add to their input, provide additional insight, or list other descriptions of events.