2/1 196th Area of Operations
Enemy Deployment
North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) was known to the American forces as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The NVA divided Vietnam into military regions; similar to the Tactical Zones defined by the United States. The NVA had four Military Regions (1-4) in North Vietnam. Around 1964-1965, numbers were established for military regions in South Vietnam.
B-1 Front (Military Region 5) covered the northern half of South Vietnam. The B-3 Front (Tay Nguyen/Western Highlands Front) roughly corresponding to the VC’s MR 10 and part of MR 1 region. The B-4 and the B-5 Fronts, operating under control of Military Region 4, covered Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces. This was also known as the Tri-Thien-Hue Military Region. The 70B Corps was established to coordinate NVA Divisions and various other units along Route 9 on the west side of these provinces and in Laos.
The Southern Regional Headquarters controlled the B-2 Front; Military Regions 6 to 9 and the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Zone. Military Region 6 covered the rest of ARVN’s II CTZ and the northern part of III CTZ. The westernmost elements MR 6 and MR 7 basically fell into the VC’s Region 10. Military Region 7 covered the ARVN’s III CTZ, down to the Saigon area. In 1967, this region took over the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Zone; which was pretty much the VC’s regions 1 and 4. Military Region 8 was southwest of Saigon, running from Cambodia to the South China Sea; largely the VC’s Region 2. Military Region 9 covered the southernmost part of South Vietnam; largely the VC’s MR 3.
Viet Cong